Ephesians 2:19 “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household…”

“Aliens” has become an emotionally charged word in our time, especially when paired with the word “illegal.” The foreigners and aliens Paul has in mind were not nearly so controversial.

The people Paul was picturing with these metaphors were the Gentiles. For centuries they were not included as part of God’s people. Although that is not true of the Gentiles as a class of people today, Paul’s words still have application to each of us before we came to faith.

How, then, were we like foreigners and aliens? Such people struggle with the language and culture of the country they have come to. Those foreign to God’s kingdom find the communication problems only worse. Not only do we not know the meaning of terms like justification, sanctification, grace, or redemption. The very concepts are unknown. We can’t comprehend being saved by forgiveness without our good works. We don’t speak God’s language of salvation, and that leaves us with deep suspicions that work against trust and faith.

Such non-citizens may have as much trouble with the law as they do with the language. Spit your gum out on a street or sidewalk in the United States, and the person who winds up with it stuck to the bottom of his shoe may be annoyed, but you won’t have the police on your tale. Try that in Singapore, and you may find yourself a thousand dollars poorer. It’s the law. When I was growing up in Minnesota, I remember Vietnamese refugees being arrested or fined by the game warden because they would be caught with 5 or 6 times their legal limit of some kind of fish. They didn’t have such limits in their home country.

Foreigners and aliens to God’s kingdom may be just as ignorant of some of his laws. A man new to the Christian faith was taking premarriage classes in one of our churches. He was shocked to learn there was anything wrong with premarital sex. The unbelieving world openly rejects many other laws of God’s kingdom. Abortion and euthanasia, homosexuality and no fault divorce are just a few of the things our Lord condemns but the world embraces. Those who approve of these things live as citizens of a different ruler and a different country. They may be unaware of the horrible sentence God will pass on those who defy his law.

For those who believe, that was the past. Paul says that something has changed. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household…” Why would God take someone whose values are so different than his and give them official standing as a member of his holy, spiritual nation of people? Why would he be willing to make it so easy to become one, and so costly for him? Those who want to become citizens of the United States go through a course of study, and take a test, before they can take the oath. Our Lord did all the work for us by giving us Jesus. The process was complete the moment he first kindled faith in our hearts.

Such heavenly citizenship certainly has its privileges. We have immediate access to the ruler of the country. He will hear our case and consider us in his policies and decisions.

Better yet, we are privileged to live under his gracious rule. His government provides public services and protections like no other government on earth. He provides for the health of our souls by distributing forgiveness at no cost to us. No deductible or co-pay has to be met. His system of education provides truly higher learning. An army of angels defend us from our enemies, and he miraculously and mysteriously turns the evil we do suffer to work for our good.

But he gives us a position even more intimate and privileged than that. We have been changed from foreigner to family member. We are members of God’s own household. He has made us family.

Doesn’t the mention of family fill most people with an immediate sense of security? Children in the family have all their needs provided. They don’t worry about shelter, clothing or food. Mom and dad simply take care of that for them.

It is in God’s spiritual family that we find a Father’s love, love so deep and so completely devoted that he would not spare anything, even his own Son, to make us his own and save us from sin and death. It is in God’s spiritual family that we find the love of fellow brothers and sisters in faith who support and encourage us on our journey through life and help keep us on the way that leads to our heavenly home.

Membership has its privileges. Nowhere is that more true than the spiritual nation in which God has given us citizenship and divine family into which he has adopted us.

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Some people go on and on about themselves, about their hobbies or opinions or tastes. Jesus has given you something actually worth talking about. He has called you to be his spokesmen, to do endorsements for him. He didn’t hire a supermodel or the number one rated athlete in the world. He called you. He has not made us all his door to door salesmen, but he calls us to speak from the heart, and tell what we know, when the opportunity presents itself. Nationwide Insurance once claimed to have “the world’s greatest spokesperson in the world” in its commercials. Jesus has called you to be the world’s most important ones.

What we declare are his “praises.” The word Peter uses for “praises” does not refer so much to the act of worship, words or songs that express, “Our God is awesome.” They include the record of his deeds, the accounts of his kindness, the characteristics of his person that make it so. We are talking of the hand he has had in all human history: sending us a Savior, and seeing to it that the message salvation in Jesus has reached you and me.

These are the praiseworthy qualities and deeds of the God we worship, the things that bring him fame and praise. Jesus has called you to tell this story. He calls you to tell people who he is and what he is like. It’s not a hard thing to understand, not a complicated message to deliver. If you can talk about the great game your child had on the soccer or baseball field, if you can describe your favorite qualities in your best friend, you can do this. As a Christian, it is part of your calling. It is one of the reasons that Jesus’ made you one of his distinguished people.

A few decades ago one of my professors was applying to enter a doctoral program at the University of Minnesota. The director of the program scoffed at first. He thought he was just a backwards fundamentalist from a Bible college.  “You don’t seem to have the academic background,” he said. “To even enter the program you have to know ancient Akkadian.” That’s a language used in parts of the ancient Middle East and written with a stylus on little tablets of clay. It looks like a collection of triangles. “That’s okay,” said my professor. “I’ll teach myself over the summer.” And he did! Later this program director was heard quipping to a colleague, “The guy knew more than I did.”

My professor had a rare gift, but you couldn’t see it. What distinguished him was real, but it was hidden for the most part. So it is with you. You have a rare gift: your faith, your identity, your calling, your privilege. These impact how you live. They make a difference in your life. But to most people, most of the time, they are hidden. That makes them no less real, and no less important. Own your new identity as God’s people. Know that you are special to him. Then be confident to declare his praises to others.

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

If God has forgiven all of our sins for Jesus’ sake, if he has declared that not a single mistake stands against us, then we must look different to him than we did before. This is why he starts referring to us with terms of endearment like “children,” or terms of respect like “saints,” in the Bible.  It’s not that we have stopped sinning, or that our old sinful nature is any less real, or any less bad, but with all our sins forgiven God holds a different image of us in his mind now.

And he invites us to start looking at ourselves the way he sees us. Peter says that you are a chosen people. That is a powerful statement of how God feels about us. Why is it that children take it so hard when they are chosen last for a team, or not chosen at all? Why is it that adults take it so hard when they lose an election? Is it not because there are feelings of rejection here? It seems as though nobody likes us or wants us. Our election by God is more than a cold, hard fact, like some mathematical principle. We are people that God wanted to be his own. We are the desire of his heart.

You are also a royal priesthood. To have God declare us royalty makes all the difference in the world. Royalty rules. God’s royalty rules all things. It isn’t always obvious to us, it isn’t even usually obvious to us, but as God’s royalty we rule and all things serve us–all things! Jesus promises his kings and queens by faith, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” Paul assures us, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” The letter to the Corinthians pledges, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future–all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”

As royalty, nothing and no one stands above us in our relationship with God. As priests, no one stands between us and God. Each and every priest, each and every Christian, can take his needs, or his requests, or his service to God directly since Jesus has given us all direct access to the Father.

Again, by forgiveness and faith, you are a holy nation. You are purer in God’s eyes than the most sterile environment on earth could make you. And not only has the last whisper, the last trace of impurity been removed by Jesus’ holy blood, but as a holy nation you have also been set aside by God for his special purposes. There is nothing common, or ordinary about any of you. Do you have dishes at home that only come out for a very special meal, clothes in your closet that only come out for a very special occasion, heirlooms you use only under special circumstances? In a similar way God has made you his holy nation not for any run of the mill purpose in his creation, but to be holy means to be set apart, and the special purpose for which God has set you apart will be made more clear in just a moment.

Peter concludes his list by calling you a people belonging to God. God looks at you as his own treasured possession. Cruel images of slavery may get in the way of appreciating the privilege of belonging to someone else, so think of God’s claim on you this way: When children have a favorite toy, what do they do? They put their name on it and you drag it along everywhere they go. When adults have some favorite tool or utensil, what do they do? You put their name on it, and guard it a little, and don’t lend it out very willingly. Or this is even better: if you can find that one other person with whom you would like to share the rest of your life, what do you do? You put your ring on his or her finger. You claim him or her for life. You treat this one as your most treasured possession. When Jesus found you he put his name on you, and made you a Christian, and now he treats you like the dearest thing he has in all the world.

This new identity, this new image that God has given to us by grace, is not merely a potential. It is not something he hopes you will become someday. In Christ, by faith, this already is the Christian’s new look.

1 Peter 2:10 “Once, you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

The people to whom Peter was writing these words were Gentiles. They were scattered through Roman provinces like Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, areas that make up the modern nation of Turkey. Like us, each of these Christians had grown up as part of a certain family, a certain race, and a certain nation. They had a history and a culture that bound them together with other people. No doubt they took pride in the nation of their birth. How could Peter say that they were not a people?

Let’s look at this from God’s point of view for a moment. In the past there had been nothing that united these individuals from Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia with each other, with the possible exception that by nature they were all God’s enemies. There was nothing about being born a Cappadocian, or a Bithynian, that made you any closer to God. Whether individually, or as citizens of their native land, to God they were simply part of that great mass of people who followed idols. They were lost. Before God, they were nobodies.

Now let’s update the setting to our own day for a moment. Many who are reading this are citizens of the United States of America. There is nothing wrong with appreciating the fact that you are a citizen of one of the most powerful nations on earth, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the great melting pot. But none of this means anything to God. I used to live in Texas. There was a joke about a phone call from Texas to heaven being cheap, because it was a “local” call, not long distance. There may be very good civic reasons for taking a certain pride in the state of one’s birth or residence, but Texas is no closer to heaven than any other spot on earth. (I am sorry if that comes as a surprise or disappointment to some of you). Other points of pride get us no closer to the Lord. It makes no difference to him that your grandfather was a minister, or that you are a shirt-tail relative of the president, or that you graduated with the highest GPA in your class, or that you have a six-figures income.

Why? Jesus once told Nicodemus, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Our flesh and blood birth or existence doesn’t make us spiritual children of God. Regardless of who we are or where we come from, by birth we are no different than members of Al-Qaeda, or shooters who commit mass murder at an elementary school, or any number of other sinister characters. To God we were not a people. We were lost. We were nobodies.

So what’s God trying to do, damage my already fragile self-image? In one sense, yes. He wants to destroy it altogether. But in another sense, no. He simply wants us to stop trying to find it in the sinful and prideful places we go looking all too often.

You see, Peter reminds us, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Now you and I are God’s people. Now you and I have been shown mercy. Now we are somebodies! Jesus has made us very important persons (or people) in God’s eyes. When he redeemed us from our sins at the cross, he did more than free us. He claimed us. He made us citizens of a better country, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:14-16). He made us members of his own noble family. It is not arrogance to say that this citizenship and this family truly are better than any other on earth. It’s not bragging. It’s just a fact.

We wear this new status with humility since we know God took us from nothing. Our place among God’s people is purely a gift. Still, this new identity belongs to us now, and it is only proper that we embrace it, enjoy it, and put it to use. It is no small honor to be the people of God.

Revelation 5:1-5  Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals. 6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne…”

Are you ever concerned about the future? Make a trip to the emergency room, spend a day in the hospital, or have the doctor order up a series of tests, and all of a sudden the future is a big deal. Lose your job, or receive news that your company is “down-sizing,” and the future starts demanding a bigger percentage of our attention.

If worry about the future weighs heavy on our hearts, it probably has to do with our survival or that of someone we care about. We don’t know what is going to happen to us. But we do know the day is coming when the doctor can’t heal us anymore, and our income won’t support us anymore. Death waits in everyone’s future, and nothing makes us more concerned than death.

The Apostle John was concerned about the future, too. In this vision God is holding the future in his hands in the form of a scroll. The whole future is there— the scroll is full of writing on both sides, but it is sealed shut with seven seals. No one can look into the future, no one can read it because God has hidden it from view.

Who can open this scroll and show us the future written on it? A mighty angel asks the question, because even he isn’t able to. John tells us in the next verse, “…no one in heaven, or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll, or even look inside it.” There are those who claim that they can open the scroll today, but they are all frauds. In your newspaper each day you will find a column with the title “horoscope.” It gives no insight into what God has planned for our future. I once drove past the home of “Doris the Palm-reader.” She cannot read what God has written on the scroll in his hand. Even more respectable people like the weatherman can’t tell you with certainty what tomorrow holds.

The Apostle John was deeply troubled that no one could open this scroll. “I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” John, too, was concerned about death and survival. Of the twelve men Jesus chose as disciples, only John was left. Many other leaders of the church at this time were being gathered by the Roman authorities and executed. John’s concern extended to the survival of the Church he had helped to establish. He deeply wanted to see that everything would be alright.

Then he received this comfort. “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Do you recognize this Lion? The old patriarch Jacob spoke of him just before he died in Genesis chapter 49. “You are a lion’s cub, O Judah….The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.” If we find it hard to identify him, John’s next description may make it easier: “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…”

You couldn’t create two more seemingly contradictory descriptions than these: “…the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed” and “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain…” Lions are aggressive and powerful. We call them “king of beasts.” A lamb is weak and defenseless. The Lion has triumphed. The Lamb has been slain. Aren’t these opposites? How could they be the same?

You couldn’t create two more seemingly contradictory days than Good Friday and Easter Sunday. On Good Friday Jesus looks absolutely helpless. He ends up tortured to death on a cross. On Easter Sunday, Jesus looks absolutely victorious. If death can’t hold him, if the grave can’t oppose him, what else can? In his death on the cross Jesus is the Lamb who was slain. By his resurrection from the dead Jesus is the Lion who has triumphed. By them both Jesus is worthy to open the scroll and show us the future. Do you see why?

When Jesus was slain, he didn’t merely die like a lamb. He died as a Lamb, the Lamb of sacrifice, giving his life in payment for our sins. When Jesus rose, his triumph over death was more than a personal triumph. It was a triumph for us all. Death itself was defeated, ours included.

By paying for our sins and defeating death, then, Jesus has written our futures. They may not look the same in all the details. You may die rich, or you may die poor. You may die old, or you may die young. You may die peacefully, or you may die violently. But in every case, your future is the same. You will rise from death to live and rule in heaven eternally, for Jesus is the Lamb who was slain, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed.

This is the future Jesus himself has written on the scroll for you. This is the future he reads to us at Easter and every Sunday. This is what makes him worthy. He not only shows us our future. He created it.

Romans 1:3-4 “This gospel is about his Son—who in the flesh was born a descendant of David, who in the spirit of holiness was declared to be God’s powerful Son by his resurrection from the dead—Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The truth that Paul shares with us in these verses may be the forgotten lesson of Jesus’ resurrection. We tend to stress the fact that because Jesus has risen from the dead, we know the Father accepted his sacrifice. His effort to pay for our sins was successful. More than that, we draw the conclusion that since Jesus is alive and our sins are paid for, someday we will rise from the dead, too. These things certainly ought to be emphasized.

But Jesus’ resurrection is also the miracle of miracles. A handful of other people have been raised back to life from the dead throughout history, but only to die again. Only Jesus raised himself from the dead, and only he has risen to a new kind of life and a never-ending life.

That makes a powerful statement about who Jesus is. No mere man could bring himself back to life. Jesus is the Son of God. The resurrection doesn’t make him the Son of God. It makes his divinity clear to see. It puts a big exclamation point on the truth that our Savior Jesus is also our God.

How does that truth help to put the “good news” in our gospel? Just look at the ramifications. 1) If Jesus is God, then his work, his life, his death, have infinite value. I can be sure that my sins are covered. 2) If Jesus is God, then you and I can put our utter trust in him. What he tells us, we can believe with complete confidence. How he treats us, we can receive with complete certainty that he is taking care of us. 3) If Jesus is God, then in getting to know him we are getting to know God. And what is the picture of God we get when we look at Jesus? Someone who loves us passionately. Someone who is caring, kind, gentle, and approachable, yet strong, steady, and upright. What more could you want on your side? 4) This passage concludes by calling him “Jesus Christ our Lord.” When people say things like, “Jesus is my Lord,” they are often thinking of the obedience they owe to him. But a Lord is also a protector, isn’t he? If our Lord is our God, then you and I are utterly safe. 5) If Jesus is God, then we can be sure we are in the right place whenever we are following him. If Jesus is God, then all the news for us is only good.

The heart of the Christian faith is not a list of principles or a way of life. It is a person, promised by prophets, descended from David, and declared to be God by his resurrection from the dead. The news is good, dear friends.

Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he said this, he breathed his last.

What would you like to be “king” of? At different stages of life, we aspire to be king over different things. When I was four or five, I would have been happy to be king of my own bedtimes, to be the ruler of my night time hours. That power was beyond reach, but one can always dream.

As we grow older, the dreams and goals change. In our teens we would like to have control over our transportation, own a car, be kings of our travel. In adulthood life becomes more complex. We scramble to be kings of our finances, our careers, our family life, and our waist lines. None of these are ever completely under our control. Cars break down and investments fail. Jobs are terminated and family members all have a mind of their own. Metabolisms slow down.  Still, we strive to become the kings of our own little corner of the universe.

Then there are those who thirst for power over others. They set their eyes on ruling a company, or even a nation. A few madmen have entertained notions of ruling the entire world. Then everyone would bow down and call them “king.”

The thirst for power and control stems from the very first sin of our very first parents. No longer willing to live under God, they wanted to be like God and replace him in their lives. They would make the decisions about right and wrong. They would choose their own path. They would rule the world the way that they wanted it to be. Isn’t that what we want, too? Let’s not deceive ourselves. Even our service in the church is often more about making things the way we want them to be than it is about seeing God’s will fulfilled. The words Milton gives Satan in Paradise Lost occupy some dark corner of our own souls, “It’s better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.”

Neither the most powerful dictator or most glorious emperor ever possessed power like Jesus did. “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” His disciples exclaimed when he calmed the storm. Lifeless loaves of bread grew and multiplied in his hands. Sickened, crippled bodies became whole and healthy at his touch. Souls returned and re-inhabited the dead at his command. Even the demons fled in terror when he rebuked them. What other king on earth ever ruled a kingdom like Jesus ruled?

Do you suppose that Jesus left this kingship behind when he went to the cross? He looks so passive and helpless there. But that agonizing suffering and death is rather a marvel of his power and control. At every moment he had the power to stop it. Though he dreaded the price he would pay for our sins, as we know from his prayer in Gethsemane, Jesus controlled even himself. He ruled over his fear and dread of the cross. He suffered willingly. This man suffered pain and agony of body and soul unknown to anyone else who has ever lived, but he did not give in to the impulse to escape and find relief. Even when he cries out to the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” does this move him to give up, to admit that it is too much for him, to go away in defeat? Only the most powerful King of heaven and earth could endure what Jesus endured to the very end.

And then there are the final words from his lips: “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.” Jesus is the King of this world with all its forces. He is Ruler of his own mind and will. Now he is also the Lord of life and death. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life– only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18). Jesus dies when he chooses. His own soul stays or goes only at his command. And now he says to his soul, “Go! Go to my Father. Everything I came to accomplish has been done.”

Why does Jesus rule like this? Why does the King subject himself to suffering and death? The Kingship Jesus covets is not to be king of the weather, or king of diseases, or king of the demons. He does all this so that he can be the King of our hearts. He suffers and dies to purify them from the sins that otherwise make them unfit for his kingdom. He reveals such love to win those hearts to his side and bring them home.

He gives up his soul to be King of you and me.

Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Paul comes out against worry and anxiety in the strongest possible terms in this verse. Do not be anxious about anything ever. Through the years I have counseled with people who defended their worry as reasonable, given their circumstances. It seems natural to worry when you don’t have enough, or someone is in danger. I struggle with worry and anxiety as much as anyone. But that doesn’t change what Scripture says of worry. It’s a sin.

What is the silent message we are sending God when we worry? “I don’t think you are as powerful as you say you are.” “I don’t think you love me as much as you say you do.” “I can’t really trust you to take care of me.” Are those attitudes compatible with faith?

And what does our anxiety get us? Unless we consider ulcers, gray hair, and sleepless nights progress, the answer is “nothing.”  “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Jesus asks. Worry only wastes the energy we could be spending serving God or helping others or finding the solution.

Faith that repents of worry and trusts God’s forgiving grace and power looks to replace anxiety with prayers, petitions, and requests to God. It’s not because he is ignorant of our condition and needs to be informed. Don’t picture him in heaven with a giant yellow pad and pen taking notes. “Your grandmother is in ICU? I didn’t know that!”

Nor do we have to talk him into helping us. Look at how many thousands of little details he takes care of for us every day even if we never ask.

In prayer, our Lord invites us to talk to him so that we can take the anxieties and concerns off of our shoulders and hand them to him. Our prayers don’t change him–he never changes. There is not some kind of magical power in the words we are saying, either. But inasmuch as our attention turns to God and his promises to hear and help when we pray, we are changing. We are seeking and finding the help he has promised. Isn’t that experience what has made the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” so popular through the years?

Confident that our Lord is invisibly near to hear us even now, we replace our anxieties with urgent prayers. And confident his visible return is also near, we know a permanent solution to the things that make us worry will follow soon.

Philippians 4:5 “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

“Gentleness” may seem a strange virtue to bring up in this context of remembering Jesus imminent return, “The Lord is near.” Just what does Paul mean? Gentleness is so much more than being quiet and mild. It is a kind way of treating others even if that is not the treatment we have been receiving. It takes a moderate, self-controlled, reasoned approach to dealing with the people around us instead of flying off the handle or meeting insult with insult. We yield to them, perhaps sacrificing what serves us to serve them.

In the gospels Jesus once spoke of us becoming servants and slaves to each other, and that may lead to the same kind of behavior Paul is describing here. But that does not mean our identity is nothing more than a slave. I find it interesting the Greeks considered this gentleness a virtue of good kings. Just because the king knew who he was, and he was secure in his power, he could be calm and gentle in dealing with his people. He could even yield to them at times without fear that he was losing something.

Scripture tells us that God made us royalty when he called us to faith. Because Jesus cleansed us of sin and dressed us in the royal robes of his own loving perfection, that is who we are. No one can ever take that away from us, no matter how they treat us. We serve, then, with a certain, humble nobility. As part of the royalty of heaven, we know we have inexhaustible resources, and when we see others in need we want to help them. We are in a position to be kind and gentle to them. Even when the arrogant and proud people of this world walk all over us, we can see how pitiful they really are. They are trying to cover up how small and insignificant they are by themselves. They cannot change the fact that we are members of heaven’s royal court, and we can afford to be gentle and moderate in how we respond to them.

Isn’t that the way that Jesus has treated each of us? He may have come into our world to serve us, even like a slave. But do you ever get the impression that is what Jesus thought he was? He never lost sight of the fact that he is our King. After he humbled himself to wash the disciples’ feet he reminded them, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am” (John 13:13). Even as he was yielding himself to cross and death to save us all from sin, he defended his royalty to Pontius Pilate, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37). Just because he is our King he can be so gentle and kind in dealing with us.

And knowing we will soon be enjoying our own royal positions at his return, we can treat others with gentleness as well.