Romans 12 (selection); Mark 1:1-15 (selection)
I saw a cartoon recently where two men were sitting on a park bench — neither one is saying anything for several frames, then one man lets out a sigh. The other guy gets up and mutters, “Well, if you’re going to talk politics, I’m out of here!”
Please don’t sigh yet, stay with me, please . . . Just for the record, today we’ll try to answer the following question –was Jesus political?
***
I believe he was not, and yet, I believe he was! But what evidence do I have to support this affirmation? “The Bible tells me so?”
The Gospel of Mark begins like this: “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is here!’”
This declaration probably doesn’t sound political to us, but in Jesus’s time it was highly political. In Jesus’s time, talking about a different kingdom was a very political and potentially dangerous thing to talk about. The “king” of the Jews, Herod, and the kings of Rome, the Cesars, didn’t take kindly any attempt to undermine their power.
Any threat was dealt swiftly and violently, but that didn’t stop Jesus — he kept preaching that his kingdom “was at hand.” Once the most powerful political players felt threatened, you know they were going to come after Jesus.
And that they did — they came after Jesus because he was a threat to their power. But Jesus didn’t just step on toes of the kingdom of Rome. In fact, he also confronted the local Jewish political leaders, and many a times — Pharisees (they controlled the Synagogues), Sadducees (a party elite associated with the Temple), Herodians (a wealthy and powerful bunch supporting the Roman occupation), and Zealots (a radical group that violently opposed Roman rule).
Remember Palm Sunday, how Jesus entered Jerusalem and immediately walked into the Holy Temple (the political center of Jewish identity and nationalism), how he overthrew the money changers and chastised its holy leaders as “a den of thieves”? –talk about a political statement.
Jesus bold “cleansing” of the temple was a strong political message – from that day on, his kingdom would play by a different set of rules. We find in the Scriptures many passages about a God deeply involved in the politics of his Creation, and many situations where Jesus and politics intersect.
He certainly was seen as intensely, dangerously political by many folks in his day. And yet, he was so different than other political leaders, because his kingdom was radically different from any other.
Now, if Jesus’s kingdom sometimes resembles our own political structures, well, that is because we regularly drag him into our own political debates and twist his message to fit our own political agendas — so sad!
When we do that, we misrepresent what he is about.
***
In what sense Jesus’s kingdom was radically different from others then and now? The word “kingdom,” perhaps the best English translation for the Greek term basileia, is a problematic translation. Why? Because basileia defines any order, any government, by territory.
For instance, the Frederik basileia (the city or the county of Frederik) or the United States basileia (our nation). However, the Aramaic word Jesus and his disciples spoke daily, malkuth, is very dynamic –it doesn’t define a territory, a jurisdiction, but rather a dynamic relationship where someone has dominion over others.
Something like “kingship,” and because we believe that God is love, we could go even translate God’s malkuth or basileia as “Love’s domain or dominion at work.” Something that transforms and generates a new lifestyle, a new way of living our lives the moment we let go and we let God –that’s precisely how Jesus himself experienced God’s kingdom in his life and ministry.
“Follow me!” Jesus says to us, and if we do, we place our lives – all that we are, including our political duties and gifts — into his hands.
***
Here a word of caution about the expression “Kingdom of Heaven” found in the Gospel of Matthew. It means exactly the same as “Kingdom of God” and Matthew may have used it to better communicate with his own Jewish Christian audience.
Both expressions point to a dynamic, personal relationship here and now. It couldn’t be earthlier, so to speak, not far away somewhere in the stratosphere or between a couple of remote galaxies. It may not be consumed, complete until a time beyond our imagination, it is already here, and from this day on we are citizens of that kingdom as well.
That’s the reason Jesus always talks about his kingdom in the present: is “at hand,” “it is here,” “it has already come to you,” “it already belongs to the poor in spirit, the persecuted, and the righteous,” “it already belongs to the children,” “it is already growing like the mustard seed,” “the kingdom is wherever you treasure is.”
His kingdom is the power that sustains us and empowers us every day to be all God would want for us to be. It is the grace that invites us to be good stewards of God’s creation and God’s people.
It is a git, the gift of political stewardship as we learn to be faithful citizens of his kingdom each and every day — a gift to be honored and used, and to be used the way Jesus would –wisely, respectfully, never selfishly. Jesus never ran away from his political duties.
On the contrary, he went as far as disrupting the status quo when he realized that it only benefited greedy and selfish people who couldn’t care less for “the least among us.” And for that he ended up nailed to a cross.
We don’t need to be crucified, and yet we ought to stand up against anything or anyone who dehumanizes us.
***
Let me conclude by saying that not everything that Jesus said and did was political — we could even argue that Jesus’s message wasn’t even primarily political. What I’m driving at is that the message of Jesus had political implications in his day — and it still has political implications today, won’t you agree?
How we interact in the political arena should be influenced by what Jesus did, by the way he did it. Would we blindly align with a political party? If we do, we will remove God as our leader.
Would we sling mud and demonize the opposition? If we do, we will lose opportunities to love. Would we place our hope in politics alone, on our vote every two or four years? If we do, we will be wasting or misusing God’s gift.
***
One of my favorite Peanuts cartoons shows Lucy chasing Charlie Brown. She is shaking her fist at him and screaming: “I’ll get you, Charlie Brown. I’ll get you. And when I get you, I’m going to knock your block off!”
Suddenly, Charlie Brown screeches to a halt –he turns and in a very mature way says: “Wait a minute, Lucy. You and I are relatively small children with relatively small problems and if we can’t sit down and talk through our problems with love, respect and understanding, how can we expect the great nations of the world to sit down and talk through?”
And then, “Pow!” Lucy punches him hard and says: “I had to hit him quick; he was beginning to make sense!!!” Friends, living as citizens of God’s Kingdom each and every day is not easy – it wasn’t easy for Jesus. It wasn’t easy for all those who gave it a try.
It won’t be necessarily easy for us, for living as citizens of the kingdom here and now sometimes makes little sense to others. But not to us who dwell in the Lord. Not to God, who leads our lives day and night.
***
Whether we vote or not, regardless of how we vote, remember –this sacred gift, this call to be God’s citizens here and now does not end –should not end — on November 5th.
May our gracious God give us all the strength and courage to sit down and talk through our political choices and disagreements with love, respect and understanding as Jesus did, for the Kingdom of God is already here.