In What Sense Is Jesus Our King?

The scriptures of the day are Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7 and Luke 3:7-18.

I have lived under 13 presidents but I have only seen one in the flesh. Gerald Ford spoke at my college. I know what the others look like, thanks to photos and videos. In the past it was only possible, however, for the average US citizen to see the president's actual face from the term of James K. Polk onwards. Though John Quincy Adams was the earliest ex-president to be photographed, and a daguerreotype of William Henry Harrison was made while he was in office, Polk's was the first presidential photograph to survive. It was taken in 1849. Even so, newspapers didn't start printing photos until 1880. So up until then, most people only knew what their national leader looked like through drawings, paintings, sculptures, and for much of history, through their images on coins.

The reason I bring this up is to answer one objection that some might raise to Jesus being our king: he is not physically present. But not since the era of city states have people been ruled by leaders they all could actually lay their eyes on. Most of us will live and die without ever seeing at least 90% of the presidents, senators, governors and other people who make the rules we obey. And that includes the CEOs of any large corporation we might work for. Aside from brief clips in the news, we primarily know about those whose decisions have a huge impact on us by reading about them and reading their messages to us. And few of us think twice about never meeting them face-to-face.

So the fact that we will probably never, in this life, see Jesus walking down our street is something he shares with all national leaders. But since he has no official capital or legal jurisdiction, in what sense is he our king?

This gets tricky because we all live in nations to which we pledge allegiance. We are bound to obey the various civic officials and laws of this country. So is there room for Jesus as king? And what do we do when his laws clash with those of our earthly country?

This is a problem that arose very early in the history of the church. It is likely that Jesus called himself “the Son of Man” precisely because a more obviously messianic title would have gotten him arrested before his ministry got very far along. And, sure enough, his opponents tried to get him in trouble with the occupying powers. “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” they asked him. The tax in question was the tribute tax, which was essentially acknowledging the inferiority of Judea to the pagan empire. There had been major riots over this tax in the recent past. Jesus knew what they were doing. If he said “No,” he could be denounced to Pilate, the Roman governor. If he said “Yes,” he would lose much popular support, not to mention that of the Zealots, whose slogan was “No king but God.”

Jesus asked to see a coin. He is given one with Tiberius Caesar's image on it. What's interesting is that no one on the temple grounds should have one on him. Jews minted their own copper coins that omitted the image of the deified emperor. To pay Roman taxes they had to use the gold and silver coins that did have Caesar's face on them. However, those coins were not used in the temple to make offerings. That's why moneychangers set up shop there to change the blasphemous Roman coins into the approved Jewish ones. These moneychangers set such unfair exchange rates that Jesus called them thieves. So if those quizzing Jesus were serious in their religious observance, they shouldn't have been able to produce the silver denarius they passed to him.

Jesus asks whose image and inscription, which said, “son of the divine Augustus,” is on the coin. When he is told that they are Caesar's, he replies, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Some think Jesus was avoiding answering the question. But that's to assume that Jesus' admittedly clever response is also empty. But he is saying, among other things, that human government does have authority over certain things.

Despite what the Zealots thought, human government is necessary for keeping order and building and maintaining the common good. Things like the excellent Roman road system and the armies that enforced the Pax Romana, the long period of peace within the empire, were paid for by taxes. It's for this reason that Paul, who was able to travel safely throughout the empire and spread the gospel, wrote in Romans 13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. There is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist have been appointed by God.” God did intend for humans to rule the earth as it says in Genesis 1:28. That we haven't done it well is one reason why he sent his son. Christian anarchy, however, is an oxymoron.

But what if God's commandments contradict the laws of a human government? In Acts 5, we learn that the apostles were thrown into prison for proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord. They had in fact been previously warned not to preach in Jesus' name. So when they were hauled up before the Sanhedrin, the high priest accurately pointed out that they had violated the council's clear orders. To which Peter and the other apostles reply, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

This sounds like a contradiction of what Paul writes but there is a different issue at stake. Paul was talking about the general principle that Christians should be law-abiding in matters of the common good. In the previous chapter of Romans, he said, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.” (Romans 12:18) However, Peter and the apostles were given a specific order that contradicts Jesus' command to preach the gospel to all. Jesus' law supersedes that of human authorities.

There is an analogous situation in our country. Most of the time the laws we obey are local ones—traffic laws, sales tax, signage, etc. But local laws cannot void state laws. Monroe County cannot ignore state laws on health and hygiene in local restaurants. Nor can state laws preempt Federal laws. Florida cannot revive slavery, for instance. If it tried to, the US Supreme Court would find that law unconstitutional.

This is roughly how Jesus functions as our king while we live on earth and are citizens of its nations. There is no Biblical body of traffic laws. Scripture does not tell us what is the right speed limit nor whether it is divinely ordained that we drive on the right or the left. We obey such earthly laws out of Christian love for others. Nobody wants our streets to look like something out of the film Road Warrior. For most of the mundane things that need to be ordered, human laws will do. But God's laws, like the Ten Commandments, and especially the two greatest laws, to love God and love others, take priority in the event of a conflict of real consequence. Such as when Christians decided not to obey the Fugitive Slave Act which required even people in the slave-free northern states to return escaped slaves to their masters in the south. Or when Christians in Nazi-occupied Europe, like Corrie Ten Boom, decided to hide Jews from the authorities. They were obeying Jesus' command to love others as they would themselves

Let's look at what Jesus said when given the coin. We cannot claim that the very principle of taxation is wrong. You need money to organize and run a civilization. But a Christian could discern that a particular tax was immoral if it fell unequally and unfairly on the poor, or if it was used to keep people from voting, as the poll taxes did, or if the tax was enacted to fund an evil action, such as putting people in concentration camps because of their ethnicity, or national origin, or religious beliefs. The Biblical principle of justice would supersede such an evil law. And the Christian who did this would otherwise submit to the justice system. The early Christians did not evade going to prison for acting on their faith. It was part of their witness.

A word of caution on this matter. The church has had a distinctly mixed record when it comes to upholding and defying laws. Christians were the major force in ending slavery in the US and in Britain. But other Christians opposed this, quoting scriptures to buttress what were essentially racist and self-serving arguments. During the Middle Ages, bishops and popes protected Jews from persecution—by other Christians. Throughout history Christians have protected and championed the oppressed—while other Christians have passed laws that oppressed and persecuted the same people. Christians have both opposed wars and started them.

So when trying to discern the Christian position on an essential issue, we need to realize a couple of things. First, we must acknowledge that the laws and situations relating to theocratic ancient Israel may not apply to living in a modern secular country. God's covenant with us through Jesus is not identical to his covenant with the Israelites through Moses. America is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible and cannot be considered the new promised land of God's people. We are like foreigners and exiles in this world, as it says in 1 Peter 2:11.

Secondly, a Christian should honestly ask himself if he is seeking the mind of God and listening to his voice in scripture, or if he is merely seeking God's approval for something he already has in mind and using scripture to justify his own prejudices and positions. Are you being selective in which passages you refer to and ignoring the ones that go against your desires? One clue: if you think God always agrees with you, you are deluding yourself. The only person 100% in sync with God is Jesus. And you are not him.

But what if, after prayer and Bible study and honest self-appraisal, you decide a human law seriously contradicts God's law? How should a Christian honor the law of his divine king when it comes into conflict with a law of human devising? How should we respond?

How we function as citizens of the kingdom of God while living in the kingdoms of this world will be the topic of the last sermon on the last Sunday in Advent.

First preached on December 13, 2009. It has been revised and updated.