Confounding Kings
Jeremiah 23:1-6, Luke 1:68-79 & 23:33-43
‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ ‘Veni, vidi, vici’ is the cry that we expect from leaders, from heroes, from kings. What do we do then with a God whose challenge to our world – also challenges our whole way of thinking?
Our God comes as a Shepherd-King.
Shepherd king is what they call an oxymoron. Not a rather unintelligent bovine animal, but a figure of speech that contains normally contradictory terms. Examples abound - such as ‘holy war’ or ‘minor catastrophe’ or ‘exact estimate’ or ‘Microsoft Works’ – or for us who live in Canberra ‘affordable housing’ or for the parents ‘childproof’.
Shepherd-king is normally contradictory, for although it is a familiar theme in the Old Testament, and the New, shepherds were near the bottom of the social scale – and kings – as we know – were (as they still are!) pretty close to the top! In Sunday School two weeks ago we looked at the visit of the shepherds to Jesus and what this says about the poorest and the lowest being the first to welcome – and to be received by our king.
But although it uses the familiar language for the leaders of Israel, Jeremiah’s oracle has harsh things to say. “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” God takes responsibility for the people’s exile – this is the result of abandoning their covenant – their relationship - with God, but God states that their kings are to blame. It is because their kings weren’t shepherds that the sheep have forgotten their God.
But the language of shepherd king alerts us to the importance that God places on caring for us. Ezekiel 34 sums up God’s complaint with the shepherds this way:
“You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them…[But] I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feel them with justice….You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord God.”
Because Jeremiah’s is a poetic oracle it uses wordplay in verses 1-4 on the Hebrew verb paqad; which has a number of meanings, ‘attend’, ‘watch over’, ‘take care of’, ‘long for’. Verse 2: “You have not attended to my flock/my people. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord.” God watches over us – he neither slumbers or sleeps (Psalm 121:4) – and so the charge that he gives to his shepherds is a serious one. “Because you have not watched over my flock, you had better watch out!”
The verb makes another appearance in verse 4: “they shall not fear…nor shall any be missing”. i.e. all shall be in attendance. God’s care for us in such that he will not abandon any of his people – none are expendable. Jesus, too, uses these words to remind us of his care – his commitment – to us; “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” (John 6:39 and 10:28) “I will give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”
God’s care for us, God’s tender mercy – the compassion that Zechariah sings of in Luke 1 – is stronger than that most powerful force at work in our lives – self interest.
Aung San Suu Kyi…. Anne and her sons…
It was this compassion that led Jesus to the cross. The writer of Luke emphasizes his forgiveness on his executioners. And the number of times at the cross he is tempted – or taunted – with the words, “Save yourself, and then save us.” But Jesus hanging on the cross defeats this temptation to put self first. He is true to the nature of God who is found in community and compassion. God’s love is stronger than self-interest.
God’s love is also stronger than power.
Jeremiah stands in the company of prophets, who faced by failed and unfaithful political leaders reminded their people of a future ideal king:
- Isaiah (9:6, 11:1-9) proclaiming, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us, authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…”
- Micah (5:1-5) stating, “But you, Bethlehem…from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel…”
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These are comforting, Christmassy words for us – strains of The Messiah – but in their day and age they were politically dangerous. Today in Sunday School the kids are learning about the wise men, and how Herod was frightened and all of Jerusalem with him.
Jeremiah speaking to the last of the king of Judah, Zedekiah, had a dangerous message. Another king was coming; a just and righteous king. “And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” Here Jeremiah deliberately plays on Zedekiah’s name, ‘my righteousness is Yahweh’, and with it hails. Zedekiah a new king, a king who will shepherd his people, who will be ‘our righteousness’.
Frank Lowy story on Monday night…
At Jesus crucifixion he is surrounded by the political forces of his day. Luke 23:35 says, “And the people stood by, watching, but the leaders – the Jewish leaders – scoffed at him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers – representatives of the power of Rome – also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” And hanging on his cross was an inscription – meant to humiliate the Jewish leaders – who are also the target of the soldier’s mockery, saying ‘This is the king of the Jews.’
But Jesus hanging on the cross chooses a way other than these very real plays and counter plays of political power. He is true to the nature of God who is found in living righteously, telling truth to power, walking in the way of peace. God’s love is stronger than power.
But what sort of a king shows us the way of peace – via the cross – rather than a show of force? Something comforting about ‘Veni, vidi, vici’ or the Ghostbusters translation, "We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!" What good is a king who dies?
A king who dies cries out to us that God watches over – God attends - in our greatest pain, our most terrible trauma, our longest struggle. A king who dies cries out that there is way of peace through our deepest hurt, our hardest heart, our harshest conflict. For our king who dies is ‘God with us’. There is nowhere we can go where he has not gone and where he will not accompany us. Nowhere where we are not his sheep and he is not our God: “Yea thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
This was the discovery of the second criminal hanging beside Jesus, that even in that place of shame and agony and fear, God reached out to him and gathered him into Paradise.
In the shepherd king we find a God who watches over us , shows us the way of peace and walks with us through death to life.