Having devoted much of my life to studying God's Word, I will occasionally stumble upon a randomly interesting observation. One such observation came up in my prep for yesterday's sermon and since it's been an entire month since I posted, I figured I would try fleshing it out some more here.
My randomly "profound" idea?
Christians have often had a weird relationship with their leaders.
It is as if we are on a constant search for the person God is raising up "for such a time as this". Whether it be a political candidate or a new pastor/spiritual leader, we are often all-too eager to fall head-over-heels for someone. And the higher the stakes, the higher the pedestal we put them on.
This then leads to leader-worship, where some start to believe that since God's hand is on that individual, since he sovereignly put them in that position, that makes them untouchable. They are infallible, impervious to mistakes, you can't really criticize them because God's favor has rested on them.
Maybe we don't theologically believe those things are absolutely true but practically we treat them as such. We will jump all over the smallest misstep of an opponent while turning a blind eye to exceptionally problematic issues with our leader(s).
This is not a new phenomena. Israel's history is littered with kings who operated according to such beliefs. In the middle ages, there was the doctrine of "the divine right of kings". The American concept of "Manifest Destiny" can probably linked to this concept too.
When we buy into this perspective that venerates our leaders, we fail to understand that God's favor is not some sort of force-field that makes them invulnerable and perfect.
Even if God's divine appointment could be proven, it is not cover for anything and everything they might do or say. Read about David's life, especially the last part of his reign. Or Joash in 2 Kings 11-12. It is all too easy for imperfect human beings to lose their way.
Only one leader in all of human history has a spotless record. And he was God-in-human-flesh. And he was crucified.
Let me just wrap this up by encouraging us all to do two things:
- Pray for our leaders. Christians are commanded to (1 Tim. 2) of course. Yet we should do so because we realize they are put on a pedestal that comes with a heavy weight. We should pray because we realize how easy it is to trip up.
- Don't be blindly loyal to anyone but Jesus. If my favorite pastor or my preferred political candidate messes up, I should be wise enough to recognize it and give voice to my disapproval. Jesus alone is worthy of our complete allegiance because he has not and will not let us down.
We have often had a weird relationship with our leaders. Doing these two things will allow us to live within the tension of supporting those God has put over us but not blindly following them into whatever folly they may be chasing.
