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"Ruler of the Kings of the Earth" Sermon preached by John C. Hall on
November 26, 2006 7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. For some reason, I’m attracted to scripture lessons that make outrageous claims. This is one of them. And the part that is really outrageous is the verse that describes Jesus as “the ruler of the kings of the earth.” There aren’t a lot of kings around these days, but you get the idea. Jesus is the ruler of the rulers. He’s the ruler of Prime Ministers, and Presidents. This is quite a claim. The whole book of Revelation makes the case that Jesus is in charge of everything. The kings may appear to be the rulers, but actually, Jesus is the one who’s in control. That sounds pretty farfetched. I know that George Bush says that Jesus Christ is his favorite philosopher, but most of us probably find it hard to believe that Jesus is running the federal government. And the book of Revelation doesn’t say that either. It says that in spite of the way things appear, in the deepest sense history is guided by God and Christ, not by the kings of the earth, not by the worldly powers. Things are not as they seem. And someday, this will become evident. This is why the last book of the Bible is called “Revelation.” The veil that hides the truth will be lifted. So what do we make of that? When you think of all the things in the world that get people’s attention, time, and money, how does Jesus appear to stack up in terms of being in control, or having power and influence in the world? Is Jesus a bigger deal than NFL football? Is he a bigger deal than peewee football? Is Jesus more powerful than Exxon Mobile? Back in the sixties, John Lennon made the famous statement that the Beetles were more popular than Jesus Christ. John Lennon later clarified his comment. He said, “I didn’t mean to show any disrespect for Jesus. I wasn’t saying we should be more popular. I was just stating a fact.” They were so humble in the early days. But seriously, if Jesus is the victorious ruler of the kings of the earth, the redeemer, why doesn’t the world look more redeemed? There’s a lot of bloodshed and chaos going on in the world Jesus is in charge of. If Jesus is a king, he appears to be a pretty weak king. The book of Revelation was written in the late 1st or early 2nd century. Its primary message is that Jesus is returning soon, and when he does, he will set the world straight, rewarding the faithful and judging the wicked. That was quite a while ago, and Jesus’ rule doesn’t seem to have gotten all that far. Some things have gotten better. There’s not as much slavery in the world. Women’s status has risen in many nations at least. Our system of law and civil rights has improved, overall. But the world still isn’t an easy place for most people. And it’s not obvious that Jesus is in charge of anything, including the church. How do we deal with this problem — this disconnect between what the book of Revelation says will happen soon, and the way the world still is? There are two ways: One is to say: history isn’t over yet. Christ will win in the end. Everyone who’s alive now, everyone who ever was alive, will see this truth. Here’s a passage from John’s gospel that fits very well into the view of history we find in Revelation. “…
the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
and will come out — those who have done good to the
resurrection
of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of
condemnation.”
No one will get away with anything. And the innocent will be vindicated. All of this will still happen. With God, a day is like a thousand years. The other way of dealing with the problem of why the world looks the way it does (if Christ is the ruler), is to think about the term “ruler” in a different way. Maybe “ruler” doesn’t mean something so tangible and visible in the world as a president or prime minister. In this view, Christ’s rule and victory already operate, but in a deeper, more subtle, even hidden way. NFL football, Exxon Mobile, and the U.S. Government appear to have a grip on the world, but there’s something even stronger at work in history. And there are many ways of describing that “something” — many ways in which the world may not be the way it seems to be. Jeffrey Skilling was the CEO of Enron, one of the world’s biggest energy companies. He was sitting on top of the world, making 100s of millions of dollars. Enron had a lot of power. They manipulated the electricity market in California, creating artificially induced blackouts that drove energy prices through the roof, making Enron a lot of money and bringing down the Governor of California, Gray Davis. That was pretty powerful. California had a recall election and replaced Davis with Mr. Universe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator — just to continue with the apocalyptic imagery here. But we know what happened to Enron. It collapsed around him, and Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. That’s one example of things turning out to be different than they seemed. Another way of dealing with the problems in Revelation is to consider the situation the book came out of — its social, historical context. When it says, “Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth” that sounds very grandiose. It sounds intoxicated with power, especially if you imagine these words coming from a church with a strong position in the world, using its power badly. There have been plenty of times when the church did have such power and used it badly. But this book, and this passage, didn’t come from a church like that. It came from a church that was on the bottom, under heavy persecution. These were desperate people, in a lot of pain and fear. A little grandiosity or singing “We shall overcome” sounds different coming from slaves than it does coming from the Pentagon. When a tyrant says “Jesus is the ruler” or “I rule for Jesus” that’s one thing. When someone whose neck is under the tyrant’s boot says “Jesus in the ruler” that’s different. To read Revelation correctly, we need to read it while imagining what it’s like to be on the bottom, to face the worst. But why would we want to do that? I can think of many reasons, but here’s one. I think we’d want to do that because, the truth is, just as we all have our chance to be on top, we will also have a chance to see what it’s like on the bottom. We have our turn to be young. And we have our turn to be old. We have our turn to be healthy. We have our turn to be sick. We have our time when everything goes well. And we have our time when everything falls apart. Even if we’re doing pretty well right now, we could easily slip, and find ourselves at the bottom of the stairs, in a low place, figuratively. I think there’s great value — not all the time, but sometimes — to imagine what it would be like to be in that low place. Because when we are there — and eventually our bodies will wear out and we will be there — it will be very useful to have done some mental rehearsing, and to have cultivated the faith that God is with us, even in the worst. When the forces of the world, or the forces of chaos, injustice, or biology have their boot on us, we can remember that there’s another ruler, Christ the King, who rules on a deeper level, who will hold us up and save our souls and redeem our lives, even when all appears to be lost.
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