There are a few verses in the New Testament (2 Peter 1:17, Revelation 5:12-13) which show us that the Lord Jesus Christ has been honored and glorified and shall yet be even more so when he returns to this earth, but what can we each personally do to honor him in the mean time?
After thinking on this for some time, I found myself back in the book of Esther. Esther is a fascinating book with some quite wonderful characters in it. If you haven’t already read it then please do as it’s a wonderful and a true story about some fascinating people.
There was Ahasuerus a Persian King and ruler over a huge empire of some 120 provinces – a mixture of different peoples, nations and languages.
There was a young Jewess named Esther who became Queen of this great land – the former Queen having fallen out of favor.
We also find another Jew, a man named Mordacai who was Esther’s Uncle who had been responsible for Esther’s upbringing, both her parents having died when she was quite young.
And then there was Haman, a quite magnificent character. A real up and coming go getter. A man who knew exactly what he wanted and he went out there and he got it. He really knew how to make things happen. He was driven by a great desire to be rich and famous. He sort great wealth and high position in society. He wanted to be famous, looked up to and respected all throughout the Kingdom of Persia particularly in the palace. That was his goal and he went out and achieved it.
He was the sort of guy who would throw a big party and invite all the social climbers along just to tell them how great and successful he was and these people were happy to go and listen. Happy to be seen in the “right place with the right people,” doubtless they were made of the same stuff as Haman. So Haman would speak of his great wealth, success in business and all the great honor that had been given him.
You can just see this guy lying awake in his bed at night thinking up ways he could engineer things tomorrow and how he could manipulate people to gain his own ends. Haman was truly a great man – of the flesh.
Now Haman had been promoted to the highest office in the Kingdom and all people bowed to him and praised him except for one, and that one person was Mordacai the Jew. I don’t know why Mordacai refused to honor Haman; perhaps he could see straight through him to the man who was entirely a product of human greed and selfishness.
When Haman saw that Mordacai would not honor him he became furious. He hated Mordacai and wanted him dead. But Haman being a somewhat creative man of considerable vision thought to himself, instead of killing just Mordacai, why not exterminate the entire Jewish race which produced such a man as him.
So he put things in place for that very thing to happen. He asked the King and the King gave him permission to kill all the Jews in his kingdom (which makes you wonder just how much did King Ahasuerus think about any of his decisions). Meanwhile Haman had a gallows built about 23 metres high (big enough to be seen from the palace) to personally hang Mordacai on.
Now Queen Esther had invited Haman to a couple of banquets. Not just any banquets but only for her the King and Haman. Haman was elated. All his dreams had come true.
But on the night before the second banquet, the king had trouble sleeping. Perhaps he had eaten too much the night before or maybe an angel tickled his big toe. For some reason he couldn’t sleep anymore. Then he thought that it’s not right that the King of Persia be the only one awake so he woke some of his servants and asked that the daily chronicles should be brought and read to him (for after all if reading the daily chronicles won’t put you back to sleep then what will?).
So they were brought and they were read. Time moved on until an article was read which was of great interest to the King. It seems that some time earlier, Mordacai had discovered a plot to kill the King and had made the thing known to the proper authorities and the criminals were dealt with and the King’s life was saved, and that nothing had ever been done to reward or honor Mordacai.
Just then, Haman arrived in the outer court and made enough noise to be noticed. When the King knew it was Haman he said “Ah! Excellent! Just the man I want to see, bring him in.
Haman my good man I have a problem and I need your advice on it”. Haman was most pleased, all his wishes continued to come true. His ego was immense. If his head had swelled any more it would have fallen off. The King wanted to know what would be the best way to honor someone whom he thought should be honored. Haman thought to himself who would the King delight to honor more than me?
Quickly he came up with the answer – the way that he would like to be honored. He said “Get the most noble prince to dress the man in the kings garments and put him on the Kings horse with all its finery and lead the man throughout the city, going on foot before him saying that this is a great man whom the King delights to honor, proclaiming that this is what the King does to honor a great man”.
“Excellent idea said the King! Haman you are a noble prince, go and do all that you have said to Mordacai the Jew for it is he whom I wish to honor”. Now Haman knew better than to question the Kings judgments so off he went, clothed Mordacai in the Kings attire and put him on his horse and went before him throughout the city proclaiming that Mordacai was a great man and that this is how the King delights to honor him. After this, Haman covered his head and hurried home in shame. Things didn’t go to well for Haman from then on, it was all downhill.
So we see here a classic way of honoring someone. Interestingly enough, Jesus was actually honored in a very similar fashion to this. In Matthew 21 we find him riding on an ass that the disciples had put their garments on and others paved the road with their garments and palm fronds and all praised him as the great son of David who came in the name of the Lord.
But how can we honor our God or our Lord Jesus? We can get the best clothes and the best steed but we can’t put them on the horse and take them through the streets of our home town. So what can we do?
The main point of honoring Mordacai this way was that he was put on show. The message was proclaimed publicly to all. For the next few days everyone would be talking about it. “Hey did you hear what the King did for Mordacai? Yea! Wow! The King must think that Mordacai is the greatest. We had better listen to anything he says”.
Mordacai, the horse and the garments had to be shown and proclaimed to all. It was no great honor to get dressed up and sit on the horse and never leave the stable. To be truly honored he had to get out there and be seen.
So if we really want to honor our Lord Jesus it’s up to us to get off our bottoms and get out there and talk to people about him whenever the opportunity presents itself. We have to make him known.
You know that when we do this we don’t always get a good reaction. Most people couldn’t care less, but that really doesn’t matter. It’s not our job to save people, that’s Gods’ job. Our responsibility is to provide God with something to work with, to be a tool in his hand because God loves to work through people. So don’t be disappointed if people don’t respond when you preach the Gospel, we don’t have to be results oriented, we just have to be there as Paul said, He sowed the Gospel seed, Apollos watered it or added to the peoples’ knowledge but it was God who gave the increase it is God who makes it all work in the people he chooses to work with (1 Corinthians 3:6).
So let’s get out there and honor the greatest man ever, our Lord Jesus Christ.
