The Gospel -- The Chinese Emperor and the Farmer

Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish Theologian/existentialist philosopher, recounted a Chinese fable in his book Fear and Trembling in order to illustrate the Gospel.

There once was a farmer who worked diligently along the countryside in a faraway province in China.

One day, the Emperor arrived at his farm, with his complete entourage accompanying him. His wealth exceeded the wildest dreams of the farmer, who had heard the the reports whirling about the Son of Heaven who would one day come down to his village.

The Emperor then descended from his carriage, his gilded robes flowing all around him. He requested to the see the farmer who worked diligently on his farm.

The farmer, overwhelmed by the splendor and grandeur of the visiting monarch, bowed down and worshipped him. The Emperor then picked him up and said to him:

"I want you to marry my daughter and become Emperor of all my land when I die."

At this request, the farmer laughed with derision and refused.

Such an account, as extraordinary as it seems, may cause a number of us to pause.

Here comes the Emperor of the Middle Kingdom, offering a life of wealth and health forever to a humble farmer who has toiled all of his life. The farmer sees all that the Emperor is and has and does. Yet the Emperor's gift is repulsed.

Ask yourself the same question: how would you have responded?

I imagine that when we read this account, we pity and despise the farmer for passing up a life of untrammeled blessing. In truth, the vast majority of people in this life have done just that, refusing the Gospel, refusing to believe that God sent His own Son to die for us so that we can be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

What holds so much of us back? Ourselves.

We are afraid that we are being fooled, and that in the end we will be the butt of bad joke. We do not feel worthy, because of all the things that we have done in our lives, past, present, and future. We fear the unfamiliar, whether our jobs or our families. We trust in our own efforts, believing that all  our "diligent work" will pay off.

No more what our objections, they are all rest on the one assumption that we are better off taking care of things on our own.

So, in preaching the Good News to the Jewish people, Paul told them that through Jesus, all of their sins are forgiven and they can be justified from everything that the law of Moses could not do for them (Acts 13: 38-39). Man will not receive a gift unless he believes that he needs it.

Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount not so that those listening to him would try to keep the law, but so that they would see how hopeless was their state, and that they would receive the Savior, and all the attendant blessings with Him:

"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)

No matter how much we may tell ourselves that we are kings and queens in ourselves, something in our fallen flesh, in our fallen selves forever convicts us of sin, that we are separated from God. Only when we receive not just that all our sins are forgiven, but that in Christ we are made the righteousness of God, forever receiving His standing before the Father:

"1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:" (Ephesians 2: 1-2)

First, we must believe and receive that all of our sins are put away, that we are granted the very life that man seeks yet cannot find.

Then we can see who we are in Christ, because He is our life:

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2: 6)

When we accept that we are nothing in ourselves, that there is nothing that we can do to earn what we are seeking, that there is nothing we can do to get something in our own effort, only then do we die to ourselves and allow Him to live through us, and with Him we receive all graces and honors with Him.

So, we should not chide the Chinese farmer so strictly. Such an offer, to be wedded to the Emperor's  daughter and then reign in his stead upon his death, would dissuade anyone who is preoccupied with his own farm, working diligently for his livelihood, accustomed to having to work for everything for himself. Yet even the threat of death would not be enough, since in order to live the royal life, one must be made royalty. A life of privilege can overwhelm anyone. Just consider Susan Boyle who won "Britains' Got Talent", who had a nervous breakdown shortly after receiving the surge of spotlight. To this, day, she still lives in a small flat in Edinburgh and sings karaoke at the local pub. Who we are depends one what we believe, what we choose to receive about ourselves, which in turn determines how much we are able to receive.

The more that we see ourselves in need of God's grace in our life, that we are nothing in ourselves, and the King of Kings is all in all, then we can reign in life in Him, receiving his righteousness and grace in full measure day to day.