“Jesus & the Economy of Power”
Pence/CCG December 2004
Lessons from The Halls of Power
Reflections on:"the one who has been born King of the Jews"
Mike Pence
December 26, 2004
Matthew2: 1-12
Read passage
This day after Christmas, the sounds of the season are still ringing in our ears
Silent Night “born is the King of Israel”
And the Little Drummer Boy playing for the “newborn king”
Today I would like to explore this notion of "one..born King of the Jews" and how
From Bethlehem to Calvary, I have come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth as King was misunderstood…even by those closest to him…..and that this misunderstanding set into motion the inevitable events that would lead to Calvary
And perhaps
Still lead many of us to misunderstand the essence of His work today
After 4 years of serving in the Halls of Congress, I have come to develop a much keener sense of what I will call the 'economy of power'…the struggle in civil government for the acquisition, defense and expansion of power
And while one is tempted to say
"Well, things were different in Jesus time"
The Bible says otherwise
Ecc 1: 9-10
"There is nothing new under the sun"
In fact, much of the first half of the Bible is about the godly and (more often) ungodly pursuit of power.
Seen in this light, the term "one born King of the Jews" takes on a much more dramatic and ominous tone…especially to the ruling class at the time of his birth…
Herod the Great felt such trepidation…
And Herod the Great knew something about power
He was Caesar’s hand picked "king" of the Jews and he ruled with ruthlessness
His murderous exploits were legion and after being deceived by the Magi the Bible tells us that
Matt 1: 16-18
"He was furious and gave orders to kills all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.."
(I was in Bethlehem this year)
But he also ruled with a cunning imagination
It was Herod the Great who rebuilt the Temple of Solomon as a means of winning favor and submission of the population of what Rome called Palestine.
Not that this was a decision without risk
History records that when Caesar learned that Herod was rebuilding the Temple he sent the following word:
"if you have not started, don't…if you have started, finish it, and if you do finish it, may the gods help us"
Caesar understood the inspirational power of the famed Temple in the City of David
Herod was a paranoid fool
But what we observe from this first brush between the power of the time and the new King of the Jews is friction, mistrust and a murderous attempt to defend the status quo against this new King at all costs.
By God's great kindness, this tiny family would slip the noose being tightened by the storm troopers surging forth from the palace of Herod in Jerusalem.
Matt 2: 13-15, and 2:19-23
After a few brief years in Egypt, God called his son and faithful earthly parents home to Nazareth, a barren little town which, to this day, sits north of Jerusalem by about 70 miles on a hill top across the valley from the famous Hill of Megiddo, known in the native tongue as Har Mediggo
It is remarkable to consider that the son of God was literally raised in sight of the valley where the last great battle of earth will take place acceding to the Book of Revelations….
(I visited Nazareth this year)
While the Bible breezes through the next 30 years with scant detail, knowing something about how people in politics talk….
I have no doubt that the news of the "one born king of the Jews" echoed through the years, generating hope among the people and suspicion and paranoia among the political and military leaders of the day…..
One can't help but think like the buckboard churches of the 13 colonies in the years before the revolutionary war…..
Little synagogues across the land were filled with hopeful reflections on verses like
Jeremiah 23: 5-6
"The days are coming …when I will raise up…a King who will rein wisely…the Lord our Righteousness"
Isaiah 32:1
"See a king will reign in righteousness …"
Zech 9:9
"See your King comes to you righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey.."
Ps 24:7
"Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.."
Now you know why Herod the Great was afraid
No one in a position of political power ever welcomes the introduction of a new center of political power
And this is what his contemporaries thought and either feared or hoped of the "one born King of the Jews" in Bethlehem….
Everyone that is, except the son of Joseph the Carpenter……
That his contemporaries all thought Jesus was about political power became obvious to me earlier this year, in the city of Jerusalem as I stood in the ruins of the Antonio Fortress, on the north end of the Temple Mount….
Our Jewish guide spoke of the time of Jesus crucifixion in dramatic and practical and rawly political terms
He told us that at the time of the Passover, the Temple Mount (where we had just stood in the rain) would draw over 100,000 able bodied Jewish men
When Herod the Great had rebuilt the Temple, he had constructed the Antonio Fortress (named after Marc Antony) into the north end of the Temple Mount as a garrison for Roman soldiers and a permanent installation and deterrent to Jewish ambitions.
As our guide explained
When word reached the Roman garrison that the itinerant preacher who had been drawing and mesmerizing crowds of thousands in the northern area of Galilee was coming to Jerusalem, to the Temple Mount, during the Passover…. They were undoubtedly thinking danger/ revolution…they must’ve gone to what we would call DEF CON4.
They feared a rebellion
And Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking
Matt 26:55
"Am I leading a rebellion that you have come out with sword and clubs to capture me" (dripping with irony)
The sheer cruel brutality of the Roman guards who we are told in Matt 27:29-30 "put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail King of the Jews!", they said. They spit on him, took the staff and struck him on the head again and again".
(I stood on the stones where this took place just outside the Temple Mount this year)
This brutality by the foot soldiers belies a pent up contempt of a defeated enemy.. and enemy who was seen as a threat..now a threat utterly defeated.
And the religious leaders of the day were no different
They had actually sent a delegation north to Galilee (like political party people sending a delegation to the winner of the New Hampshire primary!)
To ascertain the intentions of this unschooled rabbi of unique persuasive powers.
The Bible tells us in Luke 11: 39-44, 53 "you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside our are full of greed and wickedness"
"when Jesus left there, the Pharisees and teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely.."
Not a ringing endorsement of their continued leadership under the new King!
And lest we be too hard on the military and religious leaders of his day
The Bible tells us that his own friends misunderstood what the "one born King of the Jews" really meant
Mark 9:33-34 they came to Capernaum (where I was this year)
"He asked them, "what were you arguing about on the road?", But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest." (argued about Cabinet appointments in the Jesus Administration!)
Jesus took the occasion to address himself to the subject of leadership, position and power in his realm:
"if anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
Right after Peter was commended by Jesus for declaring (at Caesarea Philippi) "you are the Christ, the son of the living God"
Matt 16:22-23 Jesus rebuked Peter harshly for saying that his death in Jerusalem "never shall happen to you!",
Matt 16: 23 Jesus said "get behind me Satan!" and said "you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men"
Peter had in mind "The things of men"
Power
Position
The lust of the eye and the boastful pride of life
Jesus then gave his own a glimpse of the life to which this King was calling them saying immediately thereafter
Matt 16:24-28…"anyone who would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…the son of man is going to come in his fathers glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.."
So basically All through is life
Everybody
Herod the Great, The Romans, The Religious Leaders and his own friends
Misunderstood what it meant to be the "one born king of the Jews" in Bethlehem
While they all thought some version of political power
Keeping it
Getting it
He was virtually uninterested in political power
John 2:23
"now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men."
Pilate finally asked the question in the final hours before Jesus crucifixion
The question that had animated friend and foe of the 'one born king of the Jews"
Saying John 18:33
"are you the king of the Jews?"
To which Jesus replied in John 18:36
"my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place"
"you are a king then!" said Pilate
Jesus answered, "you are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth"
So he was the one born king of the Jews in Bethlehem
But he wasn't come as the kind of King for which his contemporaries
Feared or hoped for rebellion
As I close I would leave you with the challenge of who is this one born king of the Jews to you?
To me, he is a King uninterested in power but
intensely interested in the INTERSECTION OF COMPASSION AND NEED
rather than a call to worldly power
Jesus said
Matt 11:28
"come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls"
Jesus seemed most engaged when people humbled themselves
knew him for who he was
and opened their need to his boundless compassion and grace
the infirm woman in the crowd.........
the centurion "amazed" him in Capernaum....
John 13..washing the feet
Came not to be served but to serve
Philippians 2:6-11
Consider him….this one born King of the Jews
Who is he to you?
A means to an end
Or
a compassionate, healing, intimate savior and Lord of your life?
On this the first day after Christmas
Let us celebrate the one born king of the Jews
But let us acknowledge our citizenship in that kingdom
by Letting him reign in our hearts
His kingdom come
His will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
this one born my king and yours
this one born king of the Jews
Mike Pence
As Prepared for delivery
December 26, 2004
