The Politics of Jesus

Is Jesus political? If He was or is, where would He stand on policies today in America? What does He value when it comes to politics?

There are groups of Christians who believe that our role as believers has no place in public politics (Anabaptists to name one), so they choose to stay uninvolved entirely (not voting, etc). I disagree with that stance somewhat, but if you couldn’t tell from previous posts in this series, I don’t love the way our current Christian culture is engaging in politics. Where’s the middle ground?

Jesus is the middle ground because while Jesus wasn’t focused on how to change the Roman government, He was purposeful in how He lived and commanded others to live. If you read the New Testament carefully, you begin to realize just how political Jesus actually was.

Jesus was focused on the politics of the Kingdom of God.

Let’s define politics before we get carried away.

In American culture, we hear “politics” and think immediately about two opposing political parties, the donkey and the elephant. We think of laws that are being forged and fought for or against. We consider the landscape of our election season and the recent interviews or debates we heard. We see how our legislators respond to public uprisings when protests abound. We wonder what will change to heal our nation because it all seems to be in the hands of the political voices in Washington D.C. or our state’s capitol. By those thoughts, Jesus could not be political.

Politics, according to Merriam-Webster

• the art or science of government

• the total complex of relations between people living in society

• competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership¹

A simple reading of Jesus’ time on earth can easily lead us to assume that He didn’t involve Himself in politics because He wasn’t engaging in Roman rule or pushing for governmental change. But if we keep to that narrow-minded perspective, we miss the entire point of the Kingdom of God.

Now He was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, and He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst [or within you].”
Luke 17:20-21 (NASB)

The politics of Jesus were not so concerned with Roman law or government power. Jesus knew He was bigger than that, and human politics could not bind God.

The politics of Jesus were and are concerned with the Kingdom of God and the societal structure to ensure the flourishing of people within that Kingdom, on earth as it is in Heaven.² You might think at first glance that that means Heaven’s laws and societal systems, but that’s not how Jesus explains it throughout His time on earth.

He proclaims multiple times that “the Kingdom of God is near”! It is here already, in our midst, because Jesus came to earth and now the Holy Spirit resides within us. What many Christian scholars, theologians, and philosophers try to propose is that the Kingdom of God functions as a sort of government in itself (obviously it mirrors the idea of royal kingdom rule) and that is the political system we should be most concerned about.

So what are the politics of Jesus?

They are fully focused on how the Kingdom of God should exist as a kind of government of its own, and how people living in and around that Kingdom should flourish.

“When Jesus said that his kingdom was ‘not of this world,’ then, he ‘does not mean that his kingdom has nothing to do with politics or worldly matters.’”³

If you honestly look at Scripture, it doesn’t align with the American political system. It challenges believers to focus on a different political perspective altogether, and that’s not easy in our current culture.

“Jesus was a real king establishing a tangible kingdom on earth, one that was intended not to overthrow the Roman Empire but to exist within it, embodying ‘God’s reign as an alternative to the empire’s societal reality.’”⁴

This is not a post to convince you not to vote. I think you should vote, and I’m trying to muster up the confidence to vote, too. This post is a challenge to consider what we should value as believers above all else, and the political system we should be shouting from the rooftops.

My challenge is: are we more concerned with whether people are voting or who people are voting for or how they honor God?

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The Politics of Jesus: The Upside-Down Kingdom

I love the Sermon on the Mount because it shows us a way forward that can only be possible with God, and it is vastly different than the way our human nature works and even more specifically, our American culture (hence, upside-down).

I heard in a Bible Study recently that it’s more like the “Upside-Right Kingdom” because what Jesus preached in Matthew 5-7 aligns with the way that God created the world and humanity to be. Along the way, humans messed up the order of how we ought to live and treat others, so Jesus came to flip the ways of our world upside-right again.⁵

He said:
’Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

I don’t see Jesus saying “blessed is the one who mocks their political opponent on a national stage to try and puff themselves up.” I also didn’t read Jesus saying “blessed are those who vote or those who vote specifically for one party or the other.”

When we consider how we, as Christians—believers in the One and Only Jesus Christ who have committed our lives to following and honoring God and His calling on our lives—should live, the Sermon on the Mount is a great—nay, the best—guide.

Throughout this whole series, I hope to relay how Christians ought to conduct ourselves in speech and action as everyday citizens of America AND I also want to offer a critique of our politicians, specifically any that claim faith in Jesus. My hope is that we would hold our politicians who claim to be followers to the actual standards of Jesus’ “upside-right kingdom” as we hold each other to as well.

Is character the most and only important thing to consider when voting for a political candidate this season? Maybe not for you, but that doesn’t mean you should shame those who are offended by either of our presidential candidates because of their character and cannot stand to vote for them because of that alone.

Jesus’ Political Affiliation

It’s a fun pasttime for believers to ponder, “would Jesus be a Democrat or a Republican if her were alive today?” It’s a funny thing to ask because we should readily know the answer. Jesus already walked this earth in a highly politicized environment, and He chose to not engage in any political banter or Roman systems—He wasn’t for it and He wasn’t against it.

Jesus taught that we are to honor our government⁶, but honoring and submitting to something does not mean you have to celebrate it or agree with every decision. In fact, Preston Sprinkle argues in Exiles that submitting to the government as commanded by God does not mean you have to (or should) pledge allegiance to it.

“Jesus doesn’t neatly fit into any one point along our modern political spectrum. His kingdom is not of this world, and neither are his kingdom values.

We need to cultivate the habit of letting Christ’s kingdom and its ethic determine our political values, because Christ’s kingdom—and our membership in it—is a political identity.”⁷

If you believe in Jesus Christ, the risen son of God who came to earth to preach the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, then your first and primary allegiance is to God. I know we know that in our hearts, but it gets so murky these days with the expectations of our country’s political system.

God and Country theology is not biblical. God never partnered with the government to make His Kingdom known.

God chose to partner with those individuals who put their trust in Him fully to come together as a body of believers and build a community of honor, righteousness, justice, respect, humility, and hope.

The hope of our nation doesn’t start or end with our political system or government (thank God, right?). The hope of our nation and the world at large starts and ends with Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven that resides within all Christ-followers.

“We don’t put our primary hope in Babylon to embody the kind of kingdom God intends, when we—the global church—have the resources and power to live out Christ’s upside-down kingdom values.”⁸

The hope of all people—American, Mexican, Ukranian, Israeli, Palestinian, and beyond—is the church of Jesus Christ. If or how we vote in this upcoming election matters, but it won’t change the hearts of wayward children of God, and it certainly won’t make our nation more “Christian” (even though that’s not something Jesus really cared about anyway).

The way we live out the political ethic of Jesus and the “upside-right” Kingdom changes everything.

I hope you’ll join me and read through the full Sermon on the Mount a few times over the next month to really allow the words of Jesus to sink into your heart and allow His priorities become your priorities.

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politics

2. Matthew 6:9 (from the Lord’s Prayer)

3. The BEST resource I can offer you to read on this subject is Exiles by Preston Sprinkle. Honestly, his entire podcast is also great, but this book offers a perspective of Scripture that most Americans have neglected or ignored because it’s not convenient.

Sprinkle, Preston M.. Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire (p. 64). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

4. Sprinkle, Preston M.. Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire (p. 64). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

5. https://www.lifeway.com/en/product-family/jesus-and-women-bible-study

6. Matthew 22:21 and Mark 12:17

7. Sprinkle, Preston M.. Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire (p. 81 & 82). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.

8. Sprinkle, Preston M.. Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire (p. 66). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.