EASTER: April 11 2020
TEXT: Romans 13: 1-7
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; 4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. †
Frustrated by Division
In America, year of polarization and politicization, even the coronavirus reveals our divisions. The mainstream media immediately lay blame on the closest politician of the opposing party. Let’s remember: the days of nonpartisan journalism are long gone.
Do we dare entertain the thought that this present pandemic might have a silver lining of drawing us together into unity against a common threat? I expect people will lean toward the desire of their heart. If people want unity, we’ll have unity. If they prefer division, we’ll remain in division.
I prefer unity and long for America to come together in love and brotherhood. One of Jesus’ disciples felt the burden of a divided Israel—and he, too, was upset by the division—so I’m going to talk about Judas.
I’m takin a few liberties with my portrait, but they are not unreasonable liberties. In fact, I draw them from the text and from what we know about the world in Jesus’ time. I suggest we should think of Judas as a true believer--one who truly believed that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God to redeem and unite Israel—the one to usher in the kingdom of God.
It makes perfect sense that Judas was one who loved and believed in Jesus. The gospel writers never fail to remind us that Judas is Jesus’ betrayer, but before the betrayal, he was just one of the gang. A little bit of an outsider, perhaps, because he was the only one of the twelve who came from Judea—down south, unlike the rest of them from Galilee—Judas may have come out of Jerusalem itself. So it’s like having a New Yorker—a thorough-going urbanite—among the rest of the guys from Bozeman, Montana. Judas probably didn’t even know how to fish!
Where did he really go wrong? I propose his chief shortcoming was that he believed in the government, by which I mean the Jerusalem Temple Establishment, and the Sanhedrin, making up the center of the holy Jewish leadership, which had been idolatry-free for 400 years. I think Judas believed Jesus was the Messiah and didn’t doubt that Jesus would succeed in his messianic mission.
But Israel was divided, and I think Judas must have been frustrated by this division. On the one hand, you have Jerusalem—the capital and center of Jewish life and authority; on the other hand, you have the Jewish people, the population, common folk spread out across the middle-eastern world. Of course Judas—being a New Yorker—considered Manhattan the absolute center of the known world. But most of the Jewish people, while honoring the Temple and respecting the leadership, lived with a great deal of disconnect. They likely felt that their common life had just become far too expensive. They saw excesses in the lifestyles of the Sadducees and ruling class, and probably felt that they had been sold out to Rome. Taxes and Temple tithes were ruining them.
The people followed John the Baptist as a man of God, and now followed Jesus in enormous numbers. The division between the Temple Establishment and Jesus, the man of the people, couldn’t have been sharper. And I think it drove Judas nuts.
Judas trusted the government, believed they were godly and God-fearing. I imagine him wanting to do everything he could to bring everyone together on the page, but every time Jesus taught in the temple—with the people and the leaders listening together—it always seemed that the division just stayed set in stone.
Judas thinks: “If only we could broker a meeting, I know these Jerusalem leaders would see that Jesus is the Messiah, the right one, the Man of God we have all been waiting for!”
Every day in the temple, they have to save face. If only we could set up a private meeting—just Jesus and a few of the key Sanhedrin leaders—I know they too would see what I—what we—have seen: that Jesus is the promised one, the Messiah of God.
And so he does it. Judas arranges a meeting with the best of intentions and the highest of hopes. He envisions them coming together, and Israel being whole and united—at least with a few key leaders on board, the scales would begin to tip, and we wouldn’t have this angry division between the people and the government.
So Judas says, “Let’s meet in Gethsemane—late—it will be peaceful and there won’t be crowds around to agitate all this win/lose attitude.”
So Judas sets up the rendezvous, and during Passover Jesus tells him to go get the meeting done, so he goes to lead the group from the Temple. Rather than two or three leaders, there’s a small army. “Just our security force,” says one of the leaders, “We really can’t just go walking around in public without some protection.” Judas nods.
They come up Gethsemane in the night, and Judas’ heart is warmed by the possibilities. He sees his dream—the dream of all Jerusalem and Jews everywhere—about to come true. Here would be an historic meeting between Jesus—the true Messiah/anointed one of God—and the Jewish leadership. He’d be able to proudly say, “It all started right here!”
Imagine his excitement at the approach, at the historical introduction. Judas is so pleased with himself—so convinced that he is doing something great and historical for Israel—that he goes up to Jesus and greets him with a brotherly kiss.
I believe that kiss was genuine from Judas. I think he loved Jesus and held true hope in his heart for Jesus’ move into power. I’m sure he considered that God had put this idea in his head so that this crippling division could be overcome. You might say that Judas felt like he was needed to help complete the plan.
His kiss on Jesus’ cheek is full of loyalty and genuine affection, but Jesus says, “Judas, your kiss betrays me.”
And then, we see the shock and horror on Judas’ face as the Jewish leaders cry, “Seize him!” It now dawns on Judas that he’s been duped. Jesus is led off as a criminal. The government got their man, and Judas was made the greatest fool in history for having trusted in them. What Judas thought was to be a great beginning was in fact the end of him.
Zealots
I think Judas’ chief flaw was simply that of trying to force God’s hand. He wanted Jesus to be known and respected, but felt that God—and Jesus—needed a little push in the right direction. While nobody today wants to be thought of as being “Judas-like,” this same instinct is alive and well throughout Christianity. There are people who think—albeit subtly—that God needs a little help from us in order to get the job done.
In Jesus’ day, they were called Zealots. Zealots were those who sought to incite the common folks to revolution against the occupying powers of Rome. They were the radicals, the revolutionaries of their day. The word zealot derives from a word meaning jealous or envious, but figuratively applies to people who feel very strongly about something—people who are driven in the cause of their choice.
Zealots are political activists who feel their cause or perspective ought to replace the problematic status quo. They have a better way, and they will make no compromises in getting their agenda advanced and established. They are dedicated—very dedicated—to their way, and history is replete with stories of holy wars and revolutions waged by such zeal.
The Barna Group—the world’s most sophisticated, Christian pollster—found that 52% of American Christians believe that the phrase, “God helps them who help themselves,” appears in the Bible. Well, guess what? Not only does it not appear in Scripture, but the very idea is antithetical to what Scripture consistently teaches and preaches.
“Helping ourselves,” to what we want, or what we think is right, is more often the cause of catastrophe than righteousness. The road to Hell is well-paved with such good intentions. The problem with zealots and zealotry is the same thing that was wrong with Judas: people trust themselves and their own action more than the action of God. Patience, temperance, and humility are condemned as weakness or inaction, rather than touted as eternal virtues worthy of all people of faith.
Roman Dogs
It’s not like the Roman Christians didn’t have an easy target. Nero was not a good human being, let alone a half-decent leader. Here’s a short list:
1. He poisoned Britannicus, son of Emperor Claudius and rightful heir to the throne.
2. He had his mother killed. She was the ultimate “stage mother” and pushed Nero up the ladder into power until he could stand it no more and offed her.
3. He set a fire because he wanted to build his own palace on a certain hill in Rome. He fiddled while Rome burned, and later blamed the Christians for the fire.
4. In John’s Revelation, the mark of the beast spells out his name (616, not 666).
Remember also that the Jews referred to the Gentiles as dogs. Not the good kind—like mine—but low, base creatures with no more morals than animals. How easy it would have been to justify organizing the people of faith—Jews and Christians together—against this horrible emperor! But Paul says no.
Paul allows no revolutionary spirit and discourages any attempts to overthrow the government—even an evil government—because Paul knows that God is provident and in charge of all things.
We are wrong to think of governments and leaders as completely Godless, for all who live and move in God’s world are under His watch and care. That includes Nero, Paul reminds us, and even tells us that God uses Nero to keep Rome well-ordered.
“Instituted by God” says Paul.
Zealots refuse to play with a whole deck. Most of us know that a deck is made up of 52 cards. That makes for a lot of complexity. The odds of shuffling a random deck of cards into order—like when they’re first pulled from the box—is estimated at 1 in 1068. There are zealots today who seem to have no more than 3 or 4 cards in their entire deck: Racism! Sexism! Homophobia! Xenophobia! They are on both sides, both extremes, of the political spectrum, but their m.o. is the same: oversimplification. Rather than acknowledge the essential complexity of the world, they dumb it down to a manageable level and then stay very upset about it.
But the real trouble with zealots is that they may actually enjoy hating the powers that be. Now, we all may have a tough time being good sports when our preferred political party is out of power, but there is no Christian justification for hating those whom God has allowed to lead. No, God demands the opposite tack. We are to love our enemies and make love our way of life. We are to seek humility, patience, and service—and not to think of these as weakness, but strength.
Bottom line: we have to trust in God and His triumphs must be sufficient for us. Even Nero did some good things. As bad as he was, he also has a list of wins:
•He reduced the people’s taxes
•He brought fun: regular public games, contests, and feasts
•He increased powers for the senate
•He won the war against the Parthians
•He rebuilt—and largely paid for—Rome’s rebuilding.
Lordship is Christ’s
I want us to be clear on Paul’s teaching. While he makes clear that the rebellious and revolutionary spirit is out of bounds for Christians, he in no way encourages what we can call legitimism—the idea that the present government is either good or godly. There is no truly legitimate government other than the Lordship of Christ in His coming kingdom. All earthly governments are fallen. So legitimism, like revolt, is out.
We do not have to trust the government, but we do have to cooperate.
The reason is that all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the triumph of Easter. Jesus is raised from death, proving that death is not the final word in the cosmos. Authority belongs to our God, and so we can endure and tolerate the lesser authorities of this world without taking them too terribly seriously.
Jesus is risen, and that throws the world on its ear and everything in it into a new perspective. Christ matters. Christ matters so much that the biggest things in our world are small by comparison.
Easter is the triumph of God over death, decay, and Hell. Praise God; He is risen! †