Just Rulers

It is remarkable how often in Scripture God’s assessment of rulers involves how they have treated the poor, oppressed, fatherless, widow, or aliens (more on what constitutes an alien in an upcoming post). It would appear that his entrusting authority to rulers carries with it the expectation that they would care about the same thing that he cares about, namely, reversing the results of sin.

I think this is why so much concern is directed toward vulnerable members of society. Sin manifests itself in many ways, but when it results in abuse or neglect of those without power by those who have been entrusted with power its seems particularly sinful. 

Jesus is the model of servant-leadership that all in exalted positions should imitate. The path he walked was one not marked by leveraging of heavenly identity. A translation of Philippians 2:6-7 that I favor reads this way, “. . . though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be held on to for advantage, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.” Jesus willingly stepped down from his exalted position in order to serve those whom the Father had entrusted to his care. 

This needs to be taken into account by those who would rule for to sit in the place of power brings with it grave responsibility that will require a reckoning. Following a parable in which the steward of a household is described as abusing his place of authority, Jesus teaches, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” (Luke 1:48) This is why we need to pray for our rulers. We want our leaders to be people who possess a servant's heart and a healthy dose of humility. God expects them to be protectors of the weak. They need to be sensitive, therefore, to the forces at work in our fallen world that exploit those without power.

That being said, it can be discouraging to acknowledge that all people in power, to lesser or greater degree, fail in their God-given duties to defend the vulnerable. We read with longing a passage like Psalm 72. A society in which authority is used to subdue workers of evil while establishing righteousness and justice seems to good to be true. But it is true or, at least, will be true when the reign of God’s anointed is fully realized. Jesus alone reigns with unmitigated righteousness, and all his enemies will be made his footstool. This is the end to which history is moving. Let’s pray that those who rule now will anticipate Christ’s rule as they humbly take up their mantle of leadership.