It would seem that as of this
week, the new test of Christian orthodoxy has to do with whether or not you eat
at ChikFilA. I am sure you have heard of
the controversy. Dan Cathy, CEO of the
Atlanta-based fast food chain, told a small obscure Christian Newspaper that he
supports traditional marriage and all of a sudden he has been labeled as a
hate-filled bigot and his restaurants are no longer welcome in at least 3 major
cities around the country.
In response to these actions,
supporters of free speech and the
free exercise of religion showed up in droves this past Wednesday to give their
patronage to the maligned restaurant chain.
It was not unusual to wait in line at least an hour if not two. The restaurant drew protests on Friday from
those supportive of the gay rights agenda. Clearly Chik Fil A has become the
dividing line of the controversy and those who consider themselves defenders of
Orthodox Christianity and orthodox constitutional America have a new favorite
restaurant.
Yet one can’t help but wonder
if Jesus wants more from his faithful few.
The community of faith and
faithful belief was divided all these generations ago when our Lord himself walked
the earth. They were divided by their
allegiance to Jesus. Some sought to make
him their king while others wanted to be rid of him, to never hear his name
spoken out in the public square (or really even in private for that matter). Does that sound familiar to our world? Yet for those who considered themselves to be
faithful to Jesus and to his cause, for those who were bold to speak, bold to
listen, and bold to follow Jesus, the Lord, the Son of God, Jesus wanted more
from them. Jesus urged them to great
understanding. Jesus sought to push
them, to move them beyond their public allegiance to private devotion and
private understanding. Jesus sought to
push them to faith.
In our text today, the
orthodox Jesus followers came looking for Jesus. The Apostle John shows us that these
believers came in search of their long awaited prophet, a repristinated
Moses. Moses came with bread from
heaven, food from the skies that filled their empty bellies and wowed them with
great works and signs from God. The Lord
worked through Moses and through Moses the people were saved from slavery and
secured in the land promised to Abraham.
And so now, all these generations later, the people were empty, they
were hungry for a new prophet, a new Moses who would save them from slavery and
fill them with food from heaven.
Enter the Lord… Jesus who teaches and heals and performs the
signs associated with the office of prophet, who teaches the people and leads
them. And the people took notice. This must be the long awaited prophet. This must be the promised salvation of the
Lord’s people, Israel. He taught them on
the hillside. He fed them with bread
from heaven. They were ready to take him
then and there and make them their king.
But Jesus didn’t come to be
Israel’s king.
This story parallels our
own. Ancient deliverance from oppression
and foundation of a religious society. Contemporary
controversy fueled by a secularly minded few.
A people hungry for a leader to stand behind and stand up for. And Jesus is at the center.
Yet when the people thought
to make Jesus their king – they saw how he fed the crowd 5000 strong with only
a few loaves and fish – Jesus withdrew.
He didn’t come to be Israel’s king.
He hasn’t come to be America’s king.
He isn’t fighting for cultures and societies. He isn’t fighting to uphold family values and
traditional morals. Jesus doesn’t want
to be the king in a kingdom that we have built, that we have established and
created and defined. Jesus already is
king. High King! Of Heaven no less. And the issue is not whether we call him King
or if we make him King in our Kingdom.
The issue is whether or not we are worthy to be called servants in
his.
Whether you eat your chicken
from ChikFilA, KFC, or even McNuggets at McDonalds – this food is earthly food. These kingdoms are earthly kingdoms and they
are doomed to fall.
“Do not work for the food that perishes,” says
Jesus, “but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man
will give to you.”
The food that matters is the
food that we receive from Jesus. The
kingdom that matters is the kingdom that is ruled by Jesus. It is not that we fit Jesus into our kingdoms
so that he thinks like we do and so that he joins our battles on our side. What matters is that we think like he does
and we join his side.
His side is not traditional
marriage and family values. It is not a
Judeo Christian based morality. And, if
we were honest we would say that is a good thing. Because traditional family values condemn us
just as much as they condemn anybody else.
We talk about traditional definitions of marriage. We talk about how the family is falling
apart. But then we go out and
participate in the things that tear apart the family. Did you know that divorce rates among
Christians are virtually the same as they are among non-Christians? Did you know that unmarried Christian young
people are just as likely to engage in sex as non-Christian young people? Did you know that Christian men and women are
just as likely to use pornography as non-Christians? Are these family values?
Or we talk about the free
exercise of religion as though it were an absolute value. Christians should be able to exercise their
faith in the public square! How
regularly do we exercise that faith in private?
We have freedom to worship God as we choose, yet in spite of that great
freedom, how regularly do we choose to do something else? All the things we fight for in public condemn
us in private.
And so Jesus gives us a better
way, a better work for us to do. Jesus
said, “This is the work of God; that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Jesus gives us a better work
to do; the work of God is faith. The
work of God is that we believe in the one whom he has sent. The work of God is simply to confess that
Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Son of man is Lord. It is to confess that he has saved you from
your sin through his perfect and innocent death. And that because of his resurrection and
ascension to heaven you will live under him in an eternal and heavenly
kingdom. This is the work of
Jesus. This is what Jesus commands for
us to do.
And Jesus’ heavenly kingdom
is a much better kingdom than any kingdom we could concoct. Earthly kingdoms fights for dominance and
dominion, they go to war over earthly food and daily bread. God has those in abundance and he gives them
out for free. The eyes of all look to
the Lord and he gives them their food at the proper time. He opens his had to satisfy the desires of
all living things.
Earthly kingdoms fight to set
us free from those who would hurt us or oppress us, but only Jesus can truly
set us free. There is no law that he has
not fulfilled and no requirement from which he has not set us free. There is no enemy that he has not
conquered.
The work of God is that we
swear our allegiance to the one who came to die for the sins of the world. He does not command that we jump on board an
earthly bandwagon or support and earthly cause.
In fact, He commands that we die to this world, that we deny ourselves
in this world, because this world is perishing and passing away. He commands that we lay it aside and leave it
behind and in its place we bow our knees and our hearts to him.
Psalm 2 asks the question: Why do the nations rage and the peoples
plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us
burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the
heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in
his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:1-6 ESV)
The Lord has set his king in
heaven. He is the eternal king of an
eternal kingdom. We are not worthy to be
called his servants but he has called us to believe. Let us do the work of his heavenly kingdom.
Amen.
