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?
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?
