Royal

The royal tour of New Zealand has ended. Not Lorde. The prince and princess, William and Kate. William is the second in line to the British throne. However, he will never be a real king, because this is not just a figurehead role, with no real power. The Queen is trotted out for ceremonial occasion to add a bit of pomp and circumstance to compensate for the dull weather, but she has no governing authority.

The British queen has no authority in New Zealand either. The head of state is the Governor General. He is selected by the cabinet, and the queen pretends to appoint him, but this is a façade.

Many people think that this process produces better results than the circus that produces the American and French presidents. They could be right, but this is all irrelevant to me, because I have only one King, and he is Jesus.

The royal tour was a well-oiled PR machine. Everywhere that William and Kate went there were huge adulating crowds. People decided that they were wonderful people after a brief glance from behind the barricades.

I find this tendency quite disturbing. Human nature seems to have a deep-seated need to exalt one person to a place of honour and privilege above them. I can why it is easy for a clever demagogue to gain political power by tapping into this vein.

When the same thing happened to Jesus he did not trust the crowds.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself (John 6:14-15).

No politician or royal would behave this way, but Jesus is the true king.