Truth Confronts Power

Lately I have been wrestling with how we are to be both tellers of the truth and yet be obedient to authorities that have been placed in our lives. Much is made about “submission to authority” on the grounds of Romans 13. The argument goes that we are to be subject to the ruling authorities and we are not to rebel against them because God has placed them in their position. Rebelling against the authorities is, by extension, rebelling against God. But this is a radical concept, just like all truths in the New Testament.

In this regard I find it interesting that those who often cite Romans 13 to rebuff those who engage in social activism, civil disobedience, or even more troubling, those who dare to speak out against the wrong doings of governing authorities, are usually those who consider wars of insurrection like our Revolutionary War a completely justified, if not God-ordained, act.

To those people I would point us back to our Lord. According to Matthew’s Gospel, He had this to say in the Temple courts:

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them…

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of son of hell as you are.

Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and be everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your ancestors!

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’

Clearly if we are to understand Paul correctly in Romans 13 we must read it through the lens of the Lord in Mathew. Here we see the Lord instructing his audience to submit themselves to these authorities; just as he would go on to do Himself. There is no hint of revolution or rebellion or insurrection in Christ Jesus. But that is not the whole story: there is Truth. And the truth is directed at those same authorities to whom He was subject.

The conclusion I draw from this is that we are to subject ourselves to the authorities – we are not to rebel. But we are also not to keep silent. We are to speak the truth, even when that brings us into direct conflict with the powers that be, whatever those powers might be.

God grant us strength.