By Br. Isaiah Beiter, OP
What king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. (Lk 14:31–32)
The king is coming. And he will give you peace—if you ask for it. This is a parable. But it is also a thinly-veiled description of the situation between us and Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe. He is coming, and he will not fail to conquer all.
Saint Paul speaks of a time when we were all enemies of God—before we received Christ’s mercy (Rm 5:10). He tells us what it is to be an enemy of God: to set your mind on the things of the flesh. That mind that does not submit to God’s law rejects the way of life and thus receives its due wages, for “the wages of sin is death” (Rm 8:6–8; 6:23).
The king’s enemies will not withstand his coming. Christ’s victory is already announced, and really, already achieved: “I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33), Jesus says to his disciples, even though “we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Heb 2:8).
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Usually, when a king advances, the whole situation is bad news for his enemies. And this is the difference between every other king and Jesus, the King of the Universe. His coming is good news to his enemies. As St. Paul writes,
While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. (Rm 5:10)
And St. John says,
No man has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (Jn 15:13)
And if we receive him—if we become friends of the king who comes to conquer, we become conquerors too. “Who is it that conquers the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the son of God?” (1 Jn 5:5). Conquering by faith in our king, we imitate him in love, service, and humility. We become, in Jesus’ own words, “the one who is victorious and keeps my works to the end” (Rev 2:26). In the Revelation given to John, Jesus makes many promises to “the one who is victorious” such as these:
I will give him to eat of the tree of life. (2:7)
He will not be harmed by the second death. (2:11)
I will give him authority over the nations. (2:26)
I will give him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered, and I sat down with my Father on his throne. (3:21)
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The King stands before his enemies, ready and eager to give them peace. He is only waiting for us to ask.
Br. Isaiah Beiter is student brother of the St. Joseph Province of the Order of Preachers. He lives and studies at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC.