President Andrew Johnson’s rise to power falls under the category of things I don’t understand.
Johnson ascended to the presidency in the most divisive chapter of our country’s history, just as the Civil War was coming to an end. President Abraham Lincoln had given his Second Inaugural Address in which he admonished “with malice toward none, with charity for all,” envisioning a compassionate reunion of the states.
Forty-one days later, Lincoln was shot. Johnson, his vice-president, hailed from Tennessee, and had opposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave citizenship to former slaves. In an effort to hasten the “reunion,” he favored policies that trampled on the rights of many, particularly black people.
An episode like this may lead us to ask: What was God thinking? Do you ever have such thoughts?
Unhealthy Responses in Trying Times
Fast forward to 2024, and we are in the final weeks of another tense election year. Our political situation both saps what little energy we have left in our crowded, exhausted lives and generates unhelpful energy like anger. Thoughts about “what if…” crowd in.
Even worse, we are tempted to see the other with a different perspective, not only as someone we disagree with, but actually as a threat — perhaps not even a person but a thing, a force to be resisted. And we can feel vindicated in such views by reminding ourselves of the high moral ground we are trying to protect.
So some aspects of Scripture seem jarring to the above approach, perhaps even carrying in them a rebuke.
Rendering Unto That Caesar
Consider that Paul in Romans 13:1-7 addresses his readers’ attitudes toward government and boldly asserts that we are to have a submissive posture and spirit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except what God has established.
This may feel grating. But what catches my attention is that it is this government of Rome to which Paul, a citizen of Rome, will appeal — and which will ultimately put him to death.
Then consider that it is Jesus, responding to Jewish leaders who are trying to catch him in language that could be construed as politically subversive, who says we are to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. It is this very government that will sanction and carry out his execution.
Following God’s Call in Unnerving Times
Perhaps the Old Testament can help us. Uzziah had reigned for 52 years over the southern kingdom of Judah. In a region synonymous with instability, he had brought prolonged prosperity and military security. When he died a shiver went through the empire. What would happen now?
Isaiah, God’s prophet and one who had unusual access to seats of power, writes about it in Isaiah 6. And one of the things we learn from Isaiah is that we are to invite our view of God to transcend immediate circumstances. For it was in these unsettling times that Isaiah was given a vision of God that resulted in accepting a call from God to be directly active in God’s enterprise.
In the face of monumental transitions where the ends were unknown, Isaiah found his center, his landmark, his true north. His landscape was not cluttered with the unknowns of the transitory immediate but with the all-knowing God who had much for Isaiah to do. No wonder that it is also Isaiah who writes so beautifully and poetically about the coming King of Kings in Isaiah 53.
Doing Good in a Hostile World
Scripture tells us that good overcomes evil. And regardless of the powers of the land, we are not prevented from doing much good within our spheres of responsibility and influence.
Recently, I was teaching 32 students from six countries in Seoul, South Korea. Some of these students live in countries where the culture and government are hostile to their faith as Christians. Yet I heard again and again of their gracious and forceful efforts to do good, all the while praying for courage, with a determination that others would “see their good deeds and glorify their father who is in heaven.”
As the missionary and evangelist E. Stanley Jones tells us, we are part of an “unshakable kingdom.”
So we go forth today and every day, determined to “occupy till he comes,” engaged in every righteous arena, yet fully aware we are citizens of that “unshakable kingdom.”