by Mike Judge, Evangelical Times
There has been a minor storm in a teacup this Easter. King Charles III hasn’t issued an Easter message this year, even though he sent warm greetings to Muslims at the start of Ramadan. The charge, implied or explicit, is that we have a ‘Christian’ king who seems more eager to acknowledge other faiths than his own.
The optics are awkward. The monarch did indeed publicly wish Muslims a “blessed and peaceful Ramadan,” and even marked Eid with a message of goodwill. Meanwhile, an Easter communiqué was conspicuous by its absence. In a nation with an established church, that has raised some eyebrows. But before we reach for the smelling salts, a question must be asked: Does it really matter?
Some Christians appear to have invested more spiritual significance in a Buckingham Palace press release than it can possibly bear. What, after all, is an “Easter message” from the Crown? In recent years it has tended toward the anodyne: carefully balanced, interfaith-conscious reflections on “love,” “hope,” and “shared values.” Perfectly pleasant. Entirely harmless. And, if we are honest, often theologically thin.
One struggles to imagine the apostles waiting breathlessly for a statement from Caesar before preaching the resurrection. Non-Anglican Christians—Baptists, Presbyterians, Independents, free churches of every stripe—should be the last to lose their nerve here. Our forebears did not suffer fines, imprisonment, and exclusion from public life because they believed the health of the church depended on royal patronage. Quite the opposite. They understood that when the church leans too heavily on the arm of flesh, it forgets the power of the Spirit.
The New Testament offers no hint that the advance of the gospel requires endorsement from the palace. Christ builds His church. Not kings. Not governments. Not communications teams drafting seasonal greetings. Indeed, history suggests that the church is often strongest when it is least entangled with the machinery of the state. So yes, it is worth noting inconsistency. Yes, it is legitimate to question priorities. But it is a profound category error to imagine that a missed royal message constitutes a spiritual crisis.