Today will see the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald Trump. While many are celebrating a man prepared to challenge the status quo and turn political convention on its head, just as many have their heads in their hands despairing at what he might do once he becomes the most powerful man in the world.
But hang on a minute, that last bit might not be entirely true. Jesus once stood before a powerful political leader and told him, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”
Jesus’ asserts that all earthly power is derived from a higher authority to whom we will one day be answerable. While on the one hand such a concept may beg all sorts of questions about why leaders are allowed to commit appalling atrocities, on the other hand it means that they will one day have to give an account of themselves to a God who loves justice. It also means that our first allegiance must never be to an earthly authority but rather to that same God of love and justice.
As a friend used to remind me in turbulent and uncertain times, “Don’t’ panic, Jesus is still on His throne!”
