Election Reflection

An election season, is perhaps the season most ripe for perspective, and perspective is more perfectly tempered with reflection.  

Here's the way several of the leaders of a former world power ran their government.  

In 19 AD Caesar Tiberius wrote a declaration that forced every Jewish male in Rome (the city, not the empire) into military service.  He also wrote another declaration that banished all non-military Jews form the city of Rome (not the empire, just the city).  The Jews that didn't leave Rome or enlist on that very day were promised they would be put into slavery for life.  We don't know exactly what Jesus was doing when this decree came forth in the city of Rome, but we might say he was likely hundreds of miles away learning carpentry from his father.

In 31 AD Tiberius had a serious political rival name Sejanus.  Tiberius wrote a summons to Sejanus to come join the senate.  When he arrived at the senate a letter was read condemning Sejanus as a traitor and he was promptly dragged away and executed.  How very Roman of them.  After he had Sejanus executed he went on a reign of terror killing anyone and everyone who were known friends and family of Sejanus.  These events happened during the very heart of Jesus' ministry.

Herod the Great, was the Roman client-king of Judea when Jesus was born.  Aside from murdering most of his family, Herod was responsible for the deaths of possibly hundreds of rabbis, and the baby boys in and around Bethlehem he had killed as he was hunting for Jesus.  

Herod was so evil in fact, that he worried no one would mourn his death.  He had dozens of noblemen captured and said that on his death, they should all be killed, ensuring that the mourning around Judea would be adequate for his passing.  Fortunately, his son and daughter never carried out his wishes. 

With an atrocious government surrounding his world, it's important to remember how little Jesus interacted with or tried to influence his government, and the same is true of his followers.  In the book of Luke John the Baptist is confronted by two different sets of government workers, namely tax collectors and soldiers.  He tells them essentially "just do your job, and don't abuse your power". (chapter 3:12-14)

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+3&version=NIV

Don't abstain, and don't abuse.  

Like Jesus, John will discuss the government if approached about it but otherwise, the simple truth is, there's much more important work to be done.

The men who followed Jesus on a day-to-day basis were guilty of expecting Jesus to establish an "earth" kingdom.  They believed he would lead a revolution that would overthrow the Roman rule over Judea.  In John 18 Jesus stands before Pilate, an established government leader and tells him "my kingdom is not of this world."  

There, standing in front of the Prefect of Judea Jesus has a perfect opportunity to do some holy exposition on the role of government.  He could have said he has a real and serious interest in what's going on in Rome and other earthly kingdoms, but he doesn't.  Instead he speaks of his own kingdom.

What if, as a Christian, the best way you can affect positive change in your earthly kingdom is to be about the business of furthering the spiritual kingdom you find yourself a citizen of?

After Tiberius came Caligula.  Even though Caligula persecuted the first Christians, executing them to the tune of 2,000 or more, the Christians were much more concerned with the work of the spiritual kingdom than changing what was happening in the physical one.  With an earthly ruler catching them and torturing them, their reaction wasn't "how can we get a new Caesar" it was "how can we bring God's kingdom to our world." Regardless of what leader you prefer, this is the only serious question to concern yourself with. 

The endless people raising questions like "how would Jesus answer that question, would Jesus vote red or blue, what would he say from behind that podium?"  haven't fully realized that, in all honesty, Jesus would have probably never been behind the podium to begin with.  

This map has become virtually the  only way we define the states (and the people) in our nation.  The proper way for Christians to react to this divisiveness is to carry faith that their God is perfect and can work his will regardless of which earthly leader happens to be in power. 

Can Christians sound off about government?  Absolutely; but it becomes a problem when a Christian makes "end of world" statements about how everything will be awful if so and so wins or loses.  Putting your entire outlook on life in the hands of an earthly election does a major disservice to Jesus and his kingdom.  

If you consider yourself a Christian consider the following. 

1.  Don't make statements that make any sort of claim that a specific candidate is the correct one for Christians.  

2.  You and I have a God who's capable of bringing his will to fruition no matter who the President is.

3.  As a Christian, you're expected to use your talents and your powers to serve a different kind of kingdom entirely.  

4.  How sad and un-worthy our spiritual kingdom would be if it was actually affected by the outcomes of the earthly kingdoms we inhabit.    

What if your facebook statuses were more concerned with your spiritual kingdom and less concerned with your actual kingdom?  What if your zeal for a candidate became your zeal for a savior?