How did the midterm elections turn out for you? Did the best people get elected? Does the right party control the Senate? the House? How will the outcome affect inflation? Will student loans have to be paid back? Where do things stand with abortion? marriage? What progress have we made in addressing homelessness? What are the implications that this election cycle has on preparing for the next presidential election? There is no small amount of pressure on the government to get it all right these days!
If we could just figure that out, wouldn’t our country be so much better off? If we could manage to get the right people in office maybe, just maybe, we could get our country back on track, pull together, and reflect once again that we are not the Divided States of America, but the United States of America. Is it that hard to figure out? Is the answer a third viable political party? Is the solution dissolving our current political party system and coming up with something new? Maybe we should consider a monarchy and establish a king or queen.
Before you laugh it off, ask yourself what you’re really wanting our government to be. Are we perhaps guilty of looking to earthly rulers for solutions that they can never provide? Have we gotten so accustomed to “having it our way” as a nation for so long that we have lost sight of the reality that it was never a particular political party or a perfect President who had all the answers? Whatever “better days” you remember from your past were never the result of this policy or that legislation. No disrespect whatsoever to any who serve us in our government (after all, they deserve our honor, respect, and certainly need our prayers!), but they have far less influence and impact on this country than another group: the citizens of our country.
If, as Abraham Lincoln put forth in his Gettysburg Address, we are a “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” then is the government really to blame for whatever problems we’re facing right now? Conversely, is it fair to pin all our hopes on the government, when by design, the government is to be a reflection of the people of the country? So if the government isn’t the problem, but simply a reflection of a much more influential group – the people – then how do we address that?
We start by staying in our lane as the church. We start by disentangling ourselves from politics and stop thinking foolish thoughts that confuse the role of the government with the role of the gospel. While we have a responsibility to each as Christian citizens of this nation, we are the only ones entrusted with the gospel. So which should receive greater attention? Is it not the gospel? If the government is merely a reflection of the people and we don’t like what we see, then let’s use the tool that God has given us to change things for the better: let’s let the gospel change hearts and lives and see what happens!
What is that gospel? With some of the last words he spoke before he died, Jesus uttered the gospel beautifully to the criminal crucified beside him: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (v.43). How could Jesus promise such a thing, especially to such a criminal? Remember that crucifixion was much more than just a slap on the wrist, so we can presume this wasn’t your garden variety shoplifter or jaywalker next to Jesus. He had committed something serious, a crime that merited both public shame and severe pain!
Still, Jesus promised him paradise. How? Not because of who the criminal was, but because of who the Christ is – King. The King makes the final decision on who is a part of his kingdom. He is the final authority. And he’s also the King who was at that very moment making the sacrifice necessary to open his kingdom to all, including the thief right next to him.
That is what is unique about King Jesus. Unlike earthly kings, unlike worldly leaders, he didn’t come for himself. Look at how the jeers of those around him even expected him to act that way! “The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” (v.35-39).
Everyone ridiculing him presumed that if he was truly the king he claimed to be, then he would have no problem proving it. And the foregone conclusion was that he’d prove it by saving himself. That’s what anyone in his position would do. But they had not connected the dots to realize that essential truth about Jesus: he didn’t come for himself. He came for others.
Saving others – not self – is why he was there. An earthly king looks out for himself (CEOs and severance packages, royalty who live in luxury), but who takes that wealth and privilege and uses it to bless others first? Rarely, if ever, does that happen. Jesus didn’t oblige the requests or silence the sneering to save himself because he didn’t come for himself. He came for others.
Somehow, at some point, the Holy Spirit enlightened the thief to see and believe that. And so he made his final request of the King: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (v. 42). He pleaded for mercy from his King. What a contrast we see in the thief! Others railed on Jesus and made fun of him, but instead of mockery, the thief asked for mercy.
Mercy does two things: it acknowledges that it deserves nothing, but it also knows where to look for mercy to be extended. The thief knew both.
He didn’t appeal to Jesus to look at the impressive track record of his life. He had already chastised the other thief for ridiculing innocent Jesus, knowing full well that he himself and the other criminal were getting the punishment their crimes deserved “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve” (v. 41).
He asked simply to be remembered, knowing that Jesus choosing to remember him was his only hope to enter into a better kingdom, an eternal one. We don’t need to know how the thief came to this conclusion; just that he did is what matters. He knew who Jesus was – the King of a kingdom far superior to any on earth that had ever existed. Through faith in King Jesus, he knew to be true what Jesus had explained to Pontius Pilate, that his kingdom was not of this world.
We also know what the thief did – that the only way to belong to that kingdom is through mercy. By nature, everyone is on the outside looking in when it comes to this kingdom, and as glorious as it appears, there is no way we can enter it on our own. That’s because we excluded ourselves from it. The reason Christ’s kingdom is so gloriously appealing is that it is so unlike everything we see in this world, and the reason it is so unlike everything we see in this world is because it is holy. There is no sin to ruin it.
That is precisely why we know something else the thief did – that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. How could it be??? If his is a kingdom without sin, then surely no such kingdom could exist in a fallen world overcome by sin.
What Jesus informed Pontius Pilate of is too easily forgotten by us – his kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18:36). If we’re looking for a heaven on earth, we won’t find it. If we’re expecting Christianity to fix politics and poverty or injustice and inequality, don’t hold your breath. Christ didn’t have his sights set on so small a thing! He was more interested in addressing the root cause than he was in trying to treat the symptoms of it.
That is exactly what he was doing in the verses from Luke this morning: addressing the root cause of all that is wrong with every earthly kingdom. He was fixing what was broken – sinners. He did what no group of protestors, activists, cause, or movement could ever accomplish by paying the ultimate price necessary to forgive sinners. His bloodshed was the only solution for sinners that could bring about real change. It was the victory he had to win to establish his kingdom and to welcome into it the sinners he had transformed into saints.
Do you really want to make a difference? I mean, really? If you’re serious about it, then focus on a cause that is guaranteed to yield results. Less politics, more prayer. Fewer debates, more devotions. Less worry, more worship. Less scrolling, more sacrament. Less isolation, more invitations. Fewer excuses, more evangelism. Less social justice, more Jesus.
No, we don’t have to stop doing all of those things entirely – some of them can be ways we love and serve our fellow man. But let’s keep them in their proper place and realize their impact will be limited. They will never be able to bring about the real change that only Christ the King has.
His kingdom alone changes hearts, and changed hearts will change the community. Changed communities will change the world. So let us not only pray for Christ’s kingdom to come, as we do in the Lord’s Prayer, but let us also enable it to as we do what the people of his kingdom do and saturate a wayward world with the good gospel.
When we faithfully focus on that, we’ll be celebrating a different election. Not an election that secured the necessary number of votes for the right party to fix everything, but an election to eternal life that will be served out in a kingdom unlike any other. It will be a kingdom ruled by Christ the King, truly a King for you and a King for others.