How Jesus Takes Over A Nation November 10, 2014
Newsflash:The election season is over. Mercifully, the ads have disappeared, the mud hasstopped flying, and the pressure on voters has eased, at least for a littlewhile. I don’t know if Tuesday’s results left you pleased, concerned, orsomewhere in between. But I do know that the gospel has something important tosay about what Christians expect from their government and how they pray aboutpolitical issues and what solutions they believe will truly transform theworld.
Jesuscertainly was not blind to the cultural evils of His day. He spoke emphaticallyagainst the dangers of wealth and power, abuse and neglect, corruption andhypocrisy. But He never called for a revolution. He didn’t start any socialprograms. He didn’t decry immoral social structures, even though there wereplenty He could have attacked. In fact, when He was confronted with the mostinflammatory political question of His day—paying taxes to Caesar—He barelyraised an eyebrow. Why? Because according to Jesus, evil is not locatedprimarily in social structures. The problem is the individual human heart.Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within,out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride,foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”(Mk 7:20-23)
Theramifications are immense. This means, first of all, that we must never look atsocial and political evils as an “us-versus-them” scenario. It’s never “goodguys” versus “bad guys.” It never could be. After all, the gospel reminds usthere is only one Good Guy, right? For the rest, sin is always an issue for“we” and “us,” not “them.”
Second, itempowers all of us, even the poorest and weakest, with the potential to make areal difference, simply by sharing the life-changing gospel with everyone wemeet. Worlds change—and Jesus’ kingdom comes—one heart at a time.
Third,Jesus’ teaching reminds us that God’s kingdom cannot and will not come byforce. Coercion only perpetuates the status quo, which is conflict. Jesusdidn’t force people into morality. He loved them into freedom—freedom fromself-idolatry and freedom to love and serve the living God. That’s how He gotyou, isn’t it? Newsflash: that’s how He wants to get America, too.