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WHAT A REDEEMER! #2

CAPABLE OF A GREAT CAMPAIGN

When you watch The West Wing on TV, does it make you want to be President? Or is it the most scary, intimidating thing you ever thought about? The Bible says that the government OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE is going to be on the shoulders of ONE Politician named Jesus Christ. Is He up to it?

He didn't really look like much that Wednesday morning. Forty-two years old, casual slacks, loafers, sport jacket, no tie. He had kind of a "junior brush haircut" which made him look like a kid. And together with 15 friends of his, there in the living room of his little brother's house, he wanted to talk about a pretty big dream: running for the most important office in the world — President of the United States of America.

Just about everyone in the room that October day was young — for national politics, at least — in their 30s. Marjorie Lewis was the only woman there; all the rest were bright, ambitious, eager men, political animals . . . excited about the idea that their man might win the White House one year and eleven days later. But what chance was there, really? Jack Kennedy was himself so young; his untested kid brother, Bobby, just 33, wanted to run the national campaign. Kennedy was a Catholic. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, brought a lot of money — and a lot of baggage — to the equation. How in the world could they hope to beat the experienced Vice President, Richard Nixon?

And then the man with the junior haircut stood up, took off his coat, and began to talk about what it would take. And biographer Theodore H. White, author of The Making of the President 1960, tells how it went:

"Now for three hours, broken only occasionally by a bit of information he might request of the staff, he proceeded, sitting occasionally, sometimes standing, to survey the entire country without map or notes. It was a tour of America, region by region, state by state, starting with New England, moving through the Atlantic states and the Midwest, through the farm states and the mountain states, down the Pacific Coast, through the Southwest and then the South. ‘What I remember,' says [Larry] O'Brien, director of organization and keeper of the political ledgers, ‘was his remarkable knowledge of every state, not just the Party leaders, not just the Senators in Washington, but he knew all the factions and the key people in all the factions.'"

Putting it simply, he blew them away. He knew his stuff cold, and he blew them away. And when it was all finished, three hours, the 15 men and one lady got up, walked across the lawn and had a big picnic lunch: roast turkey and pie . . . and they said to each other: "We're going to win. Because this guy has got what it takes." John F. Kennedy had just floored them with his ability, his all-encompassing knowledge of the facts, the details, the broad themes, the necessary hot buttons to push, the rules and regulations of all 16 state primaries he had to enter. He knew where he could win and where he couldn't. And he had a plan to put together the 270 electoral votes he would need in order to take over Washington, D.C.

Well, friend, that's more than 10 American elections ago, but as we read through another political manifesto — this one found in the book of Ephesians — we find some very fascinating parallels. Here in this letter by the apostle Paul, there's a recurring theme of two words: IN CHRIST. You and I and the Christians in Ephesus are "the faithful IN CHRIST." God bestows upon us blessings "IN CHRIST." We're given the praise of His glorious grace "IN CHRIST." And best of all, redemption "IN CHRIST."

Now we come to verses 9 and 10, and you almost get a picture of the heavenly councils sitting around a great oak table, with a map of the universe before them, a schedule of upcoming electoral primaries, and our Father God standing before a huge screen to share His plan. Listen to this:

"And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed IN CHRIST" — there it is again — "to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth under ONE HEAD, even Christ."

Before we finish up for the week, we want to return to the awesome interplanetary power of this book of Scripture, and how God's plan isn't just one for America, or for western, Christianized nations, or even for Planet Earth. Heaven intends to bring the entire universe into wholeness, into complete harmony . . . and all under the leadership and the rulership of this one Candidate: Jesus Christ.
Again, let's take a line or two from the Tyndale Bible Commentary we've been using in this Ephesians series. Dr. Francis Foulkes sums up the whole of this epistle, and really the whole of the Christian message, in just one line. He writes:

"We have here all the great doctrines of the Christian faith that we find embedded in other Pauline letters . . . the purpose of God, in Christ, for His Church."

Notice that three-pronged approach. First, the purpose of God. Second, IN CHRIST. Third, accomplished through and for and by His Church.

Question, though: do we here, on Planet Earth, want this? Do we want to be "under one head, even Christ"? Would He be a good leader? a capable one? How many times have people who were desperate for change, for their lives to improve, listened to the platitudes and promises of a politician on TV, and given him their vote, only to be bitterly disillusioned? Maybe you recall, not so very long ago, how an American company was stirring such excitement with its bold ventures, its vision and daring new ways of doing things. Employees had the freedom to try fresh ideas, move up the ladder, expand their territories. Fortune magazine announced, six years in a row, that it was the "most innovative" company around. The boss decided that the corporation should call itself "the world's coolest company," and demonstrate that new coolness with a huge pair of sunglasses wrapping around the national headquarters building. Doesn't that sound fun? And cool? Well, it would have been, of course, except that Enron went bankrupt before cranes could perch the Ray-Ban shades on the Houston skyscraper. And people learned that all the promises in the world by Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling didn't mean much when stock prices were plummeting from $80 down to half a buck. And so we ask in all sincerity: is Jesus Christ capable of running, and of winning, this across-the-universe campaign? You remember the line from Handel's Messiah, quoted from Isaiah, of course:

"And the government shall be upon His shoulder."

And we wonder: are those shoulders broad enough to hold up the universe?
We have to peek ahead in the narrative to get a satisfying answer to that question. Because this metaphor of Christ ruling over all comes in again at the end of chapter one. Beginning in verse 19, Paul describes how God moves to effect His divine plan, and how His followers should comprehend:

" . . . His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted IN CHRIST" — that just keeps coming back center stage — "when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms."

So if we ask, "Does Jesus have the power to do this job?" the reply comes back: well, there was enough power available to send Jesus down here, have Him die for our sins, raise Him up from the dead, bring Him out of the tomb in great glory on Sunday morning, and take Him back up to heaven. That's how much power there is! If you believe in the Word of God. Is it enough, then? Friend, you answer me. Is that sufficient power to convince you to trust Christ with your life? Dr. Foulkes confesses:

"The cross, the resurrection, and the ascension are considered as three parts of one great act of God. The ascension, like the resurrection, is emphasized as being the Father's work." And notice this: "It is His honoring His Son with the highest possible honor, but, again, IT IS ALSO THE DEMONSTRATION OF HIS POWER."

Early in the presidency of George W. Bush, he was an untested, maybe rather uncertain national leader. Then came the events of September 11, 2001, and our 43rd Chief Executive had to prove himself. Friend, our King, Jesus Christ, and His heavenly Father proved themselves long before we ever came along and cast a ballot. Their power was proved at Calvary. Their plan was tested that dark weekend, and when Jesus came out of the tomb on Easter Sunday, all doubts about the power of heaven were swept away forever.

At the very close of Philip Yancey's book, The Jesus I Never Knew, he confesses why he has chosen to be a part of God's kingdom. Number one, the lack of good alternatives. And number two: Jesus. "He stands up to scrutiny," Yancey writes. "He is who I want my God to be." Then, in his conclusion, he too goes to Calvary, to the scene of that great, cosmic battle, where Lucifer almost triumphed.

"Because of the cross, I have hope," he writes. "If God can wrest such triumph out of the jaws of apparent defeat, can draw strength from a moment of ultimate weakness, what might God do with the apparent failures and hardships of MY life?"

Friend, every bit of power that got Jesus out of the tomb, that placed Him on the highest throne in the universe . . . all that power is still here for you and for me. Right now.