A Hidden King and a Hidden Kingdom

How do you hide a King? How do you hide anything of great value? There are two broad categories for hiding things. One is to place something far away in a place where it will be difficult to find, like burying a treasure underground or deep in a cave or on an island in the middle of the ocean. The second is to disguise the item in such a way that it looks like everything else around it, so that it blends in, like hiding a tree in a forest or hiding a banana in a shipping container full of bananas. The first relies on secreting the item away where no one can find it and the second relies on camouflage, placing it in such a way that no one would recognize it even if they look right at it.

When launching the mission to rescue humanity, the Heavenly Father relied on both of these methods to hide and protect His Son.  Jesus was born in a cave and laid in a manger, not by accident or some twist of fate, but by the intricate plan of God. He was born in a small village in a conquered province in a seemingly God-forsaken corner of the Roman empire. The Romans took no notice of His arrival and the Jews seemed largely unaware. He looked like any other baby born that day. There was no earthquake, no solar eclipse, and no tsunami to mark His arrival. One might have expected a newborn King to be born in a palace with numerous attendants vying to assist at his birth. But that is thinking the way men think and not the way God does. This newborn blended in so well and attracted so little notice that it would eventually cause great suffering and distress to the mothers and the babies who happened to be born around the same time.

But why hide the child in the first place? After thousands of years of preparation and hundreds of clues as to His identity, why go to so much trouble to conceal His arrival? Weren’t people expecting Him?

Yes, of course, all of humanity had been longing for the fulfillment of an ancient promise. But the Red Dragon, the adversary has been waiting as well. Remember that this child is the one chosen to regather all of those captured by the enemy of God and liberate them. He is to restore all things, to make all things new, to hit the reset button. There is a lot riding on those tiny newborn shoulders. 

Remember too that Satan is prowling like a lion searching for those he can destroy. Satan has been booted out of heaven and is on his way to hell, but he is not there yet. The hour of Satan refers to the time of his activity here on earth. His reign is limited both in time and scope.  Satan is a fallen angel but a being with a superior intellect and some recollection and insight into the ways of God. He has rebelled against His Creator and has induced many to rebellion as well and he has been waiting and watching and studying carefully and plotting how he might undo the rescue mission that he knows must certainly come. He has had considerable success in exploiting the weaknesses of God’s creation, specifically in using human beings and their erratic behavior to delay and perhaps prevent the fulfillment of the plan.

But Satan has his blind spots and his weaknesses as well and God would exploit those weaknesses to the full. Specifically, Satan’s pride blinds him to the most obvious of truths.

The birth of Jesus can help us to understand a great deal about how the rescue mission would proceed. He would come hidden and humble living a quiet life in an obscure village. Like a super-hero in disguise, He would live an ordinary life. He would become a tekton, a builder and continue His hidden life for thirty years. He would observe all of the customs and practices of His people. He would be circumcised and offered to the service of God after His birth but so would every firstborn male of His people. He would observe the pilgrim feasts and travel to Jerusalem three times a year to worship God in the temple, but so did every good Jew who aspired to live a righteous life. He would obey the sabbath laws and the dietary customs as originally intended, not as empty rites, but as expressions of love and fidelity. He ate and drank, worked and celebrated, but He did not attract undue attention to Himself.

As He began his mission, He wandered from village to village proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Some heeded His call but the reception to His effort was mixed and certainly far less than one might have expected.  Many could not accept that this carpenter from Nazareth was the Messiah that they had been expecting, no matter what He did. He was from the line of the great King David, yes, but He had no horses or chariots, no retinue of soldiers, no heroic acts of valor that would indicate He was about to overthrow their Roman oppressors.

He had an annoying habit of associating with known sinners; tax collectors and prostitutes, the lowest of the low. Many times He forgave sins. Did He not know that only God can forgive sins?  He would actually touch lepers and seemed not to care that by doing so, He was making Himself unclean. He would worship in the temple but made a point of criticizing those in charge of the rituals there. In fact, He had a habit of criticizing the wrong people and complimenting the wrong people; criticizing the religious leaders and undermining their authority at every turn and complimenting Samaritans and Romans. Everyone knew that Romans and Samaritans were beneath contempt, and no good Jew would associate with them. Certainly, if he was a rabbi, He must know that. 

Dining with prostitutes, breaking the Sabbath, touching lepers, acting kindly towards ancient enemies; what kind of king would do that? No wonder then, that when He drove out demons, many thought He was possessed by a demon Himself. He preached a strange sort of kingdom where sinners would be welcome, where forgiveness was plentiful, and mercy reigned. And yet, despite His constant talk of it, there was little sign of the coming of a kingdom, for the Romans still ruled, illness was everywhere, hatred and resentment intensified and the poor, well, the poor were still with them. It seemed that the kingdom He preached was pretty well hidden too. It was hard to imagine that the kingdom would come in such an unassuming way. Altogether, it was far too much.

Finally, when He was taken into custody, shackled, slapped and spit upon, when He stood mostly silent before the Sanhedrin and mute before Caiphas, when He was lifted up on the cross, then, at long last, the kingdom did come: a hidden King entering a hidden kingdom from atop trash heap outside the walls of the holy city. Then, the earth quaked, the sun hid, the angels bowed low and the virgin wept and as Isaiah foretold, “The LORD was pleased to crush him in infirmity. If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.” Yes, it was somehow pleasing in God's sight.