With the general focus on politics right now, all of us have been subjected recently to the onslaught of commercials, debates, commentaries on debates and name-calling that has become a part of the political machine in America. It’s interesting to me that Jesus wasn’t much interested in politics, but the people around him were. He was questioned about the morality of paying taxes to a secular government that tolerated, at best, the religious nature of some of its citizens. The question was political in nature and was meant to trap Jesus into speaking against the current secular government.
Even among his own segment of society, Jesus was not concerned with the political hierarchy. He routinely criticized the highest level of leadership within his own religious / political base of the population. His followers, including those who were closest to him were also very interested in the political nature of Jesus’ mission. It was commonly believed that the Messiah, when he came, would be a political leader who would free the nation of Israel from the political bonds of secularism and establish a theocracy which would primarily benefit the Jews as God’s chosen people. Even after spending over three years with Jesus on a nearly daily basis, they still didn’t understand his mission and purpose. They continued to see him as a political leader.
In the first chapter of Acts we read about some of their thoughts. Jesus has been killed, he has come back to life and has been alive for nearly 40 days. Acts 1:6 tells us some of what they discussed during this time. “When the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, ‘Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?'” (emphasis mine).
They kept asking him. Not once, or even twice. They kept asking him about the political aspect of his mission. “Now that you’ve risen from the dead, is this when you’re going to complete your mission? Now are you going to restore our kingdom?” Even after all this time, they didn’t understand that coming back from the dead was the mission. Jesus had no political aspirations.
How often do we fall into the same mindset? My Facebook page is littered with Christian friends who support both Democrats and Republicans and who are convinced that the hope for our nation is in whoever gets elected to the office of President. How often do you see something to the effect that we should allow prayer in schools again? How often has it been said that this country was founded on Christian principles and we need to get back to them? I’ve even seen a post that said that if only the Christians who didn’t vote would get out and vote that we could turn this country around. How many of you reading this believe some, or all of these things?
The problem with this thinking is that we put our hope in a political process. Our hope does not lie in the next President. Our hope is in Jesus alone. And I have news for you. If you don’t pray in school, they haven’t taken prayer out of school. YOU have. There is no law restricting you from praying any place or any time you wish. Even at school. If you are a Christian, you should be praying in school. Especially around exam time!
Jesus didn’t come to restore our kingdom. He came to establish his kingdom. In the grand scheme of things, our kingdom is unimportant. It’s irrelevant to God’s bigger picture. Oh, it’s important to us. But it’s far less important to God. Should we vote then? Absolutely! Jesus never advocated that we become passive about politics. He did advocate that we keep a proper perspective. When discussing our needs with his disciples, Jesus said that we should first of all seek his kingdom. Everything else would fall into place if we kept a proper perspective. Since we are citizens of heaven, our job is not to campaign for the next political party. Our job is to campaign for the true King. Let’s stop trying to build our kingdom. Let’s help God build his. Let’s do a better job of recruiting for the only party that will make a lasting difference in not only our nation, but the world. The kingdom of God. Make disciples.