A civil servant is a trusted citizen who has joined the ranks of workers who labor to further the goals and ideals of the city or state. In a just and free democracy, even the highest office of prime minister or president is still a civil servant.
Those who have become citizens of the Nation of God and the City therein are also civil servants in the sense that they desire to work and promote the goals and ideals of the divine government. These goals are eternal and the ideals are of the highest order.
Joshua ben Joseph was an ideal civil servant because he always followed the Divine Law, over and above every other law of man – he always did the “will of his Father.” This utter devotion to the Nation of God brought him into conflict with authority figures time and time again.
Subversive
Though Joshua was not a law-breaker or deliberate disrupter of the peace, he did challenge and contest the religious leaders who maintained that they were the supreme authority over men and women; they claimed to possess the “keys to the city”, yet Joshua criticized them openly and said on one occasion, “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
Joshua presented the sublime example of a man thoroughly consumed in the service of his God: he took no thought to his own safety and even when his life was in danger, he made no efforts to protect himself.
Dissident
He criticized the social order of slavish obedience to tradition: the Israelites had rules and regulations over every aspect of their lives. Joshua revealed God as a Father and religion as a relationship with the Father instead of following rules. The religious leaders were scrupulous in their commitment to never eat without ceremonially washing their hands.
Joshua responded by saying to them, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? You blind Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
Joshua also stepped over their bigoted rules about “healing on the Sabbath.” He openly defied the authority of the priests by healing a man on the Sabbath:
He went on from there and entered the synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” – so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Which one of you, who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Non-Violent Protester
Joshua entered the world as the Prince of Peace; he preached the good news of non-violence to the violent nations. Once you realize the nations of this world are destined to be conquered, not by tanks or guns, but by peace, love and understanding, then you can more fully join the battle.
Joshua ordered Peter to put away his sword because “those who live by the sword die by the sword.” Joshua’s silent assent to the Roman soldiers' torture him was a form of non-violent protest. He did not lift a hand to prevent them from striking him, but only replied, “If I have spoken incorrectly, tell me what I said wrong, but if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”
Civil Resister
Joshua taught us to “walk the extra mile” when someone asks us to walk with them one mile. This is because of a Roman law in those days that a Roman soldier could force any Israelite to carry his pack for him one mile. So Joshua was teaching a positive reaction to injustice.
He also advised us to offer our coat if someone takes our jacket. Again, this is contrary to what we are normally taught about how to respond to theft. We are supposed to call the police and file a report and if we catch the thief, we are supposed to lock him up in jail. Joshua’s way of life goes against the very grain of established society and it takes courage to resist and choose to follow a different path than the one ordained by society and tradition.
Conscientious Objector
Joshua showed that the highest law is the divine law and that if we are confronted with a social or legal law which conflicts with the laws of the divine government, then we must always choose the higher law of God over the state. We cannot serve both God and the state because a man cannot have two masters for he will “love the one and hate the other.”
Our nations are built on some principles which directly contradict the moral teachings of Joshua. We cannot be involved with commerce if we are advocating service motive over profit motive; and we cannot be involved with or sponsor violence if we are advocating peace.
Agent Provocateur
Joshua directly warned us that his message was one of peace but it would not necessarily bring peace. “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Joshua’s message is for a world that is not ready or willing to accept it yet; it may be many ages to come before the world is sufficiently weary of war and violence that they hunger for a better way of doing things. Until that time, the good news of God’s Fatherhood to Man and Man’s Sonship to God may cause division - within families especially.
He warned us to “count the cost of being his disciple.” He said, “What king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Joshua defied all rules of behavior and even the laws of mortality when he came back from the dead. Even death could not conquer him; his enemies’ attempts to forever silence him failed. He could not even be killed by them. Their greatest triumph over him was thwarted in a way that broke every law of physics we know. And he did not return from the dead to taunt or mock his enemies; he came back and gave further instructions to his followers, serving them selflessly beyond the call of duty.
No human being has ever died with such grace and sublime beauty. Joshua took what appeared to be utter disaster for him and his disciples and turned into an astonishing display of other-worldly strength and power. The fear of death is forever vanquished for the true believer for he knows that there is another world yet to come.
- Chapter 15 of The Urban Joshua
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