It’s with a little trepidation I step into this topic. I am not a social activist. Though some have claimed that Jesus was a social activist, he was most certainly not. The only thing he said about Rome was “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt 22:21). The Jews, however, thought he was. Though they may have despised Rome’s rule, they were quite comfortable with the status quo and were afraid Jesus would upset the limited power they enjoyed:
John 11: 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
Though Jesus’ coming was going to have radical consequences to the entire world, He was clear that His kingdom had no conflict with the current systems of government. They were not his concern. He said to Pontius Pilate:
John 18: 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
This concept was beyond the understanding of the Jews and the world, even today and even among many Christians. If he had been interested in altering the status quo, he would have fought. But His kingdom was beyond the touch of earthly regimes and had already been established. He had no vocal criticism of Rome’s rule. The only criticism he had was against the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the day, the only government he was concerned with.
Now that doesn’t give us much of a clue as we face an election of poor choices which may have radical consequences for our earthly nation. Though we may not be of this world (John 17:16), we are still in it. We have feet planted in both worlds and we are accountable for what we do here on earth.
So what do you do? I have this simplistic belief that all peoples get the government they deserve, particularly democratic societies. And that is what we have whether you like it or not . . . what we deserve. We can cry and whine about a government that has been self-serving, favors one class of people over another, and says one thing and does another that mysteriously profits them while the average person ends up with the wrong end of the stick, but we asked for it.
At one time, I had this naïve notion that we needed to eliminate everyone in Congress and start over. I would vote against every incumbent. I thought this generation needed to die out like the Israelites in the wilderness before they could possess the Promised Land. I failed. No one lined up behind me. We continued to send the same ones back to Washington over and over and over. But it wouldn’t have worked. Even if they all started with good intentions, they would quickly learn the means of survival as our “servants” and that generally means becoming tainted by the system.
And now the chickens have come home to roost. Our choices are a narcissistic, greedy, pathological lying wrecking ball with no coherent ideology and a narcissistic, greedy pathological lying liberal who thinks “we need to change religious beliefs.” I didn’t know that was any human’s job.
Religious leaders have weighed in on the election purporting to be oracles of the will of God for you. Evangelicals seem to back Trump more, i.e. the Republican Party, giving the false impression that conservatism and/or church attendance are commensurate with Christianity. It is not. They, of all people, should know that the only solution to the world’s ill is Jesus Christ. But because the prospect of that solution is so bleak, they have fallen back to Plan B, supporting those who will legislate their version of morality. There is a reason Jesus didn’t join the fray of politics. He fought a different front in a different dimension, the one that was from “another world,” the one that changes the hearts of people through the gospel. Fighting on a different front than that is outside of their wheelhouse and they have no business being there.
Clinton represents the establishment, the same ol’ same ol’ liberal agenda which strikes fear into their hearts. There is plenty of nefarious smoke rising out of both pits, but be careful to fault them. They are simply a product of the system we helped create. She learned better than most how the system works, how one hand washes the other and then how to cover it up. Her opponent says he has washed their (the establishment) hands, admittedly for his personal gain, but never had his hands washed and claims that as a virtue.
Now, if one of your criteria is to have a Christian leader, you should carefully consider both candidates. You might be disappointed. Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged. (Matt 7:1),” so we have to be careful. But at the same time Paul didn’t let us off the hook when it came to an obligation to judge:
1 Cor 6: 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
So you be the judge. Because someone says they are a Christian doesn’t make it so. Because they attend church doesn’t make it so. Being a conservative or a liberal has nothing to do with it. We don’t look at what they say or what party they belong to. We look at what they do and we have plenty of material to assess for both candidates. As much as I hate clichés, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, then it’s a duck regardless of how someone spins it.
So, now for the famous question–what would Jesus do? Well, the answer is in what He did. When things started getting heavy, he would climb up a mountain by himself to pray. He would enter his closet and close the door to all the noise of the outside world and earthly senses. When He came back down, he was so totally aligned with the will of God that He could say,
John 5: 30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
It is the same with you. You don’t need someone to tell you what the will of God is for you. If you understand the mystery, which is Christ in you (Col 1:27), then you do the same thing. You crawl into your closet, shut the door of the senses, the spin meisters, your friends, your pastors, and come out so aligned with God’s will that you also can say the same thing Jesus said,
John 5: 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
If you understand your union with Christ, how you are one with Him, then when you come out and enter the voting booth, it will be you voting; yet not you, but Christ who lives in you.
Gal 2: 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
You can’t go wrong. If you don’t know your union with Christ, then you will be driven by the waves of someone else’s self-serving rhetoric aimed to manipulate you for their personal gain. This, by the way, is how we got here in the first place. But regardless of how this election goes, one thing you can be sure about, it will be what we deserve.
If you don’t know the “mystery,” which is Christ in you. Read The Lost Coin. The story of a young man who learns what it means to operate in union with Christ, how Christ works in him, as him.
