Week 47 - We Have No King But Caesar?
“We have no king but Caesar.”…?
Yes, they actually said that. Out loud. You do have to wonder if once they heard themselves say it out loud they stopped for a second and gave pause at what they were saying. Politics is downstream of culture. Many of the laws and legislation that we have now are result of a changing culture. Some of these are certainly laws that we can appreciate and that we can be very thankful for, but many are laws that do very little to encourage the kind of society that allows for the flourishing of humanity. We could spend a great deal of time debating which laws are good and which are not, but we won’t here. Because God’s people are to be a Holy and set apart people, there will naturally always be some tension between the earthly powers and authorities and the people of God. In John 19 we see an example of just how shaky the moral foundation of the State (here, Caesar) can be. When challenged by the mob, the state folds and in this case, evil happens.
N.T. Wright says, “if you dethrone Jesus, you enthrone something or someone else instead.” In John 19, one could argue that the Chief Priests weren’t actually bowing to the state, and that they were just taking advantage of an opportunity to have a problem solved by saying the right thing at the right time. While it’s hard to know exactly what was going on in their hearts in that moment, it’s not hard to see that they were putting an innocent man to death, by the power of the state. So while they may not have carried out the sinful act themselves - they used the power afforded to them by a broken system to their advantage. In order to do that however they had to give away a part of what God had entrusted to them. As it turns out the religious elites of Jesus day were already corrupt and had abandoned the heart of God’s law. This is why Jesus had so much conflict with the Pharisees - because they were supposed to be the ones through whom the people could better know God and what he wants, and instead they actually serve as a barrier. Here they quickly ignore and abandon the law of God in an opportune moment to maintain a threatened power they were never to have in the first place.
While we should be thankful to have many of the freedoms that we have in this wonderful nation, we should also be weary of putting too much of our faith in our government and any political leaders. This was actually something our nations founders realized as well and why we have certain checks and balances to the power that can be had. As Jesus people today, we must remember that ultimately our leader is God. His is not a morality that changes with the seasons. His church should be a place that assists people in coming into relationship with him and that is set apart and Holy. We run the risk of corrupting ourselves when we turn to any earthly power for our hope. Our power comes from the Holy Spirit, our authority comes from God and our Hope comes by grace through faith in Jesus. While many of our civil organizations crumble and churches across our nation struggle, let us not look to the state to satisfy the deepest needs we have. We cannot outsource to the State what the church should be. As Jonathan Sacks says, “The state cannot create strong families or supportive communities. It cannot provide children with stable and responsible parents. It can finance school, but it cannot create inspiring teachers. It cannot generate the work ethic, self-control, and resilience that are vital if individuals are to escape the vicious circle of poverty and unemployment and lead lives of happiness and hope. The state is about power. Families and communities are about people.”
John 19 is hard. But it is not the end. God demonstrates in Jesus that His is a power that no earthly authority can confront.
A prayer: Lord, help us be holy. Help us be like you. Help us change the world by truly believing in the power you have to change the world through your people. Guard us from idolatry and allow our hearts to be fully centered on you.