One of the great challenges the church faced during the COVID years was negotiating the question of when to obey the governing authorities and when to resist them. For many Christians, verses like Romans 13:1–7 settle the question, insisting that Christians should only be obedient to governing authorities.

The paradox for the Christian is that we need to both obey better than the world and resist better than the world.

But Christians have a long history of discerning when political resistance is appropriate, and our church’s own confession qualifies the power given to the state. In the chapter Of the Civil Magistrate, the Westminster Confession of Faith 23.4 says (italics added):

It is the duty of the people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience’s sake. Infidelity, or difference in religion, doth not make void the magistrate’s just and legal authority, nor free the people from their obedience to him: from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted; much less hath the pope any power or jurisdiction over them in their dominions, or over any of their people; and least of all to deprive them of their dominions or lives, if he shall judge them to be heretics, or upon any other pretense whatsoever.

The default position of the Christian is to be a law-abiding citizen. But we recognize that there are limits to our obedience, specifically when the magistrate’s commands become unlawful— that is, wicked.

Do we have any Scriptural models of political resistance that are celebrated as righteous models for us? 

Religious Political Resistance: Refusing to Bow Down and Pay Homage

The book of Esther is a compelling narrative of political savvy. The Jews at that time were living under the rule of the Persian king Ahasuerus (this is Xerxes I, who ruled from 486–465 BC). Ahasuerus had promoted the wicked Haman over all of his officials, commanding that all the king’s servants bow down and pay homage to him. This is a clear command from the king.

Mordecai is one of the key characters in the story of Esther. He is Esther’s cousin, who helps her navigate her role as the new queen of Persia. Yet Mordecai flat-out disobeys this command from the king. 

But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. Then the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king’s command?” And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury. (Esther 3:2–5)

Mordecai is doing a clear act of political resistance in this story. But it is not necessarily clear why he is unwilling to do it. Bowing the knee and giving homage to rulers as an expression of honor is not forbidden in the Scriptures necessarily (e.g., 1 Kings 1:16). There is some question of why Mordecai was disobedient on this point. It seems his reason was because Haman was an Agagite, and Agag was an Amalekite king, a historic enemy of the Jews. Iain Duguid, in his commentary on Esther, has pointed out that this act of resistance fell in a gray area:

In comparison to Daniel’s grand act of defiance, Mordecai’s stand, while at one level justifiable enough in its motivation, seems to latch onto a relatively secondary issue. It was an issue involving shades of gray, rather than black and white, the kind of question over which faithful believers might come to different conclusions. It is not that Mordecai was being totally unreasonable in his reluctance to bow to Haman, but we wonder whether this was the right issue for making a stand. Think how many other compromises Mordecai has made in order to remain alive and employed in the Persian court! (p. 34–35)

Despite the complexities of this decision, Mordecai disobeys the clear command of the king yet is considered a model to faithful Jews in this action. Clearly, the book of Esther considers this a case of an unlawful command that Mordecai was right to resist and disobey.

Constitutional Political Resistance

Is Mordecai an anarchist? Is he selfish and stubbornly not going along with the program? Is he in spirit going against the righteousness of Romans 13? Clearly, Mordecai is depicted as a righteous man in the book of Esther. Not only that, he is highly honored by King Ahasuerus for uncovering an assassination plot (Esther 2:19-23; 6:1-13). He is himself promoted in Haman’s place—and the political honor he is given is because of his willingness to resist Haman:

And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people. (Esther 10:2-3) 

It seems that Mordecai’s resistance to Haman was a way of honoring the king. That is, it was like constitutional political resistance. The king had a wicked official whose foolishness would have actually undermined the king’s authority. The welfare of any empire is closely tied to that empire’s treatment of God’s people. Haman was setting Ahasuerus’s dominion on a suicidal path.

Citizens in America had to make similar decisions during COVID—how to honor the king, politically speaking. Our “king” (the highest authority) in America is the Constitution, and we had to at times resist the foolish commands of lesser authorities that undermined the purposes of the highest authority. We had to refuse to “bow down and pay homage” to them. There are numerous Scriptural warrants for such actions, and Mordecai is one of the clearest.

Obedience and Resistance

The paradox for the Christian is that we need to both obey better than the world and resist better than the world. In both scenarios, Mordecai was willing to do what no one else was willing to do. Whether it was risking his life by not bowing to Haman or risking his life by uncovering the assassination plot—his acts of resistance and obedience were acts of love for God and love for neighbor. 

As a church, we should be prepared for both. We should outdo our neighbors in obedient and generous citizenry. But we also must be resolved to have courage, when the time comes, to follow the path of Mordecai and refuse to bow down when obedience would go against the will and purposes of God.