The New Lincoln

The New Lincoln--November 19, 2018

"The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end'." [Luke 1:30-33]

Everybody is supposed to like Abraham Lincoln.  

Well, nowadays, anyway.

When people are surveyed for their answer regarding who the greatest U.S. president was, Lincoln is regularly at the top of the list.  Over Washington. Over Jefferson.  Over JFK and FDR, too.  Above all, Lincoln is remembered for having a certain kind of character that guided his leadership--he kept a level head as the nation was torn apart by its original sin of slavery, he refused to seek revenge against the defeated Confederacy, he stood his ground and sought to bring about abolition with a clear message, and he was humble enough to know he needed the wisdom and guidance of good advisers and the support of his people. So when people cite Abraham Lincoln as the greatest American president, this is the sort of thing they have in mind.

No one claims that Lincoln made the country richer (going to war with your own country has a way of depleting resources and destroying your own infrastructure, after all), and no one would suggest that the size of our territory expanded during the Lincoln presidency (for a while, of course, the territory of the Union appeared to be a risk of greatly shrinking when the Confederate States seceded).  

No, it seems that when it comes to historical surveys and such, we get our priorities clear: greatness lies in character, graciousness, moral clarity and leadership, and the humility that keeps someone grounded.  And so, with good reason, Lincoln tops the lists year after year.

I mention this because something like this is a big piece of Israel's collective memory, too, when the people asked themselves who their greatest king had been.  And without a doubt, every survey back in Jesus' day listed king David at the top of the list.  His name keeps showing up in the prophets and psalms, as later generations looked back to this figure of David as the quintessential "good" king, someone who got it right--or at least got it right more than anybody else who wore the crown ever did.

But what's striking to me in all that storytelling about good ol' King David is that, like Lincoln, David's "greatness" didn't really have to do with money or land or power or primacy.  David wasn't the first king of Israel--he doesn't get the "George Washington bump" for being first.  He didn't preside over the largest amount of territory for his country during his reign--that credit would actually go to his son, Solomon, and during much of David's reign, his own nation was fighting a bloody civil war with itself when another son, Absalom, launched a revolt.  And David wasn't remembered as the richest king, or even for making Israel the richest it ever would be; again, those marks go to Solomon, and the Bible is rather ambivalent about whether it was or was not a good thing for the nation to celebrate its wealth like that.

The usual markers, in other words, that people today use to measure the "greatness" of nations and their leaders--territory size, money and wealth, power and influence, and such--these things were not what the people of Judea in Jesus' day had in mind when they remembered David.  At his best, he was someone who knew he was meant to be a servant for God and for God's people--a shepherd for lost sheep, and a protector of those on the margins of Israelite society.  David was remembered for coming back around to seeking God's will for him, even after his worst moments and gravest lapses in judgment (poor choices which wreaked havoc with the lives of others, and which had consequences that haunted David for the rest of his life, and which troubled his nation for centuries after).  

In other words, when later generations of Israelites and Judeans looked back on their historical hero, David, they did not celebrate what was usually counted as "greatness"--greatest national wealth or personal fortunes, largest territory, or biggest military.  Instead, Israel came to see that David's greatness came from being--or at least trying to be--good.  If you only cared about who made the country the most money or who built up the largest number of fortresses and armies, other kings would get the title.  But when Israel looked back to David, it was, like we do with Lincoln, making a statement about the character of their best leaders.  And David, when he was not being a murderous, adulterous coward trying to cover up a scandal, could listen to the voices of advisors and prophets who called him on it when he messed up.  He could listen; he could admit his failures; he could seek forgiveness from a God who was known for mercy for stinkers.

The reason we need to have this little history lesson about good ol' King David and Honest Abe is that the New Testament regularly talks about Jesus as being a new David, or someone who would reign victoriously like his ancestor David.  And that means that at least for the writers of the New Testament--and the angel Gabriel here in Luke, as well--we need to ask what ways Jesus is supposed to be "like" David.  

How, in other words, was David really "great," and how is Jesus even "greater" as well by comparison?  Because seriously, if we were judging by wealth, territory, influence, and military prowess, Jesus is laughable compared to David on all those counts, and David wasn't even the gold-medal winner on any of those himself.  By the usual measures of victory and greatness, a homeless, penniless rabbi dependent on the provision of a cadre of women who subsidized his ministry, who owned no land and carried no weapons doesn't look like a triumphant king sitting on his ancestral throne.  He looks like a drifter you wouldn't let sleep on your park bench.  And yet the Gospels say that Jesus shares a certain "greatness" with his ancestor David--and in fact that Jesus even outdoes Davey on the greatness that counts.

He is great, in other words, much like Lincoln is remember as great: not for raking in more land or more bucks or more soldiers, but for being the kind of servant leader who used his power to set people free and mend wounds between people.

This is the only way to really make sense of what is going on in Luke's Gospel, too, by the way.  When the angel brings the message about the baby Mary will have, this is really our first introduction of what to expect from the child she will name Jesus.  If Luke really wanted us to think that Jesus was going to amass armies and lands and wealth like the old kings had once done, he is setting us up for complete disappointment with Jesus, because none of that ever happens.  So unless Luke is a total idiot giving wildly inaccurate expectations of what Jesus was supposed to do and be, only to have us be utterly disappointed when the actual Jesus turns up to be that homeless rabbi, then Luke can't have meant that David's "greatness" was about money and power and land and armies, either.  Luke wants us to get, right from the outset, that the only greatness, and the only victory that God has ever really cared about has been the kind of greatness that lifts up the bowed down, gathers in the outcast, does justice, and practices mercy.  

Jesus' greatness surpasses even King David's in that Jesus doesn't ever slide into the egocentric power-abusing cowardice that David wrestled with (see especially the Bathsheba-and-Uriah-gate scandal), and Jesus truly was willing to lay down his life for his people.  This is his victory. 

Every so often it really is worth asking, "What do we really think makes Jesus so great after all?" and "Why do we talk about Jesus being victorious when he never led an army into battle once?"  These passages that call to mind the memory of David help us out--they help us to see Jesus as the fullest embodiment of all that David strived to be in his best moments, and that Jesus' kind of victory was never about money, land, political power, or armies, but about the strength it takes to lay down your life for the sake of healing and freeing your people.

We don't rank Lincoln the highest because of the stock market levels in 1865, and the Biblical writers didn't look back to David for making Israel into an empire.  

It has always been--as the prophets are quick to remind us, too--about justice, mercy, and walking humbly with God, and having the courage and clarity to keep at all of those, regardless of what anyone else said or did.  That is Jesus' kind of victory, too.

All hail, King Jesus, the homeless penniless rabbi you wouldn't let sleep on a park bench... who sits on the throne of his ancestor David the great.

Lord Jesus, help us to see how you reign, and to share in that kind of greatness as well.