We see that in the world. There is Christ. He is at the right hand of the Father; he is in glory. But the world, as history goes on, is drifting further and further away, showing its rebellion against him. That is certainly true with society at the present time. The world thinks it has succeeded in ridding itself of Christ, of God. It grows in confidence in its unbelief. It reckons that nothing happens because of its rejection. Today it experiments with new forms of evil, new types of sin, sins never committed before by previous generations. Rightly does the Spirit of God predict that in the last days, men will be ‘inventors of evil’. Every new skill that man learns, and every scientific breakthrough, is used to find new ways to break the commandments of God. ‘What can we get away with?’ they ask. ‘Our knowledge is our own and we can do what we like with it.’ With that increasing confidence comes increasing impatience with any suggestion that the world’s chosen path is evil, that God will ensure there are consequences to sin, that man is not free to do as he likes. All of this behaviour is sending a message to the Lord, that he is not welcome, that his return is not wanted, that world will chooses its own rulers, and not have uninvited princes forced upon it.
This element of the parable is given by the Lord as a reflection on the people of his time. The majority of the inhabitants of Jerusalem thought like this, and they reflect the majority of people in almost all ages. ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ Here is an example of what has in recent years been called crowd thinking. In deep matters it has been said human beings behave rather like pack animals and they like to move together in crowds, and to think in groups rather than to think deeply as individuals. The majority of the people in this parable, the citizens of the nobleman king speak as one. In spiritual matters that is just how we are. To think in a crowd is a sort of refuge for us, an escape route. I don't have to face up to my conclusions, everybody thinks the same. Most of my peer group think this way, and I go along with it. When it comes to thinking about God and whether he is there or not, and his authority over our lives, and whether it is possible to know him, we just think like the crowd. There are some things in life that you have got to think deeply about. You can't buy a house in a crowd or rent a flat in a crowd. If you need to choose a career, it affects you individually; you have to make sure you do the right thing. When it comes to your relationship with God, crowd thinking is not going to work. The audacity of the citizens is incredible, but if you say it in a crowd, you don't realise how audacious you are being. You can just discard God and send him packing, and seize his goods and breathe his air and occupy his universe, and it doesn't occur to you that there's anything arrogant about it.
One would think from the way the world conducts itself, that it had some say in the matter, that it had some strength to resist the establishment of the rightful Ruler being set in place. The Lord bears long with this provocative behaviour, but when he comes, it will be with overwhelming force. The unbelieving world will discover how little strength it really has. All its boasted powers will shrivel up, as it realises how badly it has miscalculated. The mere appearance of the Lord in power will bring about that realisation, and there will be an instant transformation in the way men and women see themselves. What a great contrast there will be between what they were in his absence, and what they will be in his presence!