e was gladly
accepted and served as King by those who understood Him best. He was
acknowledged as King by the Roman Governor; and He died as a King, and
as a King was laid in a newly hewn tomb.

_Mark_ adds a fine touch to this picture, a warm touch with colour in
it,--this King of ours is _a serving King_. This comes not only with a
warm feel, but it comes as a distinct surprise. Men's kings are _served_
kings. There have been kings, and are, who rendered their people a fine
high service, and do. But the overpowering impression given the common
crowd watching on the street is that kings are superior beings, to be
waited upon, humbly bowed to, and implicitly obeyed. They are to be
served.

Bat Mark's picture shows us a King whose passion is to serve. The
service which He draws out of His followers is drawn out by His warm
serving spirit towards us. The words on the royal coat-of-arms are, "Not
to be ministered unto, but to minister." And in the first meaning of the
words He Himself used that means "not to be _served_ but to _serve_." In
Mark the air is tense with rapid action. The quick executive movement of
a capable servant is felt in the terse words short sentences and swift
action of the story.

There's yet warmer colouring in _Luke's_ picture. This serving King is
_nearest of kin to us!_ He is not only of the blood royal, but of the
blood human. He is bone of our bone, blood of our blood, and life of our
common life. He came to us through a rare union of God's power with
human consent and human function, never known before nor repeated since.
This is the bit that Luke adds to the composite message of these four
little God-story books.

Here Jesus has a tenderness of human sympathy with us men, for He and we
are brothers. There's an outlook as broad as the race. No national
boundaries limit its reach. No sectional prejudices warp or shut Him off
from sympathetic touch with any. He shares our common life. He knows our
human temptations, and knows them with a reality that is painful, and
with an intensity that wets His brow and shuts His jaw hard.

This king who serves is _a man_. He _can_ be a king of men for He is a
_man_. He has the first qualification. I might use an old-fashioned word
in the first old-time meaning,--He is _a fellow_, one who shares the
bed and bread of our common experience. And so He is _kin to us_, both
in lineage and in experience, in blood and in spirit.

And John's share in this partn