I was having a conversation at work a few weeks back and my friend was trying to convince me that Jesus would be a socialist because of how the early church shared all of their stuff. Plus his message of love and peace was oozey enough to squeeze into the tight parts of his heart and fit it just right.
I disagreed with him.
So you think he would be a republican? he replied.
The temptation here was to offer some withering retort to prove that, indeed, the risen Christ was on my side, and tweak the mixer knobs of Scripture to make it sound right. Can’t be having any feedback now, can we?
This brought up an interesting subconscious motivation. Everybody wants Jesus on their side of the isle. Just imagine the clout that celebrity endorsement would have. When it comes down to it, if you got the Alpha and Omega toeing your party line, and the One who can create ex nihilo donating to your super PAC, alert the turndown service for the Lincoln bedroom, cause White House, here we come!
But the fact is, if you are a progressive or conservative, or even one of them open-toed Green Party weirdees, Jesus is not on your side.
John 6 tells the story of Jesus feeding five thousand with two fish and five loaves of whole wheat. After this miracle the people get frothy and try to make him their king right there on the spot.
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
John 6:15 (ESV)
Finally we got a us a Jew who can get things done! And what better way to rally the votes than provide Happy Meals for all the constituents! Yup, this is our guy, we’re gonna ride this Stud all the way to Rome! Quick, someone grab him.
But Jesus bobs and weaves his way through the crowd and withdraws to solitude.
We do the same thing. We hand him our political opinions for product placement while we shake his hand and smile for the cameras. “It’s very good of you to be with us Jesus, now can we count on your support for the midterm elections in Pennsylvania?”
But his answer to both sides, or any side, is the same: he walks through the clamoring, groping, envious crowd, face set like flint toward sunrise, and says “All who will, follow me.”
He is not on my side. He is not on your side. But we can be on his side if we follow Him.
The instant reaction to this is the impossibility of us rallying behind one Man, what with our bulky political aspirations tugging so strongly in the opposite direction as that blue-blood noob over there. And that is exactly the point. It is impossible. That is, until we are willing to set down the crown that we are trying to set on Jesus’s head; that crown that just so happens to be the exact phrenologic shape which fits our political ideologies.
“Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp…”
Thought Butter 