Introduction
Would you like to be noble?
In Germany, the nobility has been abolished. All the "von" and "zu" are now just part of the name.
Nevertheless, there is still a great deal of interest in them. If you go into a shop where there are magazines, there are always a lot of magazines that deal with celebrities and aristocratic families. This is the so-called tabloid press. And no matter how much the magazine market is in crisis, these newspapers always sell.
Where does this interest come from?
The word "nobility" comes from the Old High German "adal" or "edili" and means "noble family, the noblest". You want to be one of them. Nowadays you can only be ennobled in a few countries, e.g. in Great Britain and Belgium, but only citizens from there.
This desire to belong to the aristocracy sometimes produces strange results. These German "aristocratic" names - as already mentioned, they are no longer aristocratic, but still sound like it - can be passed on by adult adoption and some bearers of the name pay handsomely for this.
For example, a German-American businessman was adopted by Marie Auguste Princess of Anhalt for a monthly pension of 2,000 Deutschmarks. This businessman then chose the name "Frédéric Prince of Anhalt". This new prince later adopted other adults himself in return for large sums of money, including a brothel operator who is now called Marcus Prince of Anhalt.
These adoptions took place in the USA and are legally valid in Germany. There are now more adult adoptees with the name "Prince of Anhalt" than people who actually come from this family.
As Christians, we cannot really care about our origins, whether we come from a noble family or not. A Christian is a child of God and therefore actually a royal child. This is what it says, for example, in 1 John 3:1; New Testament:
Today I would like to compare what we think of as aristocratic privileges with our childhood in God.
Origin
Some people are very proud of their family and do research and are happy if they can trace their ancestors back a few hundred years.
Personally, I find this really interesting and have already done a bit of research on my family. I have an ancestral passport from my mother that goes back to 1750 or so. But I'm not really proud of my ancestors because I don't see any reason to be. I don't even know what they did.
In Hebrews 11, 1.2; NL it says about ancestors:
For the original recipients of the letter to the Hebrews, some of these "ancestors" really were physical ancestors, whereas we can regard them as spiritual ancestors. They also lived with God.
If you compare different translations of this Bible passage, then the "Hope for All" is somewhat out of the ordinary. It writes in Hebrews 11:2; HFA:
I find this translation quite interpretive compared to others, but the people from the Bible who God recognised in the Bible are of course also our role models.
This text is followed by a list of people from the Bible and a brief description of why they can serve as models of faith.
We can also learn a lot from Christians who lived later. I personally was very impressed by Georg Müller, the orphan father of Bristol and Wilhelm Busch - not the Max-and-Moritz-Wilhelm-Busch, but the Protestant pastor who wrote the book "Jesus, Our Destiny".
These people (and of course the people in the Bible) were not perfect and you will certainly find faults in all of them. But let's scrutinise everything and learn from the good.
I think that is the right way to deal with our Christian origins.
Let's move on to the next supposed aristocratic privilege.
Real estate
Some people associate nobility with a castle and estates. There are also countries where there were different classes of nobility and only the nobility with landed property was taken seriously.
How is it with us? Some people have a house, some people rent.
We find the following promise from Jesus Christ in John 14, 1-3; NL:
Every Christian is promised a home; in principle, every Christian has a right to a home in heaven.
This right is also well described in Romans 8:15-17; New Testament:
That's better than any right of nobility.
Of course, we have our earthly problems and worries, which sometimes degenerate into suffering. But with the perspective of eternity, we can face them much better.
Own jurisdiction
Some aristocratic titles were associated with the right to their own jurisdiction. These nobles could dispense justice themselves and therefore had considerable power.
In this context, it may occur to some that the German churches are for the most part separate organisations and are therefore allowed to regulate many legal issues themselves. However, this has nothing to do with covering up cases of abuse, as criminal law issues are not covered by this.
There have been such cases of abuse everywhere where there has been abuse of power, and the churches should actually have set an example by less cover-up and more prevention, which unfortunately did not happen.
Our federal government has had a prevention programme in place for 25 years, and for the cases that have unfortunately happened in the past, a commission should proactively investigate cases of abuse that have occurred and contact the victims. I think that's a good thing, firstly to accommodate the victims and perhaps still be able to help them and secondly, not to wait until something is uncovered by reporters and you are then hounded.
But that's just a side note.
As Christians, we are of course subject to earthly jurisdiction. We have to pay parking tickets just like everyone else.
Nevertheless, we are also subject to a different jurisdiction.
We find in Romans 3:10-12; NL a rather harsh judgement on man himself:
And this is followed by further lists of bad deeds and attitudes. Of course, not everyone does everything wrong, but this evil, this injustice is within us and that is why we need Jesus Christ.
And this is where this other jurisdiction comes into play (Romans 8:1; NL):
As I said, this does not of course mean that you do not have to face up to earthly law on earth, or more simply that you should apologise often enough.
But there is no condemnation before God for those who belong to Jesus Christ.
Access to the king
If you belong to a powerful noble family, you naturally have a short route to power. You can always approach the ruler directly, which is not so easy for the commoner.
Many of you are probably familiar with the Bible verse Matthew 6:6; NL
This verse is actually meant to point out that prayer should not be staged as a public show in order to present oneself as super-pious.
But the verse also says that God, the ruler of the universe, is always available for each of us to talk to. That is our privilege. We can pray directly to God. We don't need an organisation or a person as an intermediary, but we can talk to him directly. And that is the highest privilege one can have.
And it is not just a rattling off of pre-formulated prayers. Psalm 62:9; NL says it beautifully:
Summary
Let me summarise:
- Today we have seen the nobility as an example of earthly privileges.
- The earthly origin can be interesting, but it is not important. There are many who have travelled with God and from whom we can learn. These can be people from the Bible or people from more recent times.
- God has prepared a home in heaven for everyone who believes in Jesus. This is our inheritance to which we are entitled.
- We have to face earthly jurisdiction often enough because we are only human. But before God, we are acquitted and not condemned.
- We can speak directly to the King, to God. We can pour out our hearts to him. That is the greatest privilege of all.