“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” – Colossians 4:5-6
I have a confession to make.
This summer, my youth minister suggested a book for me and several other guys to read called "Like Jesus" by Jamie Snyder. This book discusses how Christians tend to create a "counterfeit" Jesus in their minds whom they follow, rather than seriously sitting down with the Jesus of the Bible and confronting the richness, depth, and breadth of the Scriptural Savior. The Biblical Jesus usually doesn't hew as close to our biases and beliefs as we would like Him to. Whereas, our counterfeit Jesus usually tends to look, speak, act like us. I had created one of these counterfeit Christs.
To put it more bluntly: I had become an idolater.
Snyder's book lists just a few of the innumerable versions of Jesus so many Christians (and churches) fall into creating. One of them is called "Political Jesus".
According to Snyder:
"Political Jesus is friendly but quite polarizing, perhaps more polarizing than friendly. If you are not consumed with politics or the political process, His followers will be quick to shake their heads in disappointment, saddened that you are failing to carry out your purpose as a Christian. One undeniable characteristic of Political Jesus's followers is that they are persistent. They have a way of weaving all things political into every conversation, gathering, and prayer. Anyone who does not align with their political plans and desires are labeled as "too" something: too passive, too apathetic, too uniformed.
Political Jesus believes that cultural and moral change is accomplished through power and leverage, as opposed to grace and love. Therefore, Political Jesus's followers believe that the road to being a Christian nation is paved with legislation, and if you don't agree, get out of the way."
I have fallen into this trap; I have been following a “Political Jesus” of my own creation. This upcoming election is the first presidential election that I can vote in, and I have been completely unprepared for the unrestrained vitriol, name-calling, and doom-prophesying that has accompanied this presidential race.
I have played right into this atmosphere.
You can ask my friends and family. Almost every longer-than-10-minute conversation I have with them eventually gets pulled towards political issues. Things get heated; I goad those who disagree with me into deeper argument, and I find myself taking savage pleasure in imagining their chosen candidates’/ideology’s political defeat. I have found myself agreeing with the lies of the political process: you should win at any costs; compromise of values is a virtue; single-minded pursuit of power is good. I was more concerned with being right than being Christ.
How far this falls from what the Bible calls Christ-followers to be!
King Solomon in Proverbs writes, “Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin”; Paul exhorts in Romans, “if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”; King David remarks in Psalms, “How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!”
Peace, unity, love. These are the three least political concepts out there. Politics thrive on anger, division, and hate. It is easier to get elected if you can play off the people’s fear and anger. This exploitation of fear diametrically opposes the Christian life. According to the Apostle John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, “perfect love drives out fear…The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
We are slowly allowing our political identification to precede our Christianity. The way of Jesus is one of forgiveness, self-sacrifice, and radical openness. The way of politics is revenge, power-seeking, and profound exclusivity.
Brothers and sisters, do not allow our faith to be diluted by the stain of worldly power struggles. If Christians continue to use the same language, rhetoric, and tactics as worldly politics, we severely undermine the witness of Christ in the world. Christians are to be more than political, to look differently from those around us. If Christians are virtually indistinguishable from the bellowing political pundit on TV, how will non-Christians see Christ through us? We are called to be in the world, but not of the world. So, where the world calls for war; let the Church call for peace. Where the world calls for hate; let the Church call for love. Where the world calls for division; let the Church call for unity.
The Church has weathered far worse storms than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The Apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians where our true allegiance lies: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Our first allegiance is not to Democrats or to Republicans; though they continually seek and cajole us into giving it to them. Our final allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. No political party can ever come close to grasping the full depth of the power and love of our God.
I thank God every day that my hope is built on Jesus Christ, not on who will be in the White House.
