Show Us Your King

It's been a long time in America since we have lived under the rule and power of a king. It's been more than 200 years! That's a long time before you were born. In fact, it is a long time before anyone here was born. It is hard for us to understand what life with a King or a Queen is like.

What do you think of when you think of a KING. (Let the children answer you.)

Jesus is sometimes called a King, yet he didn't look like one. He didn't wear a crown. He wore the same kind of clothes everyone else was wearing. He didn't live in a palace or a castle. He lived in an ordinary house and often slept on the road as he traveled with his disciples. He didn't sit on a throne with lots of guards and servants watching out for his safety and well being. He wasn't married to a Queen. He didn't seem to come from a Royal Family.

When Jesus and his followers talked about Jesus and the Kingdom of heaven, they were puzzled. If Jesus is a king, why doesn't he look like a king? they wondered.

In today's Bible story, a group of people who were interested in Jesus but weren't quite sure about him came to the disciples and asked questions about this new KING. They wanted to see Jesus in all his kingly splendor.

Jesus answered them in a way which would not make sense to them at the time, but would become clearer in the very near future. His words were hard to understand.

(Show the children a picture of Jesus either in ordinary attire or perhaps wearing a crown of thorns)

Jesus told them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." He said some other things, too. We just read the story from the Bible. But not much of it made sense to the people who asked the question. They must have been thinking, "Why doesn't he answer our question? What's the big secret?

His words can still puzzle us.

What Jesus is saying to these curious people is "Wait and see."

Jesus knew that something important was about to happen. If he told them exactly what was to happen it wouldn't have made it any easier for his listeners. They might have been even more curious and confused . . and maybe a bit scared.

So let's you and I do what Jesus says. Let's wait and see what happens in church in the next two weeks. And maybe then, we will look at Jesus and see a King.