The Royal Line

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. Luke 2:4

The story in fantasy land starts with a hidden king, queen, prince, princess, etc. There is a prophecy that a child from the royal line of the great ancient ruler who lived in a time when everything in the kingdom was right and just and altogether peachy will return to set everything right. In our fantasy story Joseph should stand up and be that king, but he didn't. Joseph had to work for a living and the company he worked for kept telling him in the middle of the night to get up and move his family. Is it Mary then? Was Israel due for a queen? Nope, she raised several children but did not rule the land or boot out the Romans.

Ah, it's the firstborn son! Of course, we should have known in our fantasy story that the background must be set up first. A humble beginning, a family that is somehow repressed or disadvantaged from partaking in their royal position (and the imagined benefits thereof), and of course the danger from the forces of the world's evil government. Now we're getting somewhere! The wise guys will of course know this king and the evil usurping ruler will attempt to do something really dirty and underhanded to murder our hero king before he can grow up to be our conquering savior. All set now!

And then the child grew up and died as a many a criminal did under the occupying evil power from a foreign land at the strong urging of the oppressed people? What happened here? Our fantasy story of right and good rising up to win the day went way off track. Evil was not defeated, no king took his throne in the capital city, and the hero of the story lay cold in the tomb.

You will easily recognize that we came in the middle of that story and have not reached the end yet. Jesus did not take up the throne of Jerusalem in the 1st century because the world was not ready for Him to be king. Quite a few priests, rulers, and others thought this story ended one Passover Sabbath back in the day as Jesus lay in the tomb outside Jerusalem, but we know better. Isaiah passed along to us many prophecies about the first appearing of our Lord, but he also wrote down many more that have not yet come to pass. Jesus himself promised to return and bring us with Him to our eternal home, and that has not yet happened. The triumphant end to this story where the King of kings comes to vanquish evil and reign in righteousness is still to come for us. Because of all the stories of that good and true king returning from a humble birth after many hidden generations, this one is no fantasy. The darkness is deep in our time, but the light still shines from Bethlehem and our King is coming soon!

Have a Merry Christmas on this day!
Bucky