The Lordship of Jesus Christ is essential to our Christian life, as we have seen on our meander through Roman 14:7-9 over the past few months. 

We are, as believers, in the process of being sanctified (set apart from sin to serve Christ). This process is never finished in this life, even in the most outwardly holy believer. How does Christ’s presence in our lives as Lord and Savior affect us if it doesn’t render us sinless in this life? Maybe an analogy from WWII might assist us.

I think of a story I read about Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in his biography, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 – 1964, by William Manchester, pp. 442-445.

The photograph above is of MacArthur, without side arm, as he steps from his Douglas C-54 Skymaster Bataan II in Tokyo. He later earned praise for his role in rebuilding Japan as its postwar civil administrator. (AKG-Images).

MacArthur as New Ruler—but not a god—over Japan

In 1945 after the two A-Bombs had fallen on Japan, the Japanese signaled to General MacArthur that they wanted to sign an unconditional surrender. He immediately decided to fly to Tokyo with a few aides to take up residence in a hotel as Supreme Allied Commander.

His advisors protested that Japan was still armed and he would likely be killed. They advised him to wait for occupation troops to take up residence and disarm the 300,000 battle ready army near the airport where he planned to land. MacArthur said, “No, they surrendered and they meant it. I’m going.”

He flew with his aides to Tokyo. As they prepared to deplane, his aides strapped their side arms on. MacArthur said to take them off because against 300,000 they would be useless anyway. A Marine by the door, reached for his rifle as was custom. MacArthur quipped, “Son, you’re in the wrong army,” as he chuckled. “Sorry, Sir,” the soldier replied as he replaced the rifle.

The hotel was 15 miles away from the airport. Thirty thousand armed Japanese soldiers lined the motor route with their backs turned to him. This was a sign of deep respect usually afforded only to the Emperor.

The symbolism of this parade from the airport to the central hotel where MacArthur would now enforce allied rule over the Empire was not lost on the Japanese people. From this place of central authority MacArthur would begin to enforce the implications of their surrender. MacArthur eventually forced the Emperor to visit him at his hotel. Before this photograph was printed most Japanese had never seen the Emperor’s face.

“Many Japanese were extremely offended by this picture because of how casual MacArthur is looking and standing while next to the Emperor, who was supposed to be a god.” https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/hirohito-macarthur-1945/

However, they did not mistake the implication that MacArthur was their new ruler and he was not a god nor was Hirohito any longer.

An Analogy to Christ’s Rule over Us

On a Biblical level, Jesus does the same when each person receives him as Savior and Lord! He enters that person’s life and takes up residence in the citadel of his being—their heart. He begins to extend his rule over him/her throughout this earthly life and only perfects her/him in eternity when each sees him face-to-face.

I John 3:1-2 states this so clearly—

1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Prayer

Lord over life and death,
I embrace You as my Lord!
I want you to speak to me through Your Word and by Your Spirit.
I want You to transform my mind and life by subduing me to Yourself and Your ways.
I know this will not be complete in this life, but
I look forward to being in Your presence,
seeing You face-to-face, where it will then be complete.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.

© 2018 C. Richard Barbare All Rights Reserved

Jesus now rules both realms—that of the dead and the living.

We who are alive can depend upon him to watch over us since he is Lord of the living. When we come to the time for death, we are changing realms but not Lords! He rules the realm of the dead.

In Christ Alone!

One of my favorite modern hymns is Stuart Townend’s “In Christ Alone.” At my ordination to the diaconate in the Anglican Church in North America, the choir sang it. I was “setting the table” for the Bishop to celebrate communion. The pipe organ boomed out that hymn suddenly, and I was frozen there in worship of Christ at the table. I was roused into action shortly because there was work to be done. However, I’ve never grown tired of those words. The fourth verse is powerful.

No guilt in life, no fear in death.
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

Committal at the Grave

I often used the 1928 Prayer Book in my ministerial practice as a Presbyterian clergyman. One blind lady commented at a funeral, “I think I heard echoes of the Prayer Book in your committal service.” She was right. There really is no guide for practical services—funerals, praying for the sick, counseling people in need. I fell back on the book I had owned since I was a teenager—The 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

The words of committal are traditional and Biblical. I recall vividly the first time I used those words at a funeral. I began,

“For as much as it has pleased Almighty God to call out of the world the soul of our beloved brother ___, we commit his body to the ground… .”

I didn’t get to add the rest right away because his daughter shrieked in horror at the thought of leaving her father’s body in the ground. I went on to add, “in sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life… .” I don’t think she heard the rest after “commit his body to the ground.”

I have slightly altered the words since that first time. I now say, “We commit his/her body to the Lord in sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life… .” No further shrieks have since occurred.

People today do not have the knowledge tradition gives. After you have heard the words of committal several hundred times at funerals, you know what is coming afterward. You sit and bask in the security of your loved one awaiting the resurrection, and not feeling you are abandoning him or her to the cold desolate soil of the grave.

Shakespeare’s Grave at Stratford on Avon (left); an unmarked field stone (right)

It doesn’t matter with the Lord whether we are famous or common. He will keep us safe in death as he did in life.

The Dead are Safe in Jesus’s Presence

Jesus commands the realm of the dead, so nothing happens to our loved ones he does not decide. He is the holder of the keys and Hades (in its local sense). The grave is also in his safe keeping. None of the sheep given him is lost ever.

Revelation 14:13 sums up our loved one’s state now—

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. They rest from their labors, and their works follow them.

Prayer

Lord of the Dead,
You hold our loved ones in Your safe keeping.
They are never lost or never again in harm’s way.
You watch over them and will raise their bodies on the Last Day.
Until that day we can rest in the assurance
You control our destiny and theirs.
Keep me in peace when I am anxious about anyone who has died in You.
About those who didn’t seem to have a strong faith in You,
Help me to trust in You to always do what is right.
I do not know the transactions of a person’s soul at the end of their lives.
In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

© 2018 C. Richard Barbare All Rights Reserved

I again refer to a personal experience in this post about Jesus’s Lordship as essential to our Christian life. 

The second faith formative event that occurred to me just before graduation from seminary was my father’s death. We all have favorite verses of Scripture. I have several different passages that have become my favorites through various experiences I have had in life.

One day in January 1987, part of my mental, physical support system in this world collapsed when I received a phone call from my mother. It included just two words—”He’s gone!” But what an impact those two words had on me. She was telling me that my father had just died.

Mom and Dad’s Engagement Picture (1951)

I was in my senior year of seminary anticipating my Dad being at my graduation in four months’ time. My Dad had never been an emotionally-oriented, touchy-feely sort of person. I do not remember his telling me that he loved me. (I’m sure he did. I just do not recall it.) However, one of the closest expressions of his love for me was his last words to me before we left Greenville, SC for Seminary in Jackson, MS. We were getting into the U-Haul which held our few worldly possessions. “Son,” Dad said, “Remember that you always have a home here.”

With his death that safety-net vanished. He would not be able to provide a home for me and my family if a pastoral call was not forthcoming after graduation. In fact, I would likely have to provide one for my mother if the need should arise. So much for earthly props!

I flew home for the funeral and found a rare 18 inches of snow covering the ground in Greenville. I had to be retrieved from the airport by church members with a jeep. My world inside my head was as cold as the earth around me.

After a tearful meeting with my Mother and my two siblings, and a quick meal, we all retreated to different rooms in the tri-level family home. I withdrew to the den and sat in Dad’s chair. Beside it I found his Bible. I had no outward security in my future earthly prospects. They were nonexistent. Could I find any security in God’s Word? I took up his Bible and prayed to God that he would give me a passage that would hold me in the days to come.

I found my way to Romans 14:7-9. God quickened the 9th verse and applied it to my chaotic mind at the time.

9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

That was the comfort I needed! Jesus rules the sphere of the dead and the sphere of the living! My Dad was safe in the keeping of Jesus in the world of the dead. He is where Christ is! And, Christ is Lord where I am in the world of the living. “I would be all right,” God said to me through that passage.

Over the next few months, I meditated on the surrounding context of that verse, developed a sermon which I preached, and received more comfort from God in my uncertainty.

Prayer

Lord of the Living and the Dead,
I often feel as if I have nothing to lean on.
The economy rises and falls and
Often my income remains the same.
I have learned to lean on You.
Little with You is a lot!
My deceased loved-ones are safe in Your keeping.
While I await joining them,
I’m just fine in Your loving care, too.
I claim Your grace for today’s needs,
And I know it will be enough.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.

© 2018 C. Richard Barbare All Rights Reserved