Even the king needs Jesus ...

Do you imagine Donald Trump is a Christian, that is, a follower of Christ?  How about George Bush (jr)?  How about Bill Clinton or Barak Obama?  I cannot remember a President of the United States who did not also claim to be a Christian.   Most all of our elected leadership makes this same claim.  I should imagine even the kings and queens of Europe would follow suit.  But then, do we remember these heads of state for their terms in office, or for the lives of Christianity they have lived in front and behind the camera’s lens.  Scrutiny may well be the enemy of Christianity.  Examine the life of anyone, and you are sure to find sin as much or a bit less than you find grace.  We try to be quiet about our sin, but it plagues us nonetheless.  And when our sin hits the public’s eye, we are often remembered more for our errors than our love.  To be honest, sometimes those errors are awfully large.

It would seem that while people rule, their lives are defined more by what they do to/for/against their nation, than what they do in the name of love.  We don’t elect them to love.  We elect them to lead.  So perhaps they are only doing what we expect them to do, at least if they ever want our votes again.  It seems to be different once a President has left office.  When Jimmy Carter was in office, I believed our nation had never seen such an ineffective President to that day, nor would I ever see one after that.  Boy was I wrong.  I had no idea what would come.  Or how bad, bad could be.  But as Jimmy Carter has left office, I find he has defined the meaning of Christian in actions and deeds.  Jesus may have no better representative in the “ruling class” than Jimmy Carter has been for now decades.  And the best news, is that both George Bush and Bill Clinton appear to be following in Jimmy Carter’s footsteps.  Though they may not have done as much yet, they were able to put aside deep political differences and still begin important works of charity throughout the world.  It gives me hope that maybe someday Barak and Donald might even join this trend. 

It strikes me that Americans complain a lot about rich people.  We, the poor, and middle class, are not happy that those with great wealth (or fame), seem to live by a different set of rules than we do.  We debate constantly how much tax the rich should pay.  But our complaints deepen even more when we see justice applied between rich and poor.  Money buys lawyers, influences legislation, and failing both purchases jets to fly to non-extradition countries where great mansions can still be procured as if putting coins in a vending machine.  It just does not seem fair.  Why should so few people have so much influence where it comes to how we live, how we are entertained, and what we consume.   We, the consuming public, made up of mostly the poor and few middle class, are bombarded routinely by an advertising methodology designed to tell us what we want, where we can go to get it, and why getting it is a good decision.  Seldom will what we consume in entertainment ask us to ponder the differences between rich and poor, and whether this is fair or not, just keep consuming no matter what.  The ruling class then, has much influence over not only how they live, but how we think about it.  But sometimes, what the masses think on their own, has the reverse effect.

When even though no marketing campaign was ever developed, and no edict was ever issued, the great masses begin to develop similar thinking on any topic; the rich will stop to take notice.  How the world of believers thinks about Jesus Christ is just such a topic.  I have no idea if the we the collective body of Christ had any influence on Jimmy Carter, or George Bush and Bill Clinton – but it is possible.  It is possible that people who have long professed Christianity begin to take notice of their own lives, compared with Jesus, and how wide that difference is, particularly when you are rich, or in charge.  Nobody wants to be left out of heaven, even less enjoy the idea of hell of any kind.  So perhaps for fear, if nothing else, what a great mass of people believe might be enough to crack the ivory tower of power and penetrate how even the most “elite” begin to think as well.  And in those rare moments of self-reflection, sometimes even the king realizes he needs Jesus perhaps most of all.

Luke relays this phenomenon of reverse influence on one of the most powerful characters who lived in the time of Christ.  Herod the tetrarch of the Galilean area had already been influenced by the popularity of John the Baptist, and in general by the Jewish faith.  He had not performed well from either perspective.   His great sin in killing John haunted him.  And he was not at all popular with Jewish leaders, living in the shadow of his father who killed all the young male children in Bethlehem just to keep away any Messianic challengers to his own authority.  After Herod the Great had died his kingdom was split three ways for each of his sons, but none of them were able to control the people as well as their father who built great temples for them.  Each of the sons were too greedy for those kind of expenditures.  They lived lavishly and under far more Roman scrutiny which invited far more Roman troops into the province to savagely put down even the notions of rebellion by blood and crosses.  This made the puppet leaders even less popular with the people.  But while the best Herod (the son) might have mustered was infamy.  The fame of Jesus was growing wildly, with no support from the Temple leadership.  It was a grass roots movement that had a life of its own in spite of the Temple.

Luke picks up in chapter nine of his gospel letter to Theophilus beginning in verse 1 saying … “Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. [verse 2]  And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.”  The fame of Jesus was already widespread, but by gathering His disciples and sending them out with the same kind of power to heal across entirely different areas of the countryside, the fame of Jesus exploded.  By giving his disciples power over demonic possession, not even Satan could stand against the progress of the gospel message of Jesus.  This was unheard of.  No prophet before in Jewish history had ever been able to deputize disciples with the same relationship with God they had.  That generally took a lifetime to accomplish like Elijah and Elisha.  Not ten minutes like Jesus and His disciples.  The difference was the Jesus was way more than any mere prophet or good man, he was the Son of the Most High God, as even the demons recognized.

Luke continues in verse 3 saying … “And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. [verse 4]  And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.”  Jesus again enforces the ideas of total dependence upon God for everything.  The disciples were to take nothing with them on their journeys.  No supplies of any kind, not even extra clothing or walking staffs.  No money at all.  No food at all.  They were to get what they needed from the charity of others.  The very roof over their heads was to be provided by the charity of others.  People open to hearing the message of Jesus Christ and his gospel would be moved by a spirit of Love the likes of which had never been seen in Israel up to that point.  Keep in mind these were the worst living conditions the Jewish nation had ever faced under Roman oppression.  They were poor, dirt poor.  Yet they shared what they had to give to the apostles of Jesus, to enable them to share the messages of Jesus with them while they tarried in any given town or village.

But the name of Jesus Christ was not popular with everyone.  And decidedly not popular with Jewish religious leadership.  The Sadducees hated Jesus because their own ideas of no resurrection were blown away in the examples Jesus had already conducted of them with those He raised from the dead.  The Pharisees and Scribes hated Jesus because He knew the scriptures better than they did, and understood them far better.  They were jealous and wanted a control over the people that only Jesus was ever intended to have within church walls.  Jesus knew that sewing the seed of the gospel was not always to be in fertile loving ground, some would encounter stone like resistance, with hearts to match.  So Jesus offered counsel on what to do when the disciples encountered such resistance as Luke continues in verse 5 saying … “And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. [verse 6]  And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.”

You will notice that even in the most extreme resistance to His disciples, Jesus offers a symbolic gesture intended to prick the conscience of the wicked long after they have left the town.  Shaking the dust off their feet when they leave was meant to show these resisters that what they did was significant and needed to be undone.  It was NOT a permanent condemnation.  It was a PRESENT gesture to show the seriousness of rejecting Jesus at any time in our lives.  It could be undone by simply pursuing the gospel, seeking it out, to find it, and accept it back into our hearts.  But when we reject what the Lord sends, we sometimes need to seek for it later to find it ourselves.  Not every opportunity may pass by again after it departs.  And letting an opportunity depart is not trivial, it is serious.  But notice too the back half of those texts, the disciples went out across the countryside and had great success in their mission to point others to Jesus Christ the true Messiah, and our true savior.

Herod could no longer sit in his palace and avoid the news of Jesus Christ.  It was everywhere.  Along with the stories of great miracles up to the resurrection of the dead.  Herod was no Sadducee.  He believed the dead could come back, and perhaps this was exactly that, perhaps this was Elijah.  Or worse, perhaps this was John the Baptist back to haunt him in person.  Herod had never met Jesus, and his fear would drive him to know what kind of supernatural phenomenon he was facing.  Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead; [verse 8]  And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. [verse 9] And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.”  If this was John back from the dead, the terror in Herod would know no end.  Herod had never repented fully, nor had he changed how he was living with his brother’s wife.

So the king decided he needed to see and meet Jesus for himself.  And that is how it begins.  No matter the reason behind it, no matter how misplaced his thinking, the first step in our salvation always begins by deciding we need to meet Jesus for ourselves.  For even the king needs Jesus.  You will note our doctrines are often completely wrong when our journey begins, as you might expect “before” we really meet Jesus.  The heart of Herod the king was not full of love yet.  A heart full of love would not even be possible until after you met Jesus, not before it.  Being in harmony with the Law of God does not happen because we will it to be so.  We do not even understand obedience properly without the transformation Jesus brings to our hearts of stone, turning them into hearts of flesh, moved by the plight and needs of others.  But an encounter with Jesus does start the process for those who are willing.  And a second step cannot happen until a first step is taken. 

I do not know what first moved the heart of Jimmy Carter after his presidency.  His wife was long rumored to have engaged a Satanist witch for advice even in the Whitehouse (though this was only rumor, never proven).  But despite his surroundings and perhaps history, his life of service began.  It has been a life of inconvenience to wealth and ease, but a life of giving to those who needed his gift.  Carter is no saint, far from it.  But the king decided he needed Jesus and what transpires next could easily look like this.  I don’t know if the charitable acts of George Bush and Bill Clinton stem from guilty conscious’ over what transpired during their elected rule - or whether each of them independently encountered Jesus and have been moved to give because they could do no other.  And I do not know if the hearts of Obama and Trump will ever walk this same road at some later date.  What I am certain of, is that Jesus loves each of them like His very sons they all are.  To that end, the salvation of even kings and presidents, is as high on the mind of Christ, as it is for each person torn down and lost in the gutter of our cities this morning.  His love for us is equal no matter who we are. 

I would hope our churches as the body of Christ can develop ministries for the rich and powerful just as we develop ministries for those in greatest need on the streets.  Ministries not intended to extract money from those who have it; but to insert love into all who need it.  Those on the street can easily see their needs.  But those in the ivory tower have even greater needs, and see that need far less often.  Let us bring the kings and presidents our love, as we would the one in the gutter who needs us now.  If we are to love like Jesus, we must see all mankind as Jesus does, and let our preconceptions of social standing go extinct in our hearts forever.  Our homeless need us, and so do our leaders.