The Tyrannical Mind
Bill Blond
Midland SDA Church
August 30, 2022
Today, the title of the sermon is “The Tyrannical Mind.” What is the mindset of the tyrant? Many people think of God as a tyrant. God’s laws are a restriction on our freedoms to do what we please.
This one is a toughy. We live in America, ostensibly the freest country on the planet.
Let’s look at some tyrants in the Bible.
God is love, and love can’t exist without freedom. Satan stands for the opposite. In Revelation 13, the Beast power uses force, coercion, fear.
I remember thinking when I read those end time prophecies that there would definitely need to be miracles for people to give up their rights–there would have to be some kind of magnificent Satanic manifestation to bring about the kinds of things described in that passage: Can’t buy or sell, lest ye have the mark.
But the pandemic showed that civilization and our freedoms are far more fragile and easier to lose. Whatever the circumstances, the tyrant uses these three–fear, coercion, and control.
One of the oldest stories of this is Cain and Abel
Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, and Cain’s was rejected.
What is Cain’s solution? Kill his brother. Death seems to be the ultimate control.
Fear, coercion, and control have been used in brutal dictatorships around the world and are happening right now.
What is the mindset of the tyrant? Why resort to fear, coercion, and control?
Lundy Bancroft, one of the leading experts in abuse (he started the first therapy program in America for helping abusive men to stop being abusive), wrote a book (he’s written several), said that all the abusers had in common certain beliefs. One of them was superiority, a man feeling he was morally superior to his partner. Another one was entitlement. There are other beliefs, but I think these provide a good framework for analyzing different stories in the Bible.
Consider the first story of Lucifer:
Isaiah 14: 12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
We know that Lucifer was the covering cherub. Somewhere along the line, he began feeling entitled to the worship that the LORD received. Why don’t I get worshipped? I move where God moves and speak where God speaks. What makes him better than me?
What did he tell Eve? Genesis 3:5
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Satan began selling the very thing he wanted, that he felt entitled to.
Some other examples
Ahab and Naboth’s vineyard
The Pharisees and their reputation
The mind of a tyrant is extremely entitled:
John 18:22-24
22 And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so?
23 Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?
24 Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.
3 things in this story: Pretense, violence, and then sending them away
The tyrant thinks things like, “how dare you!”
When you stop and think, almost every sin can be boiled down to entitlement, to the thought of “I deserve this.” I always get uncomfortable when people say, “You deserve to be happy,” or “you deserve a better X, Y, Z.”
Why don’t people honor their parents? Because they feel they are better than their parents.
Why do people murder? They feel entitled to their own sense of justice, so they must take matters into their own hands and exalt themselves above judges or a jury of their peers.
Why do people commit adultery? They want to feel good and feel entitled to a relationship outside of the marriage.
Why do people steal? They feel entitled to other people’s possessions.
Why do people tell lies against someone? Just like in the false trial of Jesus, they feel entitled to their perspective of the world, or they are so committed to the persecution of a hated enemy that they can use any means necessary to bring harm to them, weaponizing the legal system against that person.
Some people might also lie because of fear–this is also an entitlement to safety. Who told you that doing the right thing would not be dangerous?
Why do people covet the possessions of their neighbors? Because they feel entitled to them. I am consistently shocked and disturbed by people who have made very bad choices in life and the anger, bitterness, and resentment they hold toward the people who have done better than them. [story of man without heat because he didn’t fill out his paperwork, sister brought him propane, but he had all these horrible things to say about her)
Why do people covet someone else’s spouse? Because they feel entitled to a marriage that just works without him or her having to do any work to make things better. Things would be easier if everything just magically bent around to that person’s will.
Entitlement is a dark thing, but there is even a darker side to entitlement.
Most of the time, when we think of entitlement, we think of it as being entitled to GOOD things, but sometimes people can have such a low view of themselves that they feel entitled to BAD things.
Perhaps you don’t think your feelings matter. Maybe you think you deserve some kind of horrible treatment because you are such a worm.
One of my favorite authors says you can do 3 things in life: You can be a tyrant, you can be a slave, or you can negotiate.
Negotiating with others takes time, respect, and effort. I’m always so surprised at how quickly people can resort to shaming someone—how quickly I’ve resorted to shaming. Shaming others is also a kind of entitlement—it isn’t enough to say how you feel.
Rather than control yourself and say things like, “I don’t like this. You are scaring me. I feel unsafe,” we say things like, “you’re terrible! You should be ashamed of yourself!” Rather than say what we are and how we feel, we feel entitled to tell someone else what he or she is. You take a kind of power over someone when you name them. And that power and smugness is darkly satisfying—it feels a lot more powerful than letting yourself feel sadness.
But love covers a multitude of sins.
I sat with a guy who said he would never want his son to marry a black woman or his daughter to marry a black man. I remember feeling shocked that someone today would say such a thing.
The prevailing wisdom of today would suggest that the best route is to shame and attack this person, tell him how awful, stupid, and racist he is.
But instead I asked him, “Really? Why?”
He says, “Well, I guess I would never want my grandchildren not to look like me.”
I say, “Hmmm.”
Then after a pause, he said, “You know, now that I say it out loud, it sounds kind of silly.”
I thought afterward that this kind of quiet realization would never have happened has I attacked him for his racism.
It reminds me of the story of Daryl Davis—a jazz piano player who has worked to convince around 200 men to leave the KKK. He did it by befriending the ones that would let him, and by fellowship, the breaking of bread, conversation, questioning, he uncovered much of the brainwashing they had been subjected to.
He said in 1998, "The lesson learned is: ignorance breeds fear", says Davis. "If you don't keep that fear in check, that fear will breed hatred. If you don't keep hatred in check, it will breed destruction".
In 2018 he said, “What I have come to find to be the greatest and most effective and successful weapon that we can use, known to man, to combat such adversaries as ignorance, racism, hatred, violence, is also the least expensive weapon, and the one that is the least used by Americans. That weapon is called communication.”
Communication can be a kind of negotiation among equals, but the spirit of Satan is to enslave and control.
We can make ourselves slaves to other tyrants, and oddly enough, we can play both of those roles within ourselves: We can punish ourselves miserably and treat ourselves poorly, isolating ourselves, overeating, not exercising, mindlessly consuming, using drugs, hiding away from friends, engaging in habits that only make our lives less fruitful and more miserable: we can stay asleep and we can agree with ourselves that doing so is good or fitting.
[do you hate him?]
We can rob ourselves and our families and our friends and the world and God, and lie to ourselves and pretend it doesn’t matter, but it does.
Christ showed us the example, that it is right to stand up to evil, to name it, to call it out. He didn’t just get slapped and pretend that was okay.
He also showed us the way to approach feelings of entitlement.
Luke 17:7-10
7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Somehow we have become a generation that wants credit.
We like unearned recognition.
Are we better than Jesus?
Philippians 2:1-13 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Matthew 8:19-20
19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
John 13: 13-17
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
We can be like Jesus. He had everything and became nothing. We can give everything we have to become better people, to make the lives of everyone around us better. We can be honest about our failings and confront them forthrightly.
For anyone struggling with abuse or if you know someone suffering from abuse, I would strongly encourage you to read the book “Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men” by Lundy Bancroft.