Sermon manuscript:
Today I’d like to speak about how we, as Christians, are to
act towards the authorities that have been placed over us. Our Gospel reading
today affords us that opportunity because Jesus is teaching the Pharisees how
they should deal with Herod. This is applicable also to us, even though our
authorities are quite different than Herod.
Before we get into that, however, let’s say a little bit
about these Pharisees. Pharisees were Jews who were especially committed to the
idea of being the people of God. They were very serious about their Judaism. They
were a reform movement. They wanted people to change for the better. Changing
for the better meant paying more attention to the Bible. That’s all well and
good. Changing for the better also meant paying attention to all the
commentators on the Bible. That was not always as good. The commentators
sometimes went above and beyond what the Bible said. This brought the Pharisees
into conflict with Jesus.
For example, God commanded the Old Testament believers to do
no work on Saturday. God never intended that all activity without exception
should cease. The Pharisees didn’t want to break this commandment, though, so
they added some prohibitions to make sure they didn’t. When Jesus or his
disciples didn’t follow these man-made rules, it made the Pharisees very upset.
Some concluded that despite whatever else Jesus might say or do, he must be
evil.
The Pharisees are a mixed bag, so to speak. It was good that
they wanted to be very serious about the Bible. Through their devotion to the
Bible many of them were very serious about the Lord God. Others were more
devoted to sounding smart, attaining a high position in the church, and bossing
everyone else around. At best the Pharisees were suspicious of Jesus because he
didn’t accept all their man-made rules. At worst they regarded him as an agent
of Satan.
Therefore I’m not sure what to make of the advice they give
to Jesus at the beginning of our Gospel reading. They say to Jesus, “You better go away and
never come back because Herod, the ruler of Galilee, wants to kill you.” Do
they care for Jesus’s safety? Or do they want him just to go away? In a way
Jesus and the Pharisees are on the same side as compared to Herod. Jesus and
the Pharisees are serious about God’s Word and living faithfully. Herod lived
for pleasure. Whatever the Pharisee’s motives might have been, Jesus’s response
is remarkable.
The Pharisees had said to Jesus, “You better go away and
never come back because Herod wants to kill you.” Jesus responded with some
advice of his own: “You better go and tell that fox, Herod, that I’m busy.
I’m going to be driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow and on
the third day I will reach my goal, on so on.”
Jesus could have just told the Pharisees that he wasn’t
worried about Herod. He’d be fine. Instead he returns their imperative with an
imperative of his own. They said, “You better go away and never come back.”
Jesus said, “You better go and tell Herod what I’m doing.” If the Pharisees
went and told Herod about Jesus, and if Herod really did want to kill Jesus,
then Herod would put a target not only on Jesus’s back, but also on these
Pharisees. If the Pharisees went to talk to Herod they might be killed, or, at
the very least, they would be inviting trouble upon themselves.
Here we should talk about something that is quite important
and quite clear in the New Testament: How we should relate to those in
authority over us. How should we act towards those placed over us, like Herod
was placed over the people who lived in Galilee? Jesus and the apostles teach
us two things. On the one hand we are to submit to whoever the authorities
might be. On the other hand we are boldly to testify the truth. We are to
confess Jesus and his saving deeds, just as Jesus was urging these Pharisees to
do with Herod. Whether the Herods of this world then would like to chop off our
heads like Herod did to John the Baptist—so be it. We Christians are not living
for pleasure and worldly gain. We’re strangers here. Heaven is our home.
Let’s talk some more about these two things that Christians
are taught to do. We’ll begin with how we are to submit to whoever the
authorities might be. The fourth commandment says that we are to honor our father
and our mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do
not despise or anger our parents and other authorities. The obedience that we
are to have towards our father and our mother is to extend also to those placed
in authority in the other realms of life besides the family. We are to honor
the authorities placed over us in school, at work, or in government.
Paul says in Romans 13: “Everyone must submit to the
governing authorities. This is because no authority exists except by God, and
the authorities that do exist have been established by God.” Paul teaches
us something very important here. Whoever it is that has attained authority has
done so by God putting them there. God does not just put the good rulers into
place. He also puts the bad rulers into place, quite likely as punishment for
our sins.
For example, Herod was not a good man, neither was Herod’s
father, Herod the great. Herod of Galilee chopped off John the Baptist’s head.
Herod the great, his father, sent troops to murder the baby boys of Bethlehem,
hoping to kill the baby Jesus before he could grow up and become a threat.
Regardless of all this evil, by the connections that Herod and his family had
with Rome, they were the rulers in this area. God is the one who put them
there. God can also take them out. But it’s not up to us to do that. Jesus does
not say to the Pharisees: “You better go and assassinate Herod.” He says, “You
better go and testify to me.”
Let us also take note of what Jesus says to Pontius Pilate.
Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of that region. The Jews grudgingly
brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate because they could no longer execute
whomever they wished. They needed the Roman governor’s approval for that. At
one point during Pilate’s questioning of Jesus, Jesus did not answer. Pilate
responded: “Are you not talking to me? Don’t you know that I have the
authority to release you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered (and this is
where I’d like to pay close attention): “You would have no authority over me
at all if it had not been given to you from above.”
Jesus does not deny that Pilate has authority. Jesus does
not say, “You are a wicked man so I am not bound to you.” Jesus does not seek
to overthrow the government. Jesus also informs Pilate that his authority is
not just his own. This is probably the way that Pilate felt about his position.
He probably thought that he was his own man, he had made his own way, all that
he had was because of him and his actions. But Jesus says that the authority Pilate
has was given to him “from above,” that is, “from God.” Pilate is not
God. He doesn’t have this authority of himself or because of himself. God gave
him this authority and therefore Pilate is answerable to God for how he uses
that authority.
There is more that we could say about this. There are other
important passages that we could look at. We’ve established, though, that we
are to submit to whoever the authorities might be, because God is the one who
has put them there. If God wants to remove or replace someone, he can do that
as easily as simply ending their life.
The second thing that we are taught by Jesus and the
apostles, which is likewise crystal clear, is that we are to speak the truth
and to testify to Jesus.
We see this also with the example of Jesus before Pilate.
Jesus did not beg Pilate to save his life. He did not submit to Pilate in any
way where he would give up the truth. Jesus could have very easily gotten out
of trouble if only he would have said, “I am not a king.” That’s the charge that
is placed at the top of his cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.”
Pilate would have let him go if only he would have submitted to Pilate and the
Caesar—if he would have let them determine what was true and not true.
But submitting to the authorities who are governing has
limits. We must submit to them when it comes to the things of this world. We
have to pay our taxes and obey the laws. However, if the government begins to
want to teach what is right and wrong, if it wants to teach things that are
contrary to what God teaches, if the government wants to stop the proclamation
of the Gospel, then Christians must not submit on pains of losing their
salvation. Governments can rule our bodies, our earthly life. They absolutely
cannot rule our souls. No man and no created thing is to rule our souls. Our
souls are to be ruled by God alone, by the Holy Spirit alone. We can testify
before Pilate or before Herod or before the supreme ruler of the earth what God
has taught us.
In fact, not only can
we testify, but we are to be aggressive with our testimony. Peter and John were
once commanded by the authorities in Jerusalem to quit preaching that Jesus is
the Christ. Peter and John said that they would not do that. They had to obey
God rather than men. When Peter and John didn’t quit with their testifying, the
Jerusalem authorities beat them to a pulp. What did Peter and John do then?
They rejoiced that they had been counted worthy of suffering for the Name of
Jesus. Peter and John didn’t keep their Christianity secret so as to avoid
being punished.
You see the same thing with Jesus in our Gospel reading
today. The Pharisees tell Jesus that he should flee. Jesus tells them that they
should testify before that murderous Herod. Not only can we testify to the
truth and to the Gospel of Jesus before those in high places, we must testify
regardless of the consequences. If we suffer on account of that, then we should
rejoice like Peter and John. If we should die on account of that testimony,
then we can hear those precious words spoken by God himself: “Well done, my
good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your master.”
By nature we cannot like either of these two things that
Jesus and the apostles teach us. By nature we do not want to submit to the
authorities who are governing. We don’t want to acknowledge that God is the one
who has put them in that position for the time being. This is similar and this
is related to the way that we don’t like submitting to our father and our
mother. It’s fine if mom and dad want the same things I want, but if they tell
us to do something we don’t like, then we are thoroughly annoyed. The same
thing is true with the government.
The same thing is true with the other point. We don’t like
it. We don’t want to embrace the freedom that we have been given to testify to
the truth and testify to Jesus. Testifying might cause us trouble. Put yourself
in the shoes of those Pharisees, assuming that there was a real threat and they
weren’t just trying to get rid of Jesus. Do you want to let a hostile power
know that you are on the other side? What might that hostile power do to you?
Fear is a powerful weapon that the devil uses to great
effect to stop the most important and life-giving function on earth. Fear
prevents us from challenging lies and speaking the truth. Fear prevents us from
testifying about Jesus—not just before hostile authorities, but even with
friends and family. But Jesus has a word for us concerning this fear. He says,
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear
the One (that is, fear God) who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
In a way it’s a little ridiculous that we are afraid at all.
The devil’s lies are very flimsy if only we would look at them rightly. God is
in charge of all things. What good can it do anyone to curry all the favor in
the world—even to have the powers that be shower gifts and honor down upon us,
but to anger God or be ashamed of Jesus?
On the other hand, since God is in control of all things, we
should be bold with the truth God has taught us and the proclamation that Jesus
has risen from the dead at sits at God’s right hand. God is on our side. He
will not leave us nor forsake us. This does mean that we will suffer. Evil
powers will see to that. But they are on the losing side. With Jesus you are on
the winning side. Suffering is not the worst thing. Being cut off from God is
the worst thing. Whatever troubles God lays upon us he will also give us the
strength to go through them.
Luther’s hymn says: A mighty
fortress is our God, a trusty shield and weapon. He helps us free from every
need that hath us now o’ertaken.
And again it says: And take they
our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, our vict’ry
has been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth.
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