L.D. 39, Romans 13:1-7 "The Bowed Head" Scott Hoezee

Most weeks when I write sermons, I don't start out by picturing myself standing here. Of course, I know that the only reason to write a sermon is so that I can come to this pulpit to bring the message to all of you. Still, on the average Monday morning I don't try to inspire my sermon-writing by envisioning myself standing here six days later. Except for this week. For some reason last Monday, no sooner had I finished reading Romans 13, and suddenly I could not keep myself from seeing this pulpit and chancel area.

I knew that long about this time on February 6, I would stand here, dwarfed by that towering cross of Jesus above me and flanked by the communion table laid on with bread and wine. All these things cry out, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, God's Christ, the innocent and guiltless one; the man who knew no sin but who became sin for our sake."

In other words, you see me at this moment surrounded by vivid reminders of how Jesus, an innocent man, was unjustly condemned to die by the authorities of his day. So how odd for me to stand here and repeat Paul's words, "Rulers hold no terror for those who do right but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and he will commend you." How could Paul write that when Jesus, the center of the Christian faith, is history's premiere example of how even those who do right can get crunched unfairly? What's more, Paul is writing this letter to Christians in Rome, the seat of power for the very empire that had carried out Jesus' crucifixion.

It's one thing for us to hear these words today. True, at any given moment the person in the Oval Office is someone that close to half the country didn't vote for, but no matter who is in charge, we don't worry about getting arrested for our faith. Things stay pretty stable in this land despite turnovers in leadership every four or eight years. So when we hear Paul urging, "Submit to the governing authorities . . . because they are God's servants," we receive those words through a very particular filter.

Last week I heard a prominent religious figure in this country say that if the present administration did not take the correct stance on a certain piece of legislation, the president could expect a wholesale revolt on the part of the evangelical community. That's political hardball but, to state the obvious, today's hot button issues are a far cry from dealing with a government that slaughters pastors for their faith. But what if that were our situation? What if the FBI was burning down churches? How would Romans 13 hit us then?

We can scarcely imagine that. Yet it was the reality in Paul's day. The Caesar proclaimed himself deus et dominus, "God and Lord" of the empire. Yet throughout Romans up to this point, Paul has said there is only one God and one Lord. Jesus is Lord, not the Caesar. Hence, in Romans 12, Paul told the Romans not to conform to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. That sounds like a formula for inevitably having conflict with ruling authorities, especially those in a ruthless empire such as Rome. And there was conflict. Not long after this letter was written, Paul himself was killed in Rome by the very governing authorities he tells the Roman Christians to honor.

Given all that, how can we understand Romans 13 and its connection to the fifth commandment? Let's ponder this for a few moments, beginning with the fifth commandment itself. In its original form this fifth law talks only about children honoring parents. The Catechism, however, extends this to include all authorities, and that seems to be a biblically wise move to make. The same principle that applies to your parents has wider resonances in all of life. But as you may know, the fifth commandment is the only one that includes a promise. Life will go better for the Israelites in the land of Canaan if they honor parents. Today we aren't awaiting a Promised Land the way Israel once did, but the idea is the same, and so Romans 13 makes its own kind of promise.

Paul says that no matter where you live, life goes better and you live free from fear when you obey the ruling authorities. We know this is true, don't we? If you are an honest person who is not wanted for a crime and if you are driving pretty much at the speed limit, then your seeing a police cruiser won't cause your heart to skip a beat. Maybe you'll even wave at the cop. But think how differently you feel when you spy the police at the same moment you hit the gas to sneak under a yellow light that's just turning red!

If you don't like that fearful feeling, Paul says, then behave! But Paul does not leave this purely at the level of fear. Paul deepens this by indicating in verse 4 that any given authority is God's diakonos, God's deacon, and so in verse 5 he says this is finally a matter of conscience. In other words, Romans 13 is not just a citizen's guide to avoid being arrested. Paul says this is a matter of conscience as soon as we become conscious of the fact that these authorities are from God for our own good.

It begins at home when children learn to see the Lord's care through mom and dad's care. Following this, we apply this same dynamic to an ever-widening circle. Children move from mom and dad's care to the care of teachers at school. As children grow older, they come under the care of pastors, of coaches, of employers. The older a child gets, the more aware he or she is of the police, the mayor, the governor, the president. Paul says that from the smallest circle within the family unit to the biggest circles that get drawn in the wider society, the Christian perspective is to believe that our God is invested enough in this world to take care of its orderliness and goodness.

Again, this was surely a bracing thing for the Roman Christians to read. Thus, we face a paradox. The Romans killed Jesus. Soon they would kill Paul. Remembering that makes Romans 13 a complicated passage. I assume Paul was aware of those complications but still believed that the underlying principle is so important, it had to be conveyed. I think the Lord's Supper shows us what that vital principle is. So as we prepare to celebrate this sacred meal again, let me tell you two reasons why I think the Lord's Supper ties in with the fifth commandment and with Romans 13.

First, this sacrament is a reminder that humility and submission, service and devotion, are the heartbeat of the gospel. No serious Christian thinks that the reason Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate was because he lacked the power to break free from Pilate or the Roman soldiers guarding him. Jesus was a willing victim, not because he was honoring Pilate or Herod or Caesar but because he honored his Father and because he loved the rest of us who would be saved by his death. The central image of the gospel is not a raised fist but a bowed head. That bowed head of humility sets the tone for all our living, and we see it powerfully displayed at the table of our Lord.

Second, however, the world-changing effect of Jesus' sacrifice and the fact that its power and beauty engulf us even this very morning nearly two millennia later reminds us of who the real Lord of the universe is. We call this sacrament a "celebration" because we are not sadly remembering a fallen hero. We are joyfully encountering a living Lord who won the victory through death. So whatever else Romans 13 means, it cannot mean that we yield to anyone who asks us to give to him or her the spiritual allegiance we owe Jesus alone. This sacrament declares that ultimately Jesus is Lord, and no one may displace him.

Hence, when we look back at the Holocaust, we applaud the Confessing Church in Germany that wrote the Barmen Declaration, protesting Hitler's regime and vowing to oppose him. And we deplore the State Church that baptized all that Hitler did and that did nothing to prevent his genocide of the Jews. In Romans 13 Paul says that the governing authorities are God's deacons. But since no true deacon of God would ever work against Jesus as Savior and Lord, those authorities who overtly try to squelch Jesus are not instituted by God. God can't work against himself!

Paul knew this, too. Even he did not submit to the governing authorities when one day they asked him to choose Caesar as his Lord instead of Jesus. Paul stuck with Jesus and was executed. Paul's own example tells us that although the language of Romans 13 looks absolute, clearly this does not mean that when our very faith is outlawed, we can do no more than accept that. In the long run, if the governing authorities pass a law that says you will die if you profess Jesus, then submitting to those authorities means you will die.

We can be thankful that we do not live in such an extreme environment. Although we never want to stop praying for the persecuted church, we go through most of our days not having to pit loyalty to Jesus against loyalty to the government. For us, then, a main teaching to take away from Romans 13 and a main application of the fifth commandment is that image of the bowed head. Whether in politics, business, our homelife, or anywhere else we go, the way we convey the beauty of the gospel is in our Christ-like posture of humility. We are humble in our living because it is the best connection we have to Jesus and the best way to connect others to him, too.

Few, if any, have ever become Christians because someone shoved them to Jesus. But many have been drawn to Jesus because they were drawn to the loveliness of Christians in prayer. Few, if any, have ever been truly converted because believing in Jesus was the law of the land enforced with a clenched fist. But many have found the truth of Jesus after seeing Christians using open hands to serve the poor. Few, if any, discover Jesus when they see wild-eyed Christians screaming in their faces. But many have found Jesus after seeing Christians with tear-filled eyes of compassion and love.

Christians submit to those in authority because when you live your whole life on your knees anyway, then honoring your parents, your mayor, your governor, or your president flows naturally from the core of who you are. We resist only when an authority tries to bring us up off our knees by insisting we may not pray to our God in Christ. But even then we resist not because we want to take power away from the authorities. We resist not because we want to become the authorities ourselves so that we can raise our fists against our enemies. We resist so that, as quickly as we can, we can get back on our knees, bowing humbly before the Lord of Life to whom we owe everything. So long as we can stay on our knees to pray and to serve, to witness and to love, then we display the posture the world needs so desperately to see. Only by incarnating the same humility that led Jesus to die for us can we tell people that at the bright center to everything, there is a Father of compassion and mercy just waiting for all his children to come home.

This morning we come to the Lord's table. We come to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the One who let himself be led to the slaughter because he knew that life begins again when humble sacrifice leads the way. We come to commune with our Lord, to thicken our union with him, so that we can live more like him every day.

In so doing, we sharpen our spiritual eyesight so that we can see more clearly all the places where the love of our heavenly Father comes to us: God's love come through the mom who tenderly tucks you into bed at night, through the dad whose wise counsel you still need even though you're 50 years-old yourself now, through the police officer who patrols your neighborhood, through the government that seeks the good order of the wider society. When your defining image in life is the bowed head, you find it a lot easier to give thanks constantly and to honor God's care for you wherever you see it. The Lord's Supper teaches us this all over again. Because when you get up from the Lord's table at the end of this sacred meal, you don't really stand up, you just move back to your knees in adoration for the gifts you received. The rest of life flows from there. Amen.