Servant King

[Brad Fox]

We Americans have a problem when it comes to the concept of monarchy.  You could say we found our national identity in fighting the British over self-governance.  We’ve done well without a king.  But our national political scene seems to indicate that we have a secret craving for a monarch; or at least someone who can champion our causes and interests.  We like the fact that our president speaks, acts, and dresses like a monarch.  We like that he lives in a special house and has all the trappings of a king:  cars, planes, entourages, state dinners, speeches and so forth.  Everything but a crown.  And of course, we like the fact that we can throw him out of office if we don’t like him. 

I think humans innately want strong leaders.  If they can’t completely look out for themselves, they want the protection and wisdom of someone greater than themselves.  They can also live vicariously through a monarch’s life, always wondering what it would be like to be king.  Truth-be-known, most of us consider ourselves monarchs of our own little part of the world.  We all entertain imaginings about what the planet would look like under our rule.  This can create problems for humans who are fallible and self-centered.  A good king might suffice if he had a pure heart; 308 million self-centered citizen-kings wouldn’t work very well.  But in fact, the later case is what we have.

So the concept of a Savior-King doesn’t resonate very well with post-modern Americans.  The manifest destiny ethic doesn’t need leadership; it needs personal freedoms and rights.  Our forefathers were proud of their self-made image, and I think modern day Americans tend to do the same thing, even though we should know better.  It only takes a brief trip out of the country to see what other people have to deal with in their lives as a result of where they were born. 

Professor Jared Diamond of UCLA wrote a fascinating book entitled Guns, Germs and Steel in which he researches the origins of societies, and how technology, biology, geography and ultimately, agriculture, have drastically affected how societies have developed.  Without going into detail, his premise is essentially that favorable geography, working together with climate, has given some societies a remarkable advantage over others in building knowledge and meeting health challenges.  America was blessed in that it was an essentially “clean slate” with gobs of natural resources there for the taking.  The climate and soils were very favorable for agriculture.  And its isolation from the European monarchies and wars helped it attract diverse and capable human talent. 

It’s into this mix of self-realization that God enters our “world” and says that putting ourselves second and Him first is the only true path to joy.  It’s a hard sell.  Americans don’t need to be dependent on God, because they’re independent in their self-controlled lives.  In fact, the concept of an all-powerful God who rules the universe (and us!) is downright irritating!  Who appointed Him God?

But our God is the most unusual king we will ever know. 

I think part of the problem we have believing in or obeying God, is that He doesn’t act like a typical king; and we mistake that for weakness, inattention, or absence.  We expect kings to be authoritarian, even dictatorial and arbitrary.  Definitely active.  We anticipate rapid and severe punishment from them if we don’t comply with their wishes.  We assume they will lord it over us and make unreasonable demands.  We definitely don’t expect them to concern themselves with our best interests; in fact, we totally expect them to ignore us and tend mainly to their own selfish concerns.

The God I know isn’t like that.

God is very clear in scripture that He indeed has incredible power, but He appears to choose to act as a behind the scenes “commando” rather than an imperious, in-your-face king.  The motivation for this approach to people is His mercy, grace and love.  God is eternal and totally self-sufficient; totally self-confident.  He doesn’t need us for His own existence.  However, He chose to create us because of His all-encompassing desire to love.  He needed to have recipients for His love, and hopefully, those recepients would respond in kind.  Everything began with this love.  He has also always been and will continue to be merciful.  Even though our tendency to wrongdoing could have kept us forever separated from His holy self, He chose to make a way for us to have access to Him.  And His grace continues to invite us into his work to save all peoples.

The God-king I know:

·         is not too proud to wash feet as an object lesson for us to live by

·         reveres women in a patriarchal society

·         lifts up children as faith models for us all

·         cries with people who mourn

·         makes leaders out of illiterate, uninspired workers

·         touches contagious lepers

·         doesn’t hold sins against people but in fact sacrifices Himself to remove their sin

·         wants to help people move beyond guilt to happy, successful lives

·         is always interruptible with our needs, no matter how small

·         patiently lets people reject Him but never gives up on trying to win their love

·         identifies with outcastes and underdogs

·         protects people who have no protector

·         will not enforce His will on others even though He knows what’s best for them

·         is the best listener imaginable

·         has an amazing ability to know the hidden secrets of people’s hearts

·         is a profound teacher who can package lessons in incredible visual packets of information that can be unpacked and personally applied

·         is a sincere friend who inspires the best and forgets the worst

·         seeks to build others up at his own expense

·         is an astonishing model of joyful living

·         has out-of-this-world authority and wisdom

·         has uncanny understanding of human nature

·         has awesome control over the universe but chooses not to show off His power

·         gives people what they desperately need, but don’t deserve

These characteristics are so unlike any king I’ve ever heard of.  This is a king that leads by serving.  A king who puts others first.  He’s so self-confident that He has no reason to boast or impress.  In one of the great unnoticed lines of the Bible, a great king in his own right, king David of Israel, proclaims to God:  “You stoop down to make me great.” 

Imagine!  The God-King who creates all forms of matter and energy in the universe, who creates time, universal forces like gravity and magnetism, DNA, all the earth life forms and webs, galaxies, and sustains them all – He stoops down to make humans great! 

This is a God-King who takes other people’s punishment so that they can have a fulfilling relationship with Him.  So that they can experience joy to its fullest.  We celebrate His birthday each year; everyone gets presents except Him!  How much more can a king do for his subjects? 

People do evil or hurtful things in His name, and He gets the blame!  Why do people hate Him so much?  Perhaps the perspective of a non-Christian can be revealing.  Mohandas Gandhi, the first prime minister of India and its founding father once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  So perhaps people who don’t know Christ (God) judge Him unfairly because of the people who represent him.  Ironic, isn’t it?  The one perfect king who has ever lived and ruled, is defamed by the very people He serves and calls his own.  But the King believes strongly in giving people the freedom to reject Him, or love Him.  It’s the price He pays for authentic love.