In Bob Marley’s song “Three Little Birds,” he sings, “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing gonna be all right.” No matter what’s going on in our lives, we deeply want to believe that, don’t we?
The Bible tells us that it isn’t just wishful thinking. The Bible tells us that, in Jesus, that will happen. He’s a complete Savior who will make everything all right.
We don’t live under a monarchy in the US, but our hearts still long for a good king—one with nobility, justice, and strength. We think of England’s King Arthur, that “once and future king” who drew the sword from the stone and ruled with courage, justice, and virtue in a kingdom called Camelot. His reign was not only a treasured past but also a future hope.
The problem, though, is that neither Arthur nor Camelot ever existed. They are Christ-haunted longings of a good king who rules a glorious kingdom rather than realities.
But where legend fails, the Bible does not.
That longing for a good King is there for a reason, to be satisfied fully in Jesus, who is the true and better Arthur. Not myth but reality. Not legend but history. His kingdom is the true Camelot, marked by justice, righteousness, and peace. He is the true and better “once and future king.”
Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to live the life we should have lived and die the guilty death we should have died. He rose from the grave to defeat death for us. And he ascended into heaven and now reigns as the King of kings and Lord of lords at the right hand of the Father, waiting for the time when he will return to consummate his kingdom. Our king came once; he’s coming again.
Jesus’s second coming won’t be like his first. In his first coming, Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, humbling himself to death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7). But in his second coming, he will come “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30). It will be a universal, public, and undeniable acknowledgment of his Kingship. “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” His return is not metaphorical or symbolic; it will be real, visible, and bodily. “Every eye will see him” (Rev. 1:7).
Jesus’s return isn’t a minor note in the Bible. It’s the climax. If Jesus came only once and will never come again, then the gospel is only partially finished. The gospel doesn’t end with the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. It goes on to the return of Christ and the restoration of all things. It goes on to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts for all things to be set right, for a king and a kingdom where the life we want is an ever-present reality.
Camelot is coming. Our once and future King will make it so.