Reflections on Easter

This is a re-post of a blog I wrote last year. I thought I'd re-post it as it's especially relevant this Easter season:

 

Christ is Risen. He has risen indeed. These are the words that are exchanged between my pastor and  congregation at church every Sunday morning. This is especially true on Easter Sunday when the church around the world gathers together to observe his resurrection. Well, Christ has indeed risen as all Christians would agree. But, what does this mean?

Christ is King. In the Old Testament God told King David that He would establish a house for David, a house that would not pass away. God also promised David that one of his heirs would take David's place as king, but this future king would not only establish his dominion in Israel but throughout the whole earth. This promise of a messiah is realized in Jesus. After his resurrection Jesus told his disciples that all authority on heaven and on earth had been given to him. This includes everything. Jesus now sits on his throne ruling and reigning over the earth and will continue to do so until he has put all enemies under his feet. It is our duty as Christians to go forth into the world with God's power and accomplish these goals. Just like Joshua led the Israelites to conquer the promised land, our New Testament Joshua is leading his disciples to conquer the world.

Jesus is king, especially over the civil realm. This has enormous implications. He is the king over our president and governors. So what, therefore, is the job of our elected statesmen? Their job is to legislate  the morality of God. All laws are based on a moral code. The question is from whose morality do the laws flow? Man's? If we look around at what is happening in our government today we see how well this has worked out. Backroom deals and ridiculous legislation is proposed every time congress is in session. These immoral laws keep lining our politicians pockets. No, the answer is God's morality ought to be legislated because Jesus is the king of America – not Obama, Bush or any other politician.

What would this look like? We can start with the ten commandments. Do not Kill. Most of us would agree with this. After all, who would want to be murdered on their way home from work? There is a law in Deuteronomy that says if two men get in a fight and accidentally strike a woman to cause her to go into labor prematurely, those men would be held responsible if the baby is injured in any way. This instance is based on an accident. God values human life so much that he doesn't want us to harm even unborn babies. How much worse for the offender if the child is intentionally harmed? Do not steal is another commandment. This implies that we can own things. God wants us to have private property and doesn't want other people to steal it. If we have private property this also implies that we ought to be able to lawfully defend our property from those who wish to cause us harm. Gun control laws flow out of this. If God wants us to have private property and to be able to defend it then we ought to lawfully have weapons with which to defend it. When we start looking to the Bible for answers on judicial law instead of looking to ourselves the way the law ought to be legislated becomes strikingly clear.

But what about the separation of church and state? God's kingdom in the Old Testament also employed the separation of church and state. The king was not allowed to make temple sacrifices and the priest was not allowed to rule the kingdom. But, they did work together. How does this translate into modern times? The civil realm legislates God's morality and the church does its role by being the body of Christ to the world. This means that all the welfare systems and laws that are currently in place to “help” the poor are not the job of the government, but rather the job of the church. It is the church's role to feed the poor and provide healthcare. When the church takes up her role she does so with love and compassion by the power of God. Not by throwing money at a problem in hopes to get more votes like our government officials do.

When the government starts looking to the Bible for its laws and allows the church to play its part suddenly the government becomes a minister of morality instead of trying to be our savior. Only Jesus is our savior because Christ has risen. He has risen indeed.