Last month, The Times had a fascinating article entitled ‘It’s too much to hope the King can save us from ourselves’. The author, A. N. Wilson, said that with the country in economic, political and social turmoil, there was a real sense that the British public were looking to Charles III to turn things around. Commentators have been talking about the King ‘hitting the ground running’ – a phrase more suited to a politician than a monarch. And yet for Wilson, the very strength of constitutional monarchy, as exemplified in Queen Elizabeth II, is to remain above politics. And so although there are tough times ahead, ‘we lay an unnecessary burden on our new King if we pretend that he, or any monarch, is able to solve them’.
But if a constitutional monarch can’t save us, what about a politician? Tuesday marked the inauguration of the third Prime Minister in the lifetime of our seven-week old son. Many people are hoping that Mr Sunak will be able to turn things around. The markets certainly have more confidence in him than they did in his predecessor. But if Wilson is right that the UK is ‘impoverished, dangerously divided and viscerally confused’, then its surely beyond the abilities of any one man to change that.
And yet we keep hoping that someone will. Those who don’t want Sunak as PM still want a Prime Minister – they just think Starmer, or someone else would do a better job. Others conclude ‘they’re all as bad as each other’ – and yet we all have this tendency to pin our hopes on one particular individual. Whether that’s football fans hoping that a new manager will be the one to transform the fortunes of their club, or social media devotees following every move of a celebrity or influencer. There can’t be many of us who haven’t hoped that meeting someone special would change our lives.
Whether we look to celebrities, politicians or romantic relationships, we want someone we can follow, someone we can look up to, someone who will solve our problems. All of us look for someone to hope in. And tragically many live lives of despair, because those they hoped in let them down.
Looking for a human being to save us is nothing new. A commentary on the Biblical book of 1 Samuel, written by the Australian pastor John Woodhouse, is entitled ‘Looking for a Leader’. The book of 1 Samuel recounts the desire of the nation of Israel to have a king ‘that we may be like all the other nations, and that our king may go out before us and fight our battles’ (1 Samuel 8:20). For their first king they choose a man called Saul. He looked the part, but was a dismal failure as a king. Halfway through the book, David, ‘a man after God’s own heart’, was anointed as king in his place. David was Israel’s greatest ever king, and yet he also committed adultery and murder. Still, David remained the standard by which future kings were judged. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, there is a desire for a king ‘like David’ (2 Kings 14:3).
After centuries of despair, those hopes were finally fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who – as the angel Gabriel told Mary – would be given ‘the throne of his father David’ (Luke 1:32).
Finally, a king had come who really could transform our lives. He is a king who really can ‘save us from ourselves’. From a Christian perspective, the fundamental problem with our society is not the economy, but our rebellion against our Creator. Politicians disappoint us, and yet they reflect our values as a nation. Few would disagree with the statement that ‘Britain is broken’. But why is it broken? As one MP put it last week, after thirty years when there has been a ‘total disregard for the things that give us meaning’ – including the family – ‘we are now reaping the whirlwind: chronic public and private debt, chronic family breakdown and chronic despair’.
And yet the attack on the foundations of society continues. Last week, Keir Starmer called for a more extensive ban on ‘conversion therapy’, which would outlaw aspects of ordinary Christian pastoral care. On Monday, a Conservative MP announced that the UK Government would commission abortion services in Northern Ireland, against the will of the people, and in the face of the resistance of NI’s own health department.
Despite the current whirlwind we are reaping, we simply press the self-destruct button even harder. We need a King who can save us from ourselves.