In Jesus’ day, there probably wasn’t anyone as wicked as King Herod. Herod was the tetrarch of Galilee-the Roman King installed over Israel. A skilled politician, he managed to keep Israel under Roman authority some 33 years. A great builder, known for his architectural genius, he renovated and beautified the Temple and developed the great Temple Mount. He’s described as ambitious, clever, efficient, cruel, and tyrannical. He ordered the Roman soldiers to ruthlessly tamp down dissent through campaigns of terror, crucifixion, and police brutality. He was adulterous. In Luke 3:19, Herod takes his own brother’s wife for himself. Out of sheer paranoia, he executed two of his wives and three of his sons. He killed his mother-in-law. In Matthew 2:16-18 he massacres all the infant boys 2 years and younger in Bethlehem because it’s rumored one born of Bethlehem would become King of Jews. When John the Baptist confronts Herod’s wickedness, he gets arrested, and later decapitated. The godless rulers of every age, including our own, suppress the truth through unrighteousness. In this way, Herod is a typical ruler. If you speak out against rulers of any age, it may very well cost you your head.
In time, Jesus would “topple the mighty from their thrones”, “send the rich away empty”, “exalt the lowly”, and “satisfy the hungry with good things.” But the Kingdom of God wasn’t a top-down revolution. It was a bottom-up revolution. There are no power brokers mentioned in Luke. God uses a humble, elderly priest. He uses a teenager and her unsuspecting fiancée. God reveals his kingdom first to shepherds, to good but aged pedestrians in the temple like Simeon and Anna.
Reading Luke 3-8, a question burned in my mind. What if God’s Kingdom revolution isn’t so much about what has to happen at the “top” of society as at the “bottom” of society? Neither Jesus nor John the Baptist let Herod off the hook. Jesus would later call Herod a “fox.” But what if the revolution is to begin in the wildernesses, in the outskirts, in the pastures, in the synagogues, the places for common people like the temple courts. What if the keys to the Kingdom rest on more on the “pawns” and their conversion… than Kings, Queens, Knights, Bishops?
For all the egregious horrors Kings afflict on their subjects… what if the revolution hinges more heavily on the repentance of ordinary? What if the deepest problem with society is as simple as… you have two shirts, and two sandwiches, but you won’t share one of them. You’ve found a way to game the system to your gain, but you have no desire to be ethical. You have found a way to flex your position, power, status, tongue to control and Lord authority over the weak—and you’re using your privilege not to serve, but for selfish gain.
If God were to ever send his King… If God were to ever incite a global revolution… he’d surely start in King Herod’s castle, kicking Herod’s little fanny all over Jerusalem. Or better yet, Rome. Right? No, Jesus reveals himself in the wilderness, he comes demonstrating submission, in baptism, in the Jordan River. Luke 4:1-13, he’s driven out into a wilderness forty days where the Devil tempts Jesus to succumb to his fleshly desires and cravings. Visceral craving for food—turn these stones into bread. A visceral craving for power and authority and control—bow down and worship me and I’ll give you the world! A visceral craving for fame—leap from the pinnacle of the temple and let the angels catch you, you can be an overnight sensation!
What if the real problem is that deep down, we are Herods in infancy; Herods in heart and spirit. Secretly we want to be kings. We want the world to be our oyster. We want all power, authority, control, and wealth to be ours. We want to possess all glory and fame. What if our true character is just as revealed in what we do with an extra sandwich or shirt as in what we do when given real power, authority, status, or privilege?
Jesus Kingdom revolution begins in each of our hearts. The King that must first be toppled is the King within, not the King without. Ye must repent. Ye must believe. Ye must confess. Ye must be baptized. Ye must be forgiven. Ye must learn not to live on bread along but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Ye must learn not to serve self, but to worship the Lord your God and serve him only! Ye must never test the Lord your God but trust him absolutely.
Jesus’ revolution begins in a synagogue where he announces, Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus’ revolution begins cleansing a demon possessed man of an evil spirit. Healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law of fever. It begins alongside a lake, where fishermen are washing their nets after a long day’s work. It begins with the healing of a town’s outcast, a leper. It begins with a group of friends wrecking a roof to help their paralyzed friend find hope. It begins in the house, around the dinner table of a tax collector named Levi. It begins not with the healthy, but the sick. Jesus’ mere associations earn him the badge, “Friend of tax collectors and sinners!” The revolution begins in the grainfields, where the disciples are criticized for eating a little grain on the Sabbath.
Take a look. Read the opening chapters of Luke. Christ’s Kingdom is a revolution of the ordinary, the pedestrian, the tax collector, the sinner, the lame, the poor, the untouchable leper, the lowly shepherd and fishermen, the IRS bureaucrat, the conscripted soldier or officer, the satisfied, full, and sufficiently clothed. The revolution begins in homes and at dinner tables. The home of Peter’s mother-in-law. The home of a centurion. The home of a widow. In the home of Pharisees—where a woman bursts in weeping, washing Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiping them and kissing them and anointing them with perfume. Time and again, the revolution begins in the proximity, in the intimacy, in the immoderation and unpredictable personal space of one dinner table after another, in home after home.
Luke 7:34-35, “The Son of man has come eating and drinking, and you say ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” The wisdom of the kingdom is how Jesus hits us right where it matters most—right where we live—right at the dinner table where we eat, seek satisfaction, conspire, dream, plan.
The revolution began in Peter’s fishing boat. Luke 5:1-11, “As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.”
6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” 9 For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners. . .
The thought of a Savior with an eye more toward our personal lives, personal space might seem terrifying! God, away from me Lord! But it’s in this very space the revolution must begin. “. . . Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.” 11 Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.”