Queen Elizabeth II, the sovereign lady was laid to rest on Monday 19th September, 2022 after an extraordinary unequaled service to her Kingdom and humanity for 70 years. A pledge she made at 21 years and kept till death. The mortality of man could not have been lost on any of the powerful and elite men and women who gathered at the Westminster Abbey on that day and sang, “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord Is ended”
The Wednesday prior, the King, her son, King Charles III with his siblings and members of the royal family accompanied the queen adorned with the scepter and Imperial State Crown, the insignia of her queenship on a gun carriage from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where she was laid in state for 5 days prior to the very solemn yet unparalleled impressive and beautiful burial ceremony. The pomp and tradition of the series of highly choreographed ceremonial moments honoring the life of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch were unprecedented. The execution was flawless as every detail seemed to have been rehearsed 1000 times over.
As I followed the 8 days of the journey of the sovereign lady from Balmoral Castle through Edinburgh to Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, then to Westminster Abbey and to Windsor Castle where she was lowered into the Royal Vault at St. George’s chapel, her final resting place, I could not help but compare it to the journey of a few hours of The Supreme Sovereign, Jesus, from Gethsemane to Gabbatha to Golgotha then to Joseph’s tomb, His temporal resting place. What a contrast between the two sovereigns!
Jesus did not get the benefit of a state burial or lying in state. But He had 3 hours of public view whilst He hanged naked on the cross determined to keep His life until every prophecy concerning His death was fulfilled. Above His head hung His charge sheet, “King of the Jews” although He is the King of Kings. So, whilst Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s sovereign lady was laid majestically in state, The King of Kings, the Supreme Sovereign hanged naked, suspended on nails on a cursed cross like a criminal. Whilst the Queen’s final resting place was well prepared far in advance and her journey to her final resting place well-rehearsed to the minutest detail by the brightest of minds and institutions, it took the initiative and generosity of a Joseph of Arimathea and a Nicodemus to hurriedly wrap the body of the King of Kings into Joseph’s tomb to beat the sabbath curfew. All they had was barely 3 hours.
Make no mistake about the sacrifice, cost and urgency it required for Joseph to quickly arrange the Lord’s burial. The Lord’s arrest, sentencing and crucifixion had all happened in a flash. Jesus was betrayed in the night, arrested almost immediately, hurriedly accused, urgently delivered for sentencing and brutally murdered in less than 24hrs. Before news could go round in an era where news only traveled by foot, He was dead. Before His followers could come to terms with the ease of His arrest, He was dead. But rich Joseph had been sovereignly prepared for a time such as that but there was still a price to pay. He was a council member who had not consented to their decision, so he heard the news just in time to boldly approach Governor Pilate a few hours after he had washed his hands in public, to request Jesus’s body. The cost to rich Joseph was not the monetary cost of his rich tomb hewn out of a rock – yes that was special. But the victimization that he and Nicodemus will be subjected to, which we are not told about in scripture, after heavily betraying the Sanhedrin in such an irreparable way. Little did rich Joseph know he was fulfilling his assignment on earth – that it was both him (Joseph) and He (Jesus), that the Prophet Isaiah spoke about in Isaiah 53:9 some 700 years before. It took just a few unsuspecting hours on an unexpected day to fulfill his destiny and he didn’t miss it. An important lesson for us all indeed.
What truly convicted me as I followed keenly and respectfully with such awe and admiration, Queen Elizabeth’s final farewell was the dignity that everyone accorded the body of the sovereign lady. I have never seen this in my life. I have only read a sharp contrast of this in the four (4) gospels of the Bible. The solemn songs in the beautifully adorned and historic cathedrals; the flamboyant assembly and parades of the exquisitely dressed security agencies, the navy and the monarch guards; the harmonious match and well-timed dignified steps of the Grenadier guards, pallbearers and royal family as they followed her body; how the dignitaries and heads of the 15 realms, commonwealth and many world leaders were united in honor and in grief; and the persevered patience of the hundreds of thousands of people including the aged, children and those physically challenged who queued on the streets of London for up to 12hrs to take that once-in-a-lifetime few seconds bow to their Queen inside the Westminster Hall was truly dignified, humbling yet also convicting. Throughout the period, across all the news channels and social media both the elite and the ordinary, near and far from the monarch, were united in praise and honor in their tribute to the Queen. Every word, every phrase and every expression were glorifying to her memory because she is dead. To mock her was and still is inconceivable.
Yet this is what everyone, except Jesus’s beloved disciple and the few bold women who stood near His cross, did whilst The Supreme Sovereign hanged on the cross saving their lives and that of all humanity. Everyone, from those who accused and handed Him over to be killed, to those who executed the crucifixion and those who just passed by, mocked Him. They mocked Him! And worst of all, to His pain, He saw and heard them mocking Him. For a dying righteous man, beyond the excruciating pains of the stripes and the nails, the mocking must have hurt more. Yet they mocked Him and yet He forgave them instantly and even pleaded His father to forgive them too. Yet many years after this, with the benefit of hindsight, well aware of how to honor our earthly sovereigns, we still mock Him. And He continues to forgive us. He still pleads with His father to forgive us. We mock Him still, yes, we do. They asked Him to save Himself and come down from the cross if He is the Son of God. We ask the same of Him today: “If you are God, why do the godly suffer and bad things happen to good people?” “I am your child so give me this miracle or breakthrough so my doubters, neighbors, even enemies will know that I serve a living God” We still mock Him because we still ask Him to prove Himself to us and to others. Anything we ask of Him to prove to us or to others that He is able or loving or merciful is mocking Him. What we are truly asking is, “prove to me you are the Jesus I have believed.” We demand His works, not His ways; His hand, not His heart; Our will not His will. Yet His Sovereignty, His heart, His Way, and His Works are all written for us – they have been made known to us. Who He is, is visible all around us, every day. We do not mock departed earthly sovereigns and our loved ones who are incapable of rising again. We do not ask them to prove their love to us but we ask this of the supreme Sovereign every day. We mock Him in many subtle ways, yes, we mock Him still.
I pay my deepest respect and tribute to Her Majesty, our queen for 70 years for her extraordinary service to humanity. But even more so, for keeping her kingdom and monarch still under the lordship of the Christian faith through 70 years of modern relativism and strong opposition and mockery of the Christian faith. She was unswerving in her devotion to her Lord, Jesus Christ whom she knew, bequeathed her sovereignty to her. A true defender of the faith. Even in death, she gathered every of the World’s powerful leaders and elite to Westminster Abbey, as they read and sang the Holy Scriptures about Jesus, to themselves. Now they are all without excuse that they never heard about Jesus. This is indeed extraordinary.
May the spirit of Her Majesty, the soul of the departed Queen Elizabeth II, our sovereign lady rest peacefully in the nail-pierced hands of The True Majesty – her LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. She who believed in Jesus, the true supreme Sovereign, will live though she dies.
By Joseph Asare Jnr
Even in death, she gathered every of the World’s powerful leaders and elite to Westminster Abbey, as they read and sang the Holy Scriptures about Jesus, to themselves. Now they are all without excuse that they never heard about Jesus. This is indeed extraordinary.