1 Kings 10:8-9, ‘Happy are your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom…Because YHWH loved Israel forever, He has made you king.’
These words, spoken by the Queen of Sheba in praise of Solomon’s reign, establish an illuminating principle for us, namely, that a wise and righteous ruler is an expression of YHWH’s love toward a people. The Queen righty recognizes that Solomon is king over Israel—and Israel is reaping the benefits of his reign—*because* YHWH loves Israel. The greatness of the king set over God’s covenant people is an expression of the greatness God’s covenant love for that people.
How great, then, must YHWH’s love be for that people over whom He has set His own Beloved Son who is the fullness of Himself? That’s what I’ve tried to communicate in today’s picture. Read on for the description:
Inverted at the base of the picture, framed by the stone of Jesus’ tomb which is already rolling away from the door of the morning, we see the ‘king’ of this world and humanity in thralldom to him (cf. Rom.5:17). This is the ruler under whom we are all born and in whose service we will all eternally die unless we are—by sovereign grace and infinite love—brought out from his rule and placed under the dominion of the Risen One (cf. Col.1:13-14). For those in Christ, then, this ruler is slain—his crown, and skull, impaled on the cross.
In opposition to those under the ‘king’ of the world are the covenant people of YHWH. These are all those who are united by faith to the only true “Covenant People,” namely, the Seed, the Head, the Crucified and Risen Jesus Himself (cf. Gal.3:16). As usual, I’ve pictured the people of God as the Bride—that is, the Church from all places and ages. She stands in covenant union to her King, united to Him by faith as expressed in the sacramental bonds of that blood and water flowing from His side—How blessed are the people who wash themselves in the very Spirit of God and quench their soul’s thirst at the wellspring of His heart?
Over the Bride the slain and risen Jesus reigns in that kingship achieved and declared upon His resurrection-illumined cross. His crown is woven of grapevines and fig branches. This pictures the eucatastrophic transformation of curse-to-blessing achieved in that resurrection by which the crucified Jesus is revealed as King (Is.55:13). It also echoes the oft-repeated image of the ‘vine’ and ‘fig tree’ by which the OT anticipates the eschatological reign of the Divine King (see 1 Kings 4:25, Micah 4:1-5, Zech.3:10). The joy-giving vine and hunger-satisfying fig tree of the eternal kingdom is the King Himself, who opens the abundance of Himself to His people from the throne of His cross (Ps. 36:8; Is.25:6-9; Is.55:1-3; Jn 6:51-58).
Finally, The body of the Risen Lord is lit with the dawn, declaring that He Himself is the beginning of the new creation and end of every night for His people. Church, the greatness of Jesus Christ as our King is a declaration of the greatness of that love with which we are loved.
