Since the 1990s, Christians,
interested in imitating the example of Jesus Christ, have been reading
books with such titles as "What Would Jesus Do?" "What Would Jesus
Think?", and even "What Would Jesus Eat?" (That last book
revolutionized my health in a most rewarding way.)
Those
questions are easier asked than answered. Why? Because it is never that
easy to lay Jesus out and crop Him around the corner, leaving us with
nice and neat edges, a Jesus that suits our whims just right. So, while
it's taken us more than a decade to answer such well-meaning questions
as the above, why don't we complicate our lives further, the political
animals that we are, by adding one more question to our interrogation
box? "How Would Jesus Vote?"
Allow me to use one character from
the pages of the New Testament Gospels to derive an answer to the
question, "How would Jesus vote?"
The prophet who introduced
Jesus to the world was John the Baptist (John the Baptizer). Jesus and
John were cousins, and John was born 6 months before Jesus. In fact,
Mary, the mother of Jesus, visited Elizabeth, the mother of John the
Baptist, in the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.
In the
spirit of the Old Testament prophets, John preached in a way that was
directly political. In his preaching, he told tax collectors to stop
their corruption. He confronted soldiers, telling them not to
intimidate people. He looked over the crowd that came to him to be
baptized, and he called them "brood of vipers", a bunch of snakes.
At
age 30, Jesus approached John at the Jordan River, asking John to
baptize Him. John felt humble and inadequate to baptize the One who was
superior to him, the One who, unlike John, was sin-free. But Jesus
urged John to fulfill his duty, and John finally complied. It was
during this baptismal ceremony that John officially introduced Jesus
and presented the Messiah to the nation of Israel in particular and to
the world in general. That climaxed John's ministry.
However,
after this peak experience, John's interest in the morality of
politicians remained strong. The vassal king named Herod Antipas had
married his brother's wife, whose name was Herodias. The historical
record from the first century shows that Herodias was King Herod's
niece. Well, John could not stand the sight of such blatant immorality
in political high places. So he marched to Herod's palace and laid it
on the line: "It is immoral for you to marry your brother's wife!"
That's
what you call political preaching. Herod responded to John's public
rebuke by arresting and jailing the prophet. And there in the dungeon,
the mighty forerunner of Jesus sat, hoping that the Messiah he had
proclaimed to the masses would take necessary action to liberate him
from prison. But Jesus did absolutely nothing to rescue John. All John
heard was that his Messiah-Cousin was doing great miracles for
multitudes of people. Stunned, the heart-broken John call two of his
disciples to his cold cell and sent them to ask Jesus a pointed
question: "Are you the Coming One (the Messiah), or should we look for
another?"
By his question, you can see easily read John's
impression of Jesus at that time. John was convinced Jesus was failing
in His Messianic mission to be the Liberating of God's people. Jesus'
message to John brought little or no relief to the prophet, as John
struggled with his dilemma, doubt and disappointment about Christ.
Jesus told the messengers to recount more details of the miraculous
works He was doing throughout the land. And none of those miracles had
a thing to do with the politics of overthrowing the Roman government
and ushering in the Messianic Kingdom.
John and Jesus never met
or spoke again until John was beheaded by King Herod. It may not be
mistaken to assume that John the Baptist died a broken and discouraged
man.
The above account reveals a whole lot about the real Jesus
of the Gospels, the unfiltered Jesus Christ. John's experience gave
Jesus ample time and opportunity to function as a political Messiah, or
at least, as a social activist in the worthy cause of getting the
innocent man, John, released from jail. Jesus could have used His
influence to put in a word with King Herod or with one of the officials
in Herod's government for John's release.
Strangely, Jesus
passed on the chance. What? Yes, Jesus did not take political action on
John's behalf. Jesus did not cast His vote, if you will.
Like
John the Baptist, many contemporary Christians would be disappointed in
the Jesus of the Gospels. We would want Him to join our political cause
to advance our liberal or conservative agenda. But Jesus might tell us
exactly what He told John: Focus on My divine mission, not on your
political agenda for Me. You are interested in My vote for your side,
but that's not why I came. I came to earth to establish the Father's
Kingdom, not your partisan kingdom. Your party may lose the election,
but the Kingdom of God marches forth. Tell the liberals and
conservatives the same thing I told Cousin John over 2,000 years ago,
"The
blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!"
(Matthew 11:5-6,
The Message).
From Jesus' dealing with John, it appears that when it came to political involvement, Jesus remained a hesitant, reluctant player, in fact, a nonparticipant. It's probably safe to conclude that, if He were physically walking the earth today, Jesus would still be a political no-show.
So "How would Jesus
vote?" How about a better question? "Would Jesus vote?" And what if the
answer is, "No!"? Would we be pleased to leave the Messiah out of our
partisan, divisive, earth-bound politics? Would we let Jesus be nothing
less than King of kings and Lord of lords, nothing less than Standard
Bearer of the Kingdom of God, and not the almighty sponsor or supporter of the Republican Party or the Democratic
Party?
