Our monarch comes

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches on the farmland nearby and spread them on the road. The people who were in front and those who followed behind began to shout, ‘Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the coming kingdom of King David, our father! Praise God!’  (verses 8-10)

Read Mark 11: 1-11

In eastern Australia there is a common large butterfly known as the Monarch or Wanderer. The Monarch is native to the Americas and is thought to have ‘island-hopped’ across the Pacific to Australia, following its larval food plant, the milkweed. In areas of Queensland where the presence of milkweed favours it, the Monarch lives up to its name – it is the king of the butterflies.

We must not think that Christ came to Australia because some of the first white people made him welcome. Jesus is God, and he was always in this land. His Palm Sunday entry happens for us when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see him and our hearts to call him Lord. Nor do we become subjects of this heavenly king by crying, ‘Welcome!’ The king chooses us when we are baptised. The king makes us welcome and feeds us with food that he supplies.

Jesus is the monarch who comes to us to be pinned on a cross, like a butterfly. It’s when we see him on the cross that we best see what sort of king he is. This is where we come to know him as our monarch, our sole king, our ‘soul’s delight and crown’, as a hymn calls him.

Lord Jesus, king of creation, glory, honour, praise and adoration always be yours and yours alone. Amen.

by Aub Podlich, in ‘God’s Peace for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2005)

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