AN EXISTING ANARCHY REIGNS

AN EXISTING ANARCHY REIGNS

TODAY AS THEN

It is perfectly evident, from all these references of our Lord, that His outlook upon the World was first, fundamentally, and always, that of the whole universe as under the government of God, and that in certain senses it cannot escape therefrom, But His outlook was also clearly that of One Who saw anarchy instead of order; a Kingdom not recognized, not yielded to, unrealized therefore as to its benefits and its glories.Our Lord, when He came to earth saw an existing anarchy at the helm, much the same as America, France, Germany, England, Spain, etc. He saw men not merely holding false ideals, and living under false rule, but characterized by persistent perversity, in spite of the light He came to bring and left us to consider.
The key-note of the ministry of John as it is recorded in that Gospel was, "Repent ye; for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 3:2) That was the message brought to all the perverse, religious people who were living at that time. He foretold the coming of the King; One "mightier than I" (Matthew 3:11) said he, is coming after me, whose shoe latchets I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. He also described the ministry of the coming King as that of One Who, would come with the fan and the fire to destroy the things of evil, and to realize the things of goodness. He would undo the government they were living under. Does America and Europe want that?
The first revelation is that of the materialistic ideal which declares that all man needs is bread; food lines where 5000 and 7000 were fed. Today bread is a basis for many in the American kingdom. Men were acting as though a kingdom depended upon things material alone. Of course this is the reduction of the philosophy to its simplest formula. Nearer the end of His ministry there came a day when multitudes would fain have made Him King, because He had fed them; and He declined to be crowned King upon that basis. Food pantries don't make it with the King in God's Kingdom. Don't tell a lot of churches that though. They might be shocked. Christ said if you don't work, you don't eat and He was able to make work possible for all so they could eat and thank Him. That was one of the keys of His kingdom.
Secondly, the false ideal of selfishness is exposed; the ideal that within the Kingdom, if you recognize spiritual things, they are to be recognized in order to the enrichment and the comfort of those who receive them. They didn't necessarily need to be spiritually correct. You just need to be open to all views. That was the central thought. Only Christ view was acceptable in His Kingdom and He was radical in their view.
Finally the ideal of political intrigue, the suggestion that by diplomatic arrangement and compromise kingdoms may be federated into a single kingdom.A new world order where everyone shares in the wealth whether they earned it or not. There is no challenge to immorality other than religion. But men endeavored to challenge immorality by all sorts of traditions, rules, and regulations; and to check vulgarities by legislation when He was here the first time. Men are overwhelmingly anxious about the things of tomorrow, and about the material necessities of today. They had their own moral standards that men agreed to.
As Jesus looked out upon His age He saw these false ideals mastering men, holding them in their grasp, conditioning their attitudes and their activities. The persistent opposition to His teaching from the commencement of His public ministry until the tragedy of Calvary is a revelation of the accuracy of His measurement of these ideals. Why did they crucify our Lord? Asking the question, but purely as within the experiences and the doings of the hour in which He lived, we have to reply, simply because they would not accept His ideals
. He revealed in His teaching, not only that men were actuated by false ideals, but that they were living under a false rule. It is never to be lost sight of that every stern word of Jesus, and all His rebukes were reserved for the rulers (President, Congress, House, etc.); and all the way through His ministry we discover, not their opposition alone, but also His criticism of their position. He was perpetually in direct word and in parable, unmasking them, attempting to show the men of His age wherein the rulers failed; and how they were all under false rule (no matter what country), the rulers themselves being under the rule of their own false ideals. In one of His final parables uttered to the rulers He revealed the principle of all false authority as He said, "Let us . . . take His inheritance." (Matt. 21:38) So said the rulers according to Jesus, and the false principle of all false authority was that of self-centered consideration
. In this view the Lord's teaching harmonized perfectly with the prophetic denunciations in the Old Testament Scriptures. "Woe unto the shepherds of Israel!" (Ezek. 34:2) Why? Because when they should feed the sheep, they are feeding themselves. (We are talking government, not church, although it is true there also) When they should shepherd and guard the sheep, they are seeking to be guarded themselves. It was Homer who said all kings are shepherds of the people. One wonders sometimes if it would not have been more true to human history if Homer had said all kings ought to be shepherds of the people. But men seek positions of authority, not in the interests of the governed, but in their own interest.They, the false rulers, bind burdens on others. The God Who is the one Ruler bids men roll their burden on Him. (Taxes, taxes, taxes)
The issue of false rule is the distress and the scattering of the people (heading somewhere to alleviate the burden of taxation). Only remember that while the picture as our Lord saw it must ever appeal to our compassion also, yet no one else saw the people in that condition. The people then were as satisfied as are the people of America today (the majority of votes agree). The people were just as sure they were doing well, as are the people in our own times, who are independent of the Kingdom of God. It was only the King, Who saw the Kingdom of God as it ought to be, Who also understood the real ruin and degradation of men. (But they loved the darkness and their sin)
The final manifestation of anarchy to which our Lord referred was not merely that men had false ideals, and that they were living under a false rule, and exercising a false rule, but that they were perverse.
In the parable of the pounds we discover our Lord's central conception of existing anarchy. The reason of the parable is given in the words, "As they heard these things, He added and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the Kingdom of God was immediately to appear." (Luke 19:11-22) At the heart of the parable we find these words: "His citizens hated him, and sent an message after him, saying, We will not that this man reign over us," (Luke 19:14) His disciples and others thought that the Kingdom of God would immediately appear. He said to them in effect: The Kingdom of God cannot appear. Behold the anarchy everywhere you look. Look at the condition of affairs. The citizens of the Kingdom will not have the King; they will reject the King; they will cast the King out. Hello America, Germany, France, Spain, etc. That was His outlook upon the utmost difficulty, that of the perversity of the human heart, having its own false ideal, exercising and submitting to its own false rule, and perverse. Do you think for a second that ANY country would volunteer to live under the rule of God. They don't like His book, they don't like prayer, and they don't even like the mention of His name. And not only is this true in America, it is everywhere. Jesus looked out, and He saw false ideals, false rule, perversity, and why? Because men were blind, and could not see. And why? Because they were mastered by evil, by evil spirits, by spiritual antagonisms.
That teaching was revolutionary in His day, and it is still; and it is because we have lost sight of it, that we do not understand how to deal with the problems that confront the American nation. Finally our Lord taught that men are blind and in spiritual slavery. They are spiritually dead. They have no commerce with God. The Bible sits in dust on the shelf. One word is enough, that startling word of Jesus, so easily read, but so searching, how when a man said to Him under a holy impulse, "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father," He replied, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead." (Luke 9:59-60) Religion without a Savior. That father was not physically dead. That was not a request to remain to a funeral. It was a request to remain for years, perhaps, to take care of his father. Christ's outlook upon men is that they are spiritually dead, because severed from the life and from the virtue that come from fellowship with God; in anarchy, because under a spiritual domination which is evil. No different today than when He was here the first time. And many wear the long colorful religious robes. We are not only headed for a financial cliff, we are headed to a crisis, a Second Time. For He is returning and He will rule and reign on this earth in righteousness and holiness.