The King Who Became a Servant
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue gave this sermon to the Community of St. Joseph on October 1, 2017 for the second anniversary of the ministry with and for homeless persons in Savannah, Georgia .
The King Who Became a Servant
Philippians 2:1-13
I want to start with a once upon a time kind of a story, in order to open a window on the life and ministry of Jesus: This is the story of two boys born on the same day. Though they lived quite near one another, their lives could not have been more different. Tom was born to a poor family who did not want him. Edward was born to a rich family and the whole nation celebrated his birth.
Tom grew up with his large family packed into a room on the third floor of a decaying building. As soon as he was old enough, Tom’s father sent him out into the streets dressed in rags to beg for money, a small child fairing much better at getting hand outs than his dad. Often his father beats him when he returns home for not bringing home enough money. His lot was a common one in his poor neighborhood as “Drunkenness, riot and brawling were the order, there, every night and nearly all night long. Broken heads were as common as hunger in that place.”[1] Life was tough.
Meanwhile Edward grows up with more than enough food, wearing the finest of clothes and receiving the best possible education. You see Edward was the much anticipated son of King Henry VIII. Edward is the crown prince, the future King of England.
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One day poor Tom passes the Palace at Westminster and sees a boy of his own age walking the grounds inside of the imposing gates. Excited by a glimpse of the future king, Tom unthinkingly rushes up to the golden gates of the palace and presses his face against the bars. As the guards attempt to get the ruffian to leave, Prince Edward spies the commotion. He walks closer and sees a boy much like himself, but living in rags. Prince Edward invites Tom into the palace.
Once inside, the prince peppers the pauper with questions, learning such surprising facts as not only does Tom and everyone he knows only have one set of clothes, Tom doesn’t understand why he would need two sets of clothes as he only has one body. The two exchange outfits and in the process discover that with a change of clothes, they look so much alike that each could be the other. Edward sees that Tom is bruised and he runs to chew out the guards for their rough treatment of the boy. But the guards see not the young prince, but a boy in rags. They assume he is the poor boy they admitted not many minutes before. The guards laugh when Edward proclaims himself the prince. They toss him out of the palace.
Tom becomes the prince, as no one believes his protests that he is not. And Edward is now a poor boy in the streets, as no one can believe when he says that he is the future king of England.
This is the story The Prince and the Pauper written under the pen name Mark Twain by a newspaperman, Samuel Clemons. The story of the Prince who changes places with a poor boy was Clemens was of getting at the truth by telling it slant. You see, Clemens had noticed how the poor were treated worse by the court system, and how once in that system it was hard to get out. He travelled to England and France and found the situation in those more ancient civilizations just as bad, if not worse. Everywhere he looked, the poor were more likely to end up in prison or even put to death for crimes they did not commit. So Samuel Clemons wrote the story of The Prince and the Pauper to tell readers of the problem in a way he hoped they might hear it.
In the book, the Prince ends up in prison for a short stint and faces a beating. Every where he goes Edward discovers how the world is tilted to make life easier on the rich and even harder than it has to be on the poor, especially once they find themselves in jail. Meanwhile, the poor boy Tom proves himself an able judge as when he stands judgment, his street smarts make him better able to ask questions that get at the truth. He is not as likely to trust someone just because they have money or to distrust someone just because he is poor.
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