Should Jesus be King?

The scriptures of the day are Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79; Philippians 1:3-11 and Luke 3:1-6.

In the first sermon in this series, I asked at the end whether we need a king. Last week I finished by asking if the absolute power of kings corrupted them, should we use that term of Jesus? The two questions are related and that's what we will be exploring.

Looking at the roles of a king and our need for a king, that is, a single authority to tell us what to do as Christians, is analogous to considering what a car does and why you need a car. But before you buy one, you still have to determine what kind of car you need. The size, features and price must be considered. Jesus encourages us to think about practical things before following him and to “count the cost.” (Luke 14:28-33)

Sometimes when determining what you need, it's best to start by deciding what you don't need. If you are looking at getting a vehicle, you may want 4 wheel drive if you are a lumberjack, or if you work somewhere that has a lot of ice and snow, like Minnesota, but you really don't need that if you are an urban commuter in Brownsville, Texas or the Florida Keys.

So what kind of king don't we need? We don't need a micro-manager. Human rule-makers rarely take into account all the variables that those who must carry out the rules have to deal with. As a nurse, I found that administering literally hundreds of pills to 2 or 3 dozen patients with varying abilities to swallow, and different levels of compliance, and doing it both accurately and in a limited amount of time, means that time management is a much bigger consideration than nursing home administrators realize. It is not helpful when they add tasks or when they specify that certain things be done in ways that assume we operate in an ideal situation. Some patients must have each pill crushed and poured down a feeding tube; some need to have their pills crushed and put in applesauce or ice cream and then they have to be spoon-fed; some patients may have to be hunted down because they might be in their room or in the lounge or in physical therapy. Adding more tasks can mean that the last patient will get their 8 AM meds at noon! Bosses always want quantity, quality and quickness. They don't realize that you can't have all three at the same time.

With Jesus as king, you wouldn't expect that kind of micro-managing to be a problem. Jesus knows what it's like to be human, something which ironically many human leaders seem to forget. Jesus knows what it is to obey God while having to factor in all the demands and limitations of living in time and space, as well as deal with certain political and social situations. So in healing people he used different methods in different situations. For instance in dealing with a deaf and mute man, Jesus explained how he was going to heal him by miming. (Mark 7:32-35) Sometimes he laid hands on people and other times he simply gave the word and healed them at a distance. (Matthew 8:1-13) Jesus did not rigidly stick to one way of healing people. He suited his method to the situation and the person.

And so Jesus' commands are refreshingly lacking in details. This horrifies human rule-makers and so they are always trying to fill in what they see as appalling deficits in our Lord's pronouncements. It is common for certain religious groups to lay down specific rules about how people should dress (or not dress), vote (or not vote), and exactly how certain tasks or rituals must be performed. They do this despite the fact that it rarely works. Because of their use in gambling and fortune-telling, the Christian college I went to forbid us to have traditional playing cards. This did not stop students from violating the spirit of the rule while observing the letter of it by using Rook decks instead.

Another problem is that, however well-intentioned, if the rules are too restrictive, people will come up with work-arounds. Orthodox Jews who interpret the Sabbath rules against work to include things like turning on the light switch often employ a Gentile to do those things for them. The work is nevertheless done and it is paid for by those for whom it is intended to be a spiritual discipline.

In addition, no rule, no matter how specific, can cover all contingencies and extraordinary or unexpected situations. They need to leave room for some discretion on the part of those carrying them out. Jesus had many run-ins with the Pharisees on such matters. Yes, the Ten Commandments forbid working on the Sabbath. But what if your work is healing the sick? (Mark 3:1-5) A righteous man should not let a promiscuous woman kiss him. But what if she were repentant and showing it by washing your feet with her tears and kissing them? (Luke 7:36-50) A man should behave himself in a place of worship. But what if those running the place were letting unscrupulous businesses exploit worshippers by overcharging them? (Matthew 21:12-13) The Pharisees, like all human rule-makers, had gotten so caught up in trying to close all the loopholes that they had forgotten the original intent of God's laws. Jesus said that loving God with all your being and loving your neighbor as you do yourself were the bases for all the other laws. (Matthew 22:36-40) If we come up with rules that harm those two relationships then there is something wrong with those rules or how we are carrying them out.

We also don't need a king who is partial or biased in his judgment. The seeds of destruction are sown whenever some people are either exempt from the rules or unduly favored. At one of the radio stations where I worked, a “super” salesman was hired. Instead of letting him prove himself by starting from scratch, he was immediately given several prime accounts—taken from other successful salesmen. Or rather, saleswomen who were outperforming most of the men. In the end they lost the women due to the sales and general managers' blatant unfairness. And the star salesman proved not to be so super. Had they not shown favoritism they wouldn't have lost so many valuable salespeople nor such a great amount of money. We see the same favoritism shown to popular entertainers and politicians. Folks cut them a lot more slack than they do others.

Jesus is consistent in his judgment. He said that on the last day, many would call him Lord but the only ones he would recognize were those who did his Father's will. In other words, simply identifying yourself as a Christian doesn't count, just like merely protesting your innocence doesn't determine the outcome of a trial. Jesus will look at the evidence. If it doesn't back up your claim that you actually follow him, Jesus will say, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers,” (Matthew 7:21-23)

On the other hand, we don't need a king who is rigid when it comes to those who break the rules, especially those who truly are willing to turn their lives around. Peter rebuked Jesus for saying that he would be executed by the authorities. (Mark 8:31-33) He later denied Jesus three times while our Lord was being tried. (Luke 22:54-62) Jesus forgave him. (John 21:15-19) Thomas could not believe his fellow disciples when they told him they had met the resurrected Christ. Jesus not only forgave him but invited him to feel his wounds. (John 20:24-29) James and John lobbied to be his right hand men, sowing dissention among the Twelve. Jesus forgave them. (Mark 10:35-45) Saul of Tarsus oversaw the stoning of the first deacon, Stephen. Jesus forgave him. (Acts 7:58-8:3; 9:1-6)

If they showed that they could and would change the direction of their lives, the real definition of repentance, Jesus forgave them. But Jesus went beyond that. He even asked forgiveness for his executioners, based on their ignorance of what they were doing. (Luke 23:33-34) Which makes you wonder what Jesus might have said to Judas had he come to the cross rather than deciding to be his own judge, jury and executioner by hanging himself. (Matthew 23:3-5)

We need a king who is fair, who gives us clear rules but lets us work out how to carry them out in specific situations and who forgives those who are willing to turn their lives around and who helps them do so. (Ezekiel 36:26-27) We need someone just and merciful like Jesus to be our king, the person who ultimately calls the shots in our lives.

But our second question still is unanswered. Should anyone be trusted with absolute power? Isn't the concept of a king an inherently bad and corrupted one?

If Jesus were merely human, then, like all other humans, he could not be trusted with such power. But while fully human, he is also fully divine. And you can't tempt or bribe God. What can you offer him that he did not make and could not take back if he wished? Of course, we do try to bribe God. But we are like ants waving crumbs before someone who has prepared a banquet. “Grant this prayer and I swear I will go to church every Sunday from now on.” “Don't let me get in trouble for this and I will be good from now on.” The only thing Jesus wants from us is our love and loyalty and he is wise enough to know when they are being freely and sincerely given and when they are simply attempts to manipulate him.

Corrupt people want power so they can use it for their own benefit. But Jesus' motive is to put back together the world his Father created and which we have shattered through our arrogance, violence, selfishness and foolishness. The world was designed so that everything that is a part of it, including us, meshes and works in harmony with every other part. It is held together by trust and love. Ever wonder why the world seems to fit together almost, but not quite, perfectly? We have put grit in the gears. We have pulled out some parts and tried to use them for our own purposes. We have, each of us, tried to put ourselves at the center of the universe, thereby distorting its design and throwing it out of balance. What sometimes appears to be God moving against us is really him putting things right and putting us back in our proper places. And shouldn't the person leading us be the one person who knows exactly how everything should go together, something no mere human can do?

We need a king and he needs to be Jesus. But this leads us to another question. Jesus has yet to return and in the meantime we live in a world where we already have nations and governments. So in what sense can Jesus be our King, here and now?

That's our topic next week.

First preached on December 6, 2009. It has been revised and updated.