Psalm 27, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 13:31-35
A friend with real influence
Do you know someone who has real influence in high places – one who is your personal friend?
How would life be different if you knew a person with real influence where it counts – a person who would use his/her influence to help you when you need it?
They might get things working for you instead of against you.
You could get the inside story from your friend’s inside knowledge.
You could be encouraged and confident about where life is going and how things will pan out (instead of anxious and uncertain).
In the reading from Luke we see some people who had influence, or thought they did. The pharisees who told Jesus to run away from Herod thought they had influence – they knew what Herod was thinking. Jesus showed he had inside knowledge when he spoke of the future for Jerusalem.
In the political realm, citizens have influence – at least they’re supposed to in a democracy such as we have. Politicians are influenced by opinion polls, to some extent, by consultations, to a small extent, by businesses to a large extent. As I researched this idea of influence in high places I came across the Bechtel Corporation, America’s largest private company. The book, Friends in High Places, is an investigation into this company’s influence on America, its politicians, their foreign policy and how the Bechtel Group changed the face of the globe–with the help of friends like Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Caspar Weinberger. Apparently Bechtel was instrumental in Reagan becoming President. I also picked up on Halliburton, another monolithic American company involved in influencing politicians to the company’s advantage. Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton for five years before becoming Vice President. While Cheney was CEO and since, Halliburton has been scoring huge military contracts without having to compete for them.
This is what we’d have to call negative influence. It is also called corruption and it can happen at any level from the individual to world-wide. The Bible sums it up when it says: Bad companions corrupt good character. (1 Cor.15:33). But there is plenty of positive influence in this world. In the book of Proverbs, chapter 27 verse 17, says, Just as iron sharpens iron, people learn from one another. It’s not hard to find examples. Friends influence friends. Teachers influence students. Parents influence children. I am more aware of the influence my father had on me as I see the influence I have had on my sons. We are all influenced by those around us. We become like the people we associate with and those we look up to.
Primary influence
The most influential person ever is Jesus the Christ. Directly and indirectly he has influenced more people than everyone else combined.
Jesus has influence with our Heavenly Father – he and the Father are one.
Jesus has influence in the world he created – he sustains it, maintains it and guides it.
Jesus has influence in human affairs.
Jesus is a person of vast influence and, totally without corruption, he uses his influence on behalf of those whom he calls friends.
Many of us have stories to tell of Jesus influencing us and of using his influence on our behalf.
More than influence, Jesus actually has real power which he can use directly to make things happen the way he wants. But he more often doesn’t do that but chooses rather to influence other actors to do the right thing.
The story of King Canute and the waves is an apocryphal anecdote illustrating the piety or humility of king Canute the Great, recorded in the 12th century by Henry of Huntingdon.
In the narrative, Canute demonstrates to his flattering courtiers that he has no control over the elements (the incoming tide), explaining that secular power is vain compared to the supreme power of God. The episode is frequently alluded to in contexts where the futility of “trying to stop the tide” of an inexorable event is pointed out, but usually misrepresenting Canute as believing he had supernatural powers, when Huntingdon’s story in fact relates the opposite.
In Huntingdon’s account, Canute set his throne by the sea shore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes. Yet “continuing to rise as usual [the tide] dashed over his feet and legs without respect to his royal person. Then the king leapt backwards, saying: ‘Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.'” He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again “to the honour of God the almighty King”. Canute was a man who knew where real power and influence resides.
God is the Supreme Ruler – the highest of high places.
Jesus is not only influential with God, he is himself the Supreme Ruler. As such he has influence at all levels of human society. That is so even though many people neither recognise nor acknowledge his influence. But Jesus’ position as Supreme Ruler puts his friends in a position of influence. We are friends with the Almighty, our Creator. We can influence the Supreme Ruler and we do it by prayer.
Prayer is influence – in the highest of places. Hebrews 4:13-16
There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before his eyes. And it is to him that we must all give an account of ourselves. Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God—Jesus, the Son of God. Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. Let us have confidence, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.
So the things we said earlier about friends in high places apply to Jesus our friend.
He can get things working for us instead of against us.
We can get the inside story from our friend’s inside knowledge.
We can be encouraged and confident about where life is going and how things will pan out because our friend is the very one who steers the course of history.
The point is to be Jesus’s friend and we get to be his friend when we admit we’re not good enough to be his friend and accept his gift of friendship on his terms.
Is life for you tough, rough, confusing or uncertain?
Could you do with a friend in a very high place?
You have, or can have influence in the highest places, through Jesus our friend, and that makes all the difference in the world.