Pastor Scott Jonas
Romans
13:1-10
9/9/17
We are
traveling through some of the chapters of Paul’s book to the church in
Rome. Last week, Romans 12 talked about
True community. Jesus is painting a
beautiful picture of the church the is genuine, steadfast and loving. Today in Romans chapter 13, Paul urges the
church towards True citizenship, honoring the state while serving Christ. True Citizenship.
Nero was
King of Rome when Paul came to faith.
Nero was simply one of the most spoiled, ruthless, wicked Kings in all
of history. Think Joffrey on Game of
Thrones. He became King as a
teenager. They say that a person stops
developing socially, emotionally and morally at the age they become mega
famous. Nero became the most powerful
government official in the world when he still had pimples. He was born just a few years after Jesus’
resurrection. His Teacher was poisoned
by his mother. His Father too was
murdered. Nero learned much from this
and put his mother to the sword. He had
total control now. He started wars on a
whim, confiscated estates and reportedly started a fire that burned much of
Rome. He wanted to build over a portion
of the city. The fire allowed him to do
so. He blamed the Christians and
executed many of them. That is the state of the government when Paul
writes Romans.
13:1 “Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority
except from God.” Isn’t that strange? A madman rules and Paul says “be subject to
the governing authorities.” This isn’t
modern representative democracy. This is
a menace who is devastating the known world.
What is Paul doing here?
In Romans,
Paul says that the death and resurrection of Jesus is reordering the
universe. That includes how we view our
citizenship. If we get Jesus wrong then
we will get our relationship to other things like government wrong. There are many ways to go wrong when it comes
to how you look at governing authorities.
Paul wants us to avoid these wrong ways.
If we go down these paths it will distract us from the Gospel. Your primary mission is to spread the love of
Christ in your home and community. Don’t
let politics divert you from the church’s goal.
We all know it is very easy to get distracted by politics.
The first wrong path for the
Christian is to believe that the government is all. That there is nothing above the state. The civil authorities are an end to
themselves. In Jesus’ day, Caesar
declared himself “Lord and Savior.” He
was lord in that there was no authority above Caesar’s authority. You could not appeal beyond him. His word was the highest law. He called himself savior because he saved his
kingdom from poverty and chaos. Being
under his reign meant roads, a defending army, and predictable laws. He saved people from anarchy and all of the
destruction that follows.
This may seem like an unnecessary
warning today. No one calls the
government Lord and Savior. But it is
necessary. There are people who act as
if there is no greater authority than the government. If the laws say something is wrong then it is
wrong. If the government says something
is right then it is right. This leads to
obeying the authorities no matter what.
Doesn’t matter what conscience or scripture says. The church knows this is wrong. We should never put the government above the
Lord.
Another wrong path is to divorce
faith from the state. To separate
religion from civil matters. Paul was
very familiar with the Pharisees doing this.
It is separation of church and state to the extreme. The Pharisees were not cozy with the Romans. They were a minority interest group so they
only dealt with government when they were forced to deal with them. They focused exclusively on their spiritual
interests and let the state be influenced by others.
Today, this would be like Christians
who wall themselves off from society and politics. They look at the political realm as evil and
the church as pure. They are all crooks,
the Pharisees cry. The Pharisees of
today take themselves off of the political grid. Don’t pay taxes. Don’t get involved. Jesus is Lord over the church and not Lord
over all. This is a dangerous path. It makes the faithful more and more isolated. It leaves civil institutions unguided by
those with the Spirit. It believes that
God never ordained the right hand kingdom.
We know otherwise, God is Lord of
all.
Then there
is the wrong path of anarchy. The zealot
of Paul’s time worked to overthrow the government so that people could be free
of all authority. Barrabas is the most
famous example. Remember him? When Jesus was on trial, Pilate brought up a
Passover tradition. One convicted Jewish
criminal would be released as a show of good faith to this constituency. Pilate asked the crowd if Jesus should be let
go. Instead they shouted for Barrabbas
the zealot. A zealot is a guardian of
the Jewish people who sees the threat of governmental rule. But rather than separate from that rule, the
zealot attacks it with violence. The
zealots are not looking for a better government they are looking to destroy the
government. We know from the gospels
that the people chose the zealot over Jesus.
In a country
with so many blessings like the united states, the church does not have many
zealots. Most people recognize that
without any government the world turns into an apocalyptic nightmare. Dog eat dog.
We are much
more tempted to go down the wrong path of the favored church. We want our church to have an advantage over
other denominations and religions. We
cozy up to government obliterating separation of church and state. Paul knew well that the Sadduccees worked to
be the favored church of Rome. They
cowtowed so they got power that the Pharisees, and zealots could only dream
about. They got to make laws. They got to make civil decisions. They were emeshed with Rome and lost a part
of their souls in the process.
It reminds
me of the recent supreme court case “Trinity Lutheran of Columbia vs the state
of Missouri.” The court rules recently
that it was unconstitutional for the state to deny a churchschool free
playground surfacing that was offered to secular schools. If it was offered to one it should be offered
to the other. Free processed chopped up
rubber tires do not encourage religion one way or another. It is simply a way for the state to help make
playgrounds safe. How does this ruling
highlight a sadducee like emeshment
between church and state? You see the
reason why Missouri denied Trinity the playground surface in the first place is
because it was written into the state constitution years ago that no religious
organization should receive any benefit from the capital. From what I hear, that was put in there by
Lutherans who didn’t want Catholics to receive this benefit. Lutherans were using the civil laws to try to
punish another church. They were trying
to climb the ladder of success through politics. Paul warns us that this is not what Jesus
wants.
Paul says in Romans 13 that there is
a good path. It is the path that Jesus
followed. He calls us not only to give
governments their due respect but to love those who rule over us. Paul says,
“Pay to all what is owed the; taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom
revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is
owed. Owe no one anything, except to
love one another for the one who loves another fulfills the law.” That is pretty radical. It doesn’t matter who is in power. It doesn’t matter if you like their policies
or not. It doesn’t matter if they are
good people. We are called to love them
because Jesus loves them.
Think about Jesus before Herod and
Pilate. Those were the political
authorities. Herod held local
jurisdiction and Pilate was governor over Herod. After Jesus was arrested by the Jewish
leaders he was sent to Herod. If I was
in his position I’d be like who are you to arrest the creator of the
universe. You have no right to detain
me. This arrest is a crime against the
real Lord and Savior. I hereby renounce
all of your authority. Goodbye. And then a thousand angels come down and
whish me away.
But I’m not Jesus. He doesn’t do that. In fact, Jesus says nothing to Herod. He doesn’t question his authority. He respectfully stands before Herod. He doesn’t attack him. He doesn’t undermine him. He also doesn’t
obey his every command. He breaks no
laws but he also doesn’t answer herod’s questions. He doesn’t perform a miracle as herod hoped. Due respect does not mean obeying every
command. There are times when Man’s laws
violate God’s will.
Then Jesus is before Pilate who gets
frustrated that Jesus is not speaking to him.
He says “Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and
the authority to crucify you? Jesus
answered You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to
you from above.”
Those were the last words Jesus spoke
to Pilate face to face but they weren’t His last words on the matter. When Jesus was on the cross he said “Father
forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Jesus gave Herod and Pilate respect for their God given authority but he
also loved them enough to forgive them and die for them.
Jesus loves you so much that he
placed structures for your blessing. He
gave you a family with a parent to love you.
He gave you a church with Pastors and elders to look out for you. He gave you a government that keeps the chaos
at bay so you can live your life for the Lord.
What an awesome Lord and Savior!
By Grace through Faith