THE KINGS OF THE
NATIONS
"Whose is this image?" asks Jesus when they put the Roman money before his
eyes. (Matt. 22:20) He knows that face, He knows, as they all do, that Octavius
by a sequence of extraordinary good luck became the monarch of the world with
the adulatory surname of Augustus. He knows that falsely youthful profile, that
head of clustering curls, the great nose that juts forward as if to hide the
cruelty of the small mouth, the lips rigorously closed. It is a head, like
those of all kings, cut off from the body, cut off below the neck; sinister
image of a voluntary and eternal decapitation. Caesar is the king of the past,
the head of the armies, the coiner of silver and gold, fallible administrator
of insufficient justice.
Jesus is the King of the future, the liberator of
servants, the abdicator of wealth, the master of love. There is nothing in
common between them. Jesus has come to overthrow the domination of Caesar, to
undo the Roman Empire and every earthly empire, but not to put Himself in
Caesar's place. If men will listen to Him there will never be any Caesar again.
Jesus is not the heir who conspires against the sovereign to take his place. He
has come peaceably to remove all rulers. Caesar is the strongest and most
famous, of His rivals, but also the most remote, because his force lies in the
slothfulness of men, in the weakness of peoples. But One has come who will
awaken the sleeping, open the eyes of the blind, give back strength to the
weak. When everything is fulfilled and the Kingdom is founded—a Kingdom which
needs no soldiers nor judges nor slaves nor money, but only renewed and living
souls —Caesar's empire and all like that will vanish like a pile of ashes under
the victorious breath of the wind.
As long as Caesar is there, we can
give back to him what is his. For the new man, money is nothing. We give back
to Caesar, vowed to eternal nothingness, that silver nothingness which is none
of ours. Jesus is always looking forward with passionate longing to the arrival
of the second earthly Paradise. A people of holy men who
love each other would have no use for Kings, law-courts and armies. On one
occasion only does He speak of kings, and then only to overturn the common
established idea. "The Kings of the
Gentiles," He says to His disciples, "exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority
upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so, but he that is
greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." (Luke 22:25-26) It is
the theory of perfect equality in human relationship. The great is small, the
master is servant, and the King is slave. Since, according to Christ's
teachings, he who governs must become like him who serves, the opposite is
true, and he who serves has the same rights and honors as he who governs. Among
the righteous, there may be some more passionate than others; there may be
saints who were sinners up to the last day; there may be other innocent ones
who were citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven from their youth. Different planes
of spiritual greatness may exist as variations of the perfection common to all;
but to the end of time every category of superior and inferior, of master and
subordinate, shall be abolished. Authority presupposes, even if it is badly
wielded, a flock to lead, a minority to punish, baseness to shackle; but when
all men are holy, there will be no more need for commands and obedience, for
laws and punishments. The Kingdom of Heaven can dispense with the commands of
Force.
In the Kingdom of Heaven (Eternal
State) men will not hate each other and will no longer desire riches. The name of the path which conducts to perfect liberty is not
Destruction but Holiness. And it is not found in the dishonesties of Godwin, or
of Sumer, or Proudhon, or of Kropotkin, but only in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Men desire rank over others. Am I greater than he? Christ does not desire leaders but
servants. (Matt. 25:10)
“And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise
lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called
benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you,
let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” (Luke
22:25-26)
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