King - Heavy is the head that wears the crown

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. An ancient proverb that tells us peons that it ain't no picnic being the head honcho. It invokes images of difficult decisions that will cost much, and the benefit of said decision must outweigh the cost to the kingdom. I usually envision a person agonizing over decisions like going to war, or taxation (with or without representation), laws that will affect the daily life of denizens and citizens, or which royal family to betroth a child. Things that are weighty, things that matter. But, over the course of history, many of these "hard" decisions barely lasted to the end of a reign. Sometimes, they lasted a while, but anyone remember (other than history PhD's) some of King Alfrech's decisions? How about King Henry I? How about James K. Polk? How about William Taft? Anybody? I didn't think so. Do these decisions really matter then? Did they last? Did all that agonizing merit the durability or lasting of that decision? I wonder if there was a ruler who made a decision that lasted........

Imagine for a moment this King. His crown will be one of thorns. He is in a garden, agonizing over a decision that will affect the life of every single person in history. He knows that it will be a costly one, that cost being His own life. He will also ask those who He chooses to follow Him to give of themselves, many their own lives as well, which they will perceive as a cost, but it is really a gain. He knows that there will be first lashes (with a cruel instrument, just google cat 'o nine tails), and then later backlashes and more backlashes (read schisms, Arianism, Calvinism, atheism, Islam, Judaism, Darwinism, spiritualism, communism, socialism, modernism and postmodernism, and a slew of other -isms). He knows there will be agony, because the device used to crucify is so painful a word had to be invented to explain the pain, excruciate (Latin for from or out of the cross). He also knows the agony won't end there, because time after time, He will be rejected, even by those who are closest to him, and claim to be His followers. He knows that most frightening of all, for a span of time, He will be separated from part of His essence, His Father God, and will experience the full anger, rage, and castigation that every human deserves, yet He did not. The event facing Him is terrible, the decision so difficult that His sweat becomes as blood (a real condition, just ask an MD). He is there in this garden, and says quietly, "Father, if it be Your will, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but YOUR WILL be done."

Later, he hangs from a cross. Beaten, broken, spat upon, denied, and dying. He looks up, and with more compassion and love than we can understand, says, "It Is Finished!" and dies. Three days later, he emerges victorious. An empty grave His evidence, and His followers take His testimony to Jerusalem, Judea, and towards the ends of the earth. Centuries later, we still worship Him, praise Him, and are taking His Word to the ends of the block, the city, the nation, and the earth.

I say beautiful, not heavy, is the head that wears that crown.

http://www.blogger.com/www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE

Now, that's my King.