Childish Kingdom

Once upon a time there was a great king.  This king was all powerful.  In fact, his power gave him the ability to create worlds by simply saying “let there be”.  This king loved his creation, just as any creator would.  He made wonderful things, beautiful things, amazing things.  His most prized creation was something called a human.

One day the human decided that the king’s love was not enough.  They needed something else, something other than the king.  So the human broke the only rule given to them.  It was really a simple rule.  The king had made an entire world for them full of every good thing that one may desire.  But the human was instructed not to take this one thing - a simple thing - something that was entirely unnecessary.  

The human took that thing.  It was a mistake and the human knew it immediately.  Unfortunately, they had already taken it and they could not give it back.  The deed was done and all of the king’s creation had to live with the choice of the human.

Because of what the human had done the king could not visit his creation like he had in the past.  There was a wall built between the king and his creation.  If the king decided to do away with the wall he would have to do away with his creation and he still loved his creation - especially the human.

You see, the king was just and because he was just he bound himself by the justice he established.  His justice stated that if wrong was done, that wrong must be punished.  The wall built between the king and his creation was evidence of the wrong that was done.  It would stay until that wrong was punished.

But if the wrong was to be punished, the punishment would be on the head of the one who did wrong - the human.  The king loved the human.  He would not punish the human with the judgement required, which was eternal death.  He would find another way.  So the king did what he could to commune with the human from the other side of the wall.  He called the human to serve him with their whole beings.  He did mighty acts, even in his creation, to show the human he loved them. But just as the human before them they turned their backs on the king and went their own way.

After thousands of years of reaching out to the human, the king knew that it was clear to all creation that the human could not save themselves from the wrong.  He knew there was only one thing left to do.  He would not allow his human to be eternally separated from his love for the wrong they had done.  He had to save the human.  So he did.

One day the king took off his crown and removed his glorious robes and became the same as his creation.  He became human.  He lived with his creation as a human.  He worked, talked, ate, shared and lived in his creation as a human.  But he did not do one thing that every other human did - the wrong.  He never turned his back on truth, on love, on justice.  He never did the wrong that the human did before him.

But this was not enough to bring down the wall.  It was not enough to take away the punishment due on the human.  He had to do more.  Punishment had to be exacted for the wrong done and it had to be on the human.  So the human king received the punishment.  He carried the punishment on his back.  He carried it days until he was nailed to the wall that was built by human wrong.  The punishment eventually broke the human king and he died.

But the punishment could not break the creator king.  He was much too powerful for that to happen.  So when the punishment dealt out on the human king was finished, the wall that separated the king from his creation was broken down.  Now through the king’s sacrifice the human no longer bore the weight of the punishment.  The king had paid the price for the wrong and the human could now enjoy the everlasting life in the king’s love.

Now, some human ask why would the king do that?  Why relieve the human from the punishment they deserve?  Why would he not just knock down the wall and get rid of the creation and start over again?  Some humans even say that they can’t believe the king ever existed or that he would do such a thing.

I say look at it from a child’s eye.  A child knows why the king would do it.  They know why only one way was the right way.  A child knows because a child sees not a king - but a Father.

Mark 10:14-15