Choosing To Follow Jesus

Romans 13:1-10 and Matthew 10:29-39

Rev. Deborah Troester, July 2, 2023, STHPC

In February 1960, a group of Black students sat down and ordered coffee at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Today this wouldn’t seem like a strange or noteworthy occurrence, but at that time and place, it was illegal, as the lunch counter was only for White people. African Americans were not allowed. This act of protest spurred harassment and even violent attacks. The students were heckled, insulted, spat upon and arrested. What motivated these normally law-abiding citizens to break the law and endure such treatment? It was because they thought the law was unjust and unfair. They believed in the words of the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Liberty should certainly include the right to sit and order coffee at the same lunch counter as everyone else. They also believed that all of us are created in God’s image, and as children of God, their worth was no less than that of any other human being. The laws of North Carolina at that time contradicted the law of God.

This weekend as we celebrate our country’s independence, it is a good time to reflect on the question, “When the laws of man and the laws of God are contradictory, which law do we obey?” The passage we read from Romans 13 is often cited to show that Christians must obey the law of the land: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.” But this verse must be read in the light of other scriptures, not in isolation. In particular, we need to see what Jesus had to say about obeying the government. After all, he was crucified by the Romans as a lawbreaker – one who claimed to be king, when there was no king but Caesar.

First, let’s look at the positive side of this passage from Romans. From the first few verses, it seems clear that good government is a gift from God to provide for the common good and to punish wrong-doers. Governments keep us from anarchy. They punish criminals, so that people aren’t tempted to take revenge themselves. They enable us to work together to accomplish greater things than individuals could do alone, such as building roads, schools, or public libraries. We should give to the government what it is due, for example taxes. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus was asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus answered, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Yes, taxes are necessary to fund the government, but we owe our very lives and souls to God.

Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, recently discussed this passage in Sojourners Magazine. He wrote that “laws and policies should be evaluated — and obeyed — based on the degree to which they promote the common good and restrain evil.” He added that God’s authority and God’s laws always supersede any human authority. If laws are unjust, we should try to change them. If we are unable to do that, we may need to disobey them, just as the students who sat at the Whites-only lunch counter, and Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a White person. There are examples in the Bible of people who resisted when the governing authorities were unjust. The Hebrew midwives, Puah and Shiphrah, disobeyed Pharaoh when he commanded that all baby boys of the Hebrew slaves be killed immediately after their birth. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den for disobeying a law which forbade him to pray to anyone other than King Darius. In Acts, Chapter 5, when Peter and the other apostles were arrested for preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ, after having been forbidden from doing so, they defended themselves, saying, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

St. Augustine taught that “an unjust law is no law at all.” So, how do we determine which laws are just and which are not? Dr. Martin Luther King said, “there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws…The justness of a law or policy is based in whether it uplifts or degrades human beings…does the law or policy affirm human dignity or deny it? Does it expand who is included in ‘We the people…’ or shrink it? Does it promote the common good or suffocate it?”

Rev. Taylor, in his recent Sojourner’s article, suggests that we “look to the life and teachings of Jesus, who preached peace and nonviolence, yet confronted the unjust authorities of his day, even to the point of his own crucifixion. Through it all, Jesus always acted for the common good, particularly in the context of protecting the most vulnerable and marginalized.”

What law did Jesus tell us to obey? When asked which commandment was the greatest, Jesus answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ This is God’s law, which is supreme above all earthly laws. In our passage in Romans, the Apostle Paul affirms this law of love: “Love one another…the one who loves another has fulfilled the law…Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Now let’s turn to the words of Christ in the gospel passage for today and see how they might relate to what we’ve been talking about. These are strange words: “One’s foes will be members of one’s own household…Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…” Not everything written in the Bible is applicable to us right here and right now. These were meaningful scriptures to the early church. For nearly three centuries Christians were a despised and persecuted minority. Joining the church meant that your family might disown you and you might be subject to punishment or even death for refusing to worship Caesar or other Roman gods. Sadly, these scriptures also apply today to many Christians, for example Muslims who choose to follow Christ, or anyone living in a country where conversion to Christianity is illegal. They apply to anyone anywhere who might have had to choose between family and faith.

However, Christians are not persecuted in this country, no matter what you might hear people say. Persecution is being threatened with death or imprisonment. Let’s not trivialize the suffering some have gone through for their faith by comparing it with not being able to display the ten commandments in public places or lack of prayer in public schools. Personally I am thankful that we live in a country with freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and separation of church and state. We must guard against Christian nationalism. Our country was founded on the idea that people should be free to worship according to their own conscience, Christian or not. I don’t think we want to change that.

At the end of the passage, Jesus says, “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” These are difficult words, but they emphasize that our first loyalty is to Christ. He doesn’t say that we should not love our parents or our children. He doesn’t say that we shouldn’t love our country or obey its laws.  It is just that if we ever have to choose, we must choose to follow Jesus  - even over our own family or country, if it comes down to that.

It also means that sometimes, as during the Civil Rights Era, the church may have to take an unpopular stand for justice against oppression. When that happens, it may seem as if Jesus came to bring conflict, not peace, at least for a while. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” As Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth,  but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?…You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

This Fourth of July, let’s be grateful for our nation, for our ideals of liberty, equality, and justice for all. May we love our country and pray for it, that we may live up to these ideals. Most of all, let us remember that our deepest commitment as Christians is to fulfill what Jesus called the two greatest commandments: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourself. As we do this, our light will shine forth even brighter than the fireworks that light up the sky this Independence Day. Amen.

© Deborah Troester, 2023