Lifeline Of The People Is Not President Xi
Xi Jinping, the paramount leader of China, has many titles. He is the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and the President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It has also been suggested that President Xi Jinping has a mandate from heaven. Xi has written: “The lifeline of the people comes from the farmland, that of the farmland comes from the water, that of the water comes from the mountain, that of the mountain comes from the earth, and that of the earth comes from the tree.”
I understand the context of President Xi, and I am not attacking these words of his. On the contrary, I believe humanity is obliged to be good stewards of all creation. But what is truly the lifeline of the people? What is a lifeline? According to the Oxford dictionary, a lifeline is a thing on which someone or something depends. Or a lifeline provides a means of escape from a difficult situation. A lifeline can also be a rope or line used for life-saving, typically thrown to rescue someone in difficulties in water or used by sailors to secure themselves to a boat.
The Chosen One
As I said before, I understand the context of President Xi, and I am not attacking these words of his. But let’s set the record straight about the lifeline of the people and who has a mandate from heaven. When Jesus was baptized, humanity learned who indeed has a mandate from heaven and who is the lifeline of the people. John 1: 29-34 reads:
(This is the Apostle John speaking of John the Baptist’s account of Jesus’s baptism.)
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.
Jesus is the lifeline of humanity and all of nature.
Indeed, Jesus is the lifeline of humanity and all of nature. Luke 19 tells the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem as a king. Luke 19: 37-40 reads:
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Romans 8:21–23:
“The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
The creation groans
People may debate whether or not there is a climate crisis. If indeed the earth’s climate is in crisis, who better to save the planet than Jesus the Son of God? Who better to save the world than the Being that if people fail to worship, the stones will praise him? Who better to save us from entropy than the Son of God that can redeem our bodies? The only one that can save us is the one that the creation groans for His act of liberation.