The Rightful King

The scriptures referred to are Revelation 1:4b-8 and John 18:33-37.

Monarchy goes all the way back into prehistory. The word monarch comes from the Greek for “one ruler.” What's interesting is that kings historically have had a sacred role as well. Some were seen as gods or descended from gods. They often ruled by Divine Right or the Mandate of Heaven. They had sacrificial duties. The Roman Emperors held the title Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest, and it was not unusual for European kings to have the title Defender of the Faith. Until recently there was no such thing as separation of church and state.

This probably goes back to when we didn't have kings so much as tribal chieftains. The patriarch of the tribe was ruler, judge, general and priest. If you were lucky, your father/chieftain was wise and fair on matters within the clan, as well as a good strategist and fierce battle leader when it came to competing with rival clans for hunting grounds, pasture lands and access to water. As city states arose, and later nations and empires, and the governed included people from different tribes and races, military strength was still important but so was the ability to keep people unified. Leaders found that their inherited role in leading their religion was useful in bringing the people together.

Today it is more common for a leader to have only or mostly secular power. But some leaders don't like that because logically religion is about ultimate values. That relegates the state to second place in terms of people's loyalties. If church and state are one, the state can define those ultimate values. People who call for the abolition of religion don't seem to realize that that would make the state the sole authority on what is moral. That is what happened in Nazi Germany, where most churches fell in line with the government, and in the Soviet Union where religion was outlawed.

Ancient Israel was a special case. At first the Israelites were a loose confederation of tribes, who would come together under a judge to defend themselves. But the people demanded that Samuel give them a king like the other nations. Samuel was upset by this for it represented a rejection of God as their king. God told Samuel to give the people what they wanted but to warn them of the cost of giving that much power to one person. This also set up a rivalry between the religious leaders and the king.

To be sure, King Solomon builds a temple to God on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. And it looks like the kings of Israel and Judah had their own schools of prophets. As we've said in previous sermons the function of most religions is to bless the status quo. Yet many of the prophets whose books we have in the Bible were not royal retainers but were called by God to proclaim his judgment on the evils perpetuated by society and the government. Thus they represent a kind of minority report. The Bible recognizes that just because God allows someone to come to power, it doesn't follow that that leader is always acting on God's behalf.

This Sunday, the last one before Advent, we acknowledge Christ as our King. That means we obey him over and above or at times against any earthly power. There are a number of qualities that Jesus has that makes him superior to any earthly ruler.

Let's start with what Samuel warned would happen. All his causes for alarm boil down to one thing: power corrupts, as Lord Acton put it. We humans are born without power. We are the most helpless infants in practically the entire animal kingdom. Even blind kittens can crawl and find a teat shortly after birth. Many animals can stand within minutes of birth. Our offspring take longer to reach adulthood than any other animal. So we all experience powerlessness for the first part of our lives. That makes gaining power or some control over our lives very important. And having power over the lives of others can be very tempting. It is hard to resist taking full advantage of that to help oneself and one's loved ones. Autocrats always use their power to enrich themselves, their family and friends and to put themselves above the law.

Jesus has no such temptation. As God the Son he has all power and no need for more. In fact he has no needs of any kind. He doesn't even need us. He involves us in his plans because he loves us, the way a parent gives a task to a child who wants to help with dinner or with building something. He could do it himself but to satisfy the child's desire to participate and to help them learn skills needed at maturity, he gives them a role.

Jesus is not swayed by bribes, either, not even in the form of “Do this and I will go to church for the rest of my life.” That doesn't mean that asking him for things in our prayers is futile. Jesus tells us to ask. But his granting a request is not swayed by what we will do for him. Rather it depends on what God decides is good for all.

Those in power rarely think of what is good for all. They think of what is good for those they like or who also have power. For several years Key West has been dithering about where to build the new homeless shelter. And a lot of the problem has been NIMBYs. Nobody wants the shelter in their neighborhood. But I can tell you from experience that a lot of the homeless end up in jail for trespassing, which usually amounts to them being found sleeping in the doorways of businesses, on people's porches and in their backyards. How is that better? For a town whose motto is “One Human Family” we sure treat some of our relatives badly. We want a solution to the problem but we don't want to make sacrifices.

John 3:16 says that God so loved the whole world that he sent his Son to us. Jesus made a big sacrifice to save us. We need to make sacrifices for God as well. When our king, Jesus, says, “Ask and you shall receive” he is talking about what we need, not for everything we desire. (Matthew 7:7-11) As much as he would like to say “Yes,” he, as any wise parent knows, must sometimes say “No” to some of those desires. Or “Not yet” if either we or the time is not ready. And occasionally he says, “I have something different for you.” Because we don't always know what we really need or even desire. C.S. Lewis wanted to be a great poet. He never anticipated that his success would be as a writer of prose about Christianity and a writer of fiction inspired by his rediscovered faith. A lot of people think they know the direction they should go in life, only to be surprised by something unanticipated which turns out to be their real heart's desire.

The wisest of earthly rulers is not totally in control of his desires. Solomon is touted as the wisest king in the Bible, yet his Achilles' heel was the same as his father's: women. The Bible tells us that “He had 700 royal wives and 300 concubines; his wives had a powerful influence over him. When Solomon became old, his wives shifted his allegiance to other gods; he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.” (1 Kings 11:3-4) When you have the power to get what you want, it is hard to restrain yourself. And once you give in to one weakness, it is easy to give into others.

That's not the problem with Jesus. Just as he was laser-focused on his mission, despite the dangers to himself, so he is not diverted by special interests or personal or political considerations to modify his plan for us. Now it has to be said that earthly rulers do reform society sometimes. Lincoln freed the slaves. Teddy Roosevelt broke up monopolies. His cousin Franklin made sure that there was a safety net for the elderly. But even our best leaders are blind to certain evils. Lincoln had a Secretary of War so corrupt that a senator said the man would even steal a red hot stove. Teddy wanted to build the Panama Canal so badly that he organized a revolution in that country and then promptly took control of the new government by giving it a constitution written for America's benefit. During World War 2 Franklin had Japanese Americans put in camps, though not German or Italian Americans.

Jesus requires us to love all people, whether destitute, disabled, or different in race, creed, color or other areas that have nothing to do with the heart. He even commands us to love those who do have something wrong with their hearts in that they hate us. Because God created everyone and calls people from every nation, tongue, race, orientation and political party to become citizens of his kingdom. Jesus did not come only to deal with some people or even good people. As a doctor comes to heal the sick, Jesus came to heal all who are sick of sin and evil, especially in our own lives. (Mark 2:17) And we are all sinners. For us to hate those whose sins are different from our sins makes as much sense as a person with cancer hating a person who has liver disease.

A lot of rulers try to weed out those they feel are not good. Jesus told a parable about that. A farmer wakes one day to find weeds growing among his wheat. His workers want to pull up the weeds now. The farmer stops them. In trying to get the weeds, they will also uproot some of the wheat. (Matthew 13:24-30) In trying to get rid of the people they deem bad, tyrants always kill good people as well. Jesus isn't that kind of king. Besides, unlike the weeds in the parable, bad people can change. That's why Jesus came. Not to destroy bad people but to make them into good people.

Autocratic rulers do not like the truth being told, because they cannot bear to look bad. But David employed many scribes who were tasked with, among other things, chronicling what he did. And since we get a warts and all picture of Israel's beloved king, complete with his adultery with Bathsheba, his murder of her husband, the revolt of his son, and his disqualification to build the temple because of the blood he shed, I think we can say that he was not afraid of the truth. Whereas dictators always try to destroy the free press, lest the truth comes out, Jesus said the truth would set us free. (John 8:32) For instance, we have not one official account of Jesus' life, with all ambiguities edited out but 4 accounts. They agree on the important events, but they vary on certain details,some of which seem to be in conflict and some gospels noticing things the others don't and vice versa. Far from being a sign of falsifying the details, this is precisely the sort of thing cops find when they question multiple witnesses or the reader of history finds when he reads numerous books on the same subject. Unlike fiction, truth can be messy.

And remarkably though the gospels all portray Jesus as divine, they admit he got hungry (Mark 11:12), thirsty (John 19:28), tired (Luke 8:23), angry (Mark 3:5), sad (John 11:35), and even that he felt abandoned by God when on the cross (Matthew 27:46). You'd think the church would not record and preserve those things. Unless they were true. Jesus is not afraid of the truth because, as he said, he is the truth. (John 14:6)

Finally, earthly rulers are quick to use force when they can't get their way otherwise. Sadly, even our country does that. Former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara admitted in 2005 that the August 4, 1964 Gulf of Tonkin attack that was used to justify putting conventional forces into Vietnam never happened. The production facilities and stockpile of weapons of mass destruction used as a pretext to invade Iraq in 2003 were discovered to not have existed past 1991 when they were destroyed in the first Gulf War and its aftermath.

In today's gospel Jesus points out that the fact that his followers are not fighting shows that his kingdom is not from this world. The only blood shed to found his kingdom is his own. The only subjects of this king are those who willingly put themselves under his rule. Our only weapon according to Paul, when he lists the armor of God, is the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) We are armed only with the story of the God of love doing everything he can to save his people, including becoming one of them and dying for them and rising to life again that we may live with and in him. We recruit people for his kingdom not with messages of fear but of hope, not of hate but of love, not of fighting evil with evil but of overcoming evil with good. That is the kind of kingdom whose coming we are preparing for and that is the kind of king we owe our allegiance to. And no one can overrule his command to love God above all and love other people. Jesus the Anointed is King of kings and Lord of lords. Accept no substitutes.