Church & Politics - Doing Politics In The Way Of Jesus
In last several week's post, we started our discussion of the factors that contribute to upheaval. As we have already seen, upheaval is never something that happens in a moment but is instead generations or centuries in the making as countless forces both inside and outside the Church exert their influence on the Church. At first these the forces are seemingly unrelated to the work of the church and negligible in the impact, but over time, as they persist and mingle with other forces, their influence on the Church increases exponentially. Eventually, inevitably, not only are the combined effects of these forces seen and felt, but they also begin to shape the Church in substantial ways. This shaping is generally not positive. In previous posts, I used words like "encrustations" and "barnacles" to describe the effects of these forces on the body of Christ because, like barnacles on a boat, they start out seemingly benign, but as they accumulate, they have a dramatic impact on the maneuverability, effectiveness, and longevity of the ship. The same is true here, as the Church becomes increasingly impacted by these forces, it loses vibrancy and potency to the point that its long-term viability is called into question. Dramatic action is needed if the Church is to survive, and more than survive, to thrive, to be the flourishing body of Christ it was created to be.
That's where upheavals come in, as people who have grown discontent with the state of the ship but have never lost their belief in vessel or its mission, begin, with much prayer and trepidation, a long, painful overhaul. More on that in future posts.
But, let's continue where we left off , with the political forces that exert their influence on the Church. In the last post, I discussed how counter-intuitively, one of the most significant ways in which politics shapes the Church is when Christians believe that politics shouldn't, and therefore isn't, shaping the Church. The widespread belief that we can and should "keep politics out of the pulpit" has led many Christians and churches to believe that their faith is apolitical, protected from the corrupting influence of the political machine. There are (at least) three problems with this way of thinking:
First, as we discussed last week, it is not possible because it is not how we were designed by our Creator. We are not made to be compartmentalized but integrated beings, with each area of our life impacted by the others. Specifically, as creatures at are simultaneously, completely, and inextricably both physical and spiritual, our spiritual existence must find expression in every area of our physical lives, including politics. In this, as in all things, Jesus is our model.
Second, if, theoretically, we could succeed in a complete separation of Church and politics, where would that leave politics? Without access to the community that exists to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. When Christians who truly desire to follow the leadership of Jesus in every area of their lives, who have been shaped by his wisdom and the presence of his Holy Spirit, who are living in the hope of resurrection, abandon the political arena, they leave it without witness and leadership. Is it any wonder that our political landscape is as dreary as it is when so many Christians and churches have spent the last few generations "keeping politics out of the pulpit"?
Finally, if we remove politics from the life of the community of faith, if we prohibit teaching, discussing, debating, and learning to love one another through politics, we leave our people without discipleship in this crucial area of life. We abandon our flocks to find sustenance on their own in wolf-infested territory. And this is exactly what has happened. As the Church has left politics to the politicians, so too has it left its people to be discipled by politicians, pundits, and the ever-expanding influence of the 24-hour news-entertainment industry. The body of Christ exists, in part, to teach followers of the Christ to think and act, in every area of life, including politics, as he would if he were in our shoes. If we neglect this duty, our people will be taught by someone else and will eventually bring this teaching into the Church. As noted above, a true separation of politics and faith is not possible, so if the Church is not intentionally shaped by Christ-centered, Christlike teaching on politics it will be unintentionally shaped by unChrist-centered, unChristlike teachings.
This last problem is the topic of today's post. I hope I've made a case for the necessity of teaching God-honoring, Christlike, Spirit-empowered political engagement in the body of Christ. But having said that, I now urge caution as we move forward. While I strongly believe that we, as a body, must engage in politics, I believe with equal conviction that we must do so differently than everyone else does. We must subject our every political opinion to the Kingship of Jesus and seek to live our political lives in a way that is distinctly Christian.
That, unfortunately, is not what we are seeing in the Church today. We are not known as a community with a distinctive political voice but are, more often that not, tied to one political expression or another, and end up doing politics the same way that everyone else does but calling it "Christian." This is, of course, far more dangerous than simply keeping our faith and politics separate because we are now baptizing our own opinions, that have all too often been shaped by forces that are decidedly not Christlike, and calling them Christian. In other words, we say we are representing Jesus while doing and saying things that Jesus would never do or say. When we do this, we not only tarnish the reputation of Jesus but we also blunt prophetic voice and impact of his Church.
To be clear, this is not simply a problem for one side of the political equation. In Jesus' name, people have historically and continue presently to claim both sides of the political spectrum as the Christian way to do politics and, by extension, demonize the other side and contribute only to the deepening of divisions rather participating with Jesus in the healing of the world.
This is not simply an issue for modern politics or the American Church but has been a struggle from the very beginning. The Gospel of Matthew records a political conundrum that is eerily similar to the one faced by the modern Church. A group of Pharisees, who tolerated but ultimately opposed Roman rule, teamed up with a group of Herodians, who sought to ride the coattails of the Roman Empire to glory and power, to trap Jesus. Now, keep in mind, that these two groups represented the opposite extremes of the political spectrum of their day, but they joined forces to ask Jesus a seemingly obscure but ultimately incredible poignant question:
"Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
The issue of taxation would have been controversial in any political context, but in 1st Century, Roman-occupied Palestine, it was especially thorny. These rival political factions, the Pharisees and the Herodians, teamed up to construct the perfect trap. If Jesus replied that it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, siding with the Herodians, the Pharisees would immediately label him a Roman sympathizer, and his credibility among his followers, who increasingly saw him as the Messiah, the King of the Jews, would crumble. If, however, he affirmed the Pharisees' preferred strategy of opposition by counseling them not to pay the mandated taxes, the Herodians would accuse him of treason and turn him over to Roman justice. All in all, it was an elegant solution to their Jesus problem: no matter what he answered, his messianic aspirations would be finished.
Jesus, however, would not so easily be dealt with.
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.”
They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s."
Effortlessly, Jesus sprung their trap and left them standing slack-jawed and empty-handed. No response was left then but amazement.
You see, their trap had been elegant, simple, clean, and effective, but Jesus' response was brilliant. "If Caesar's image is on the coin, doesn't that mean the coin belongs to him. Give him back his coin." A clever bit of folky, homespun wisdom, the kind you'd expect from a country Rabbit from the Galilee but, taken at face value, not enough to escape the trap. But, of course, there was more to Jesus' statement than face value. By intentionally using the word, "image," to describe the coin, Jesus was invoking one of the most foundational truths in Judaism, one that went all the way back to the very beginning, the first chapter of the Hebrew Bible:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
In other words, Jesus was saying, "If the coin belongs to Caesar because his image is on it, then give it back to him. But, remember that, just as Caesar has stamped his image and, thereby, his claim to ownership, on the coin, there is One who has stamped his image on you, to whom you belong. Give him what belongs to him."
Jesus was counseling a level of humble, respectful, non-anxious, non-ambitious political engagement that challenged the Herodians' political posturing and scheming, while at the same time, modeling a righteousness that far exceeded that of the Pharisees and teachers or the law. In fact, for him, the former was the natural consequence of the latter. If we truly understand the implications of being created in the image of God, we will humbly acknowledge God's sovereignty over every area of our lives and bow to his will in every arena, including politics. Jesus commanded his followers to render appropriate respect to Caesar as the fruit of the far greater respect they owed to their Creator. And, as we will see later in the story and throughout history since, where Caesar's Will opposes the will of God, it is the obligation of those made in his image to resist, but with the same humility and respect with which they previously obeyed.
Here, Jesus indicted both the Herodians and the Pharisees, calling his followers to political engagement as an expression of complete allegiance to God. Any who follow the Way of Jesus are to find a way to surrender their own political ideals and aspirations in order to represent him, not themselves, in the political arena. And, in doing so, they bring a third identity, a third voice, that is neither Herodian nor Pharisee, neither conservative nor liberal, neither Republican nor Democrat (nor anything in between) to the table, a voice that is distinctly Christian, Christlike, that has the ability to speak hope, to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
According to Jesus, our goal, as his followers, is neither to avoid politics completely nor to participate in it in the same way that everyone else does. Instead, he wants us is to walk a third way in politics, a way that is uniquely and completely Christian, fully surrendered to his rule and reign, representing our heavenly citizenship in our earthly citizenships, living politically as he would if he were us.
This is, of course, easy to say, but far more difficult to do. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. In this, as in all areas of our life with Jesus, we must walk a narrow road, but it is one that leads to life. How we walk this road will be the subject of future blog posts. For now, let's just leave it at this: as followers of Jesus, we must not avoid politics lest we leave our people without political discipleship and leave the world without salt and light. On the other hand, we must not do politics as everyone else does, baptizing our own opinions and biases and calling them Christian just because we believe them. If we, as Christians, wander too far into either of these dysfunctional political strategies, we only add to the barnacles on the ship and contribute to its floundering and ineffectiveness. And if we continue down this road long enough, only a great upheaval can shake loose the encrusting barnacles and free the Church once again to viability, vitality, and potency.
