Politics divide; Jesus unites

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Politics divide; Jesus unites

by David Sellnow

At the outset of this year’s State of the Union Address, the President of the United States rejected a handshake from the Speaker of the House of Representatives. When his speech was over, the Speaker tore up her copy of the President’s speech. There is deep division between the parties leading our politics. 

There’s deep division among people too.  A few months ago, a poll by the Pew Research Center showed that between two-thirds and three-fourths of Americans think persons on the other side of the political aisle are closed-minded.  Half of the members of each party believe the members of the other party are immoral. More than a third of the members of each party are convinced that those who vote with the other party are lacking in intelligence.

The political landscape is so full of divisions that even when you listen to a debate by members of the same political party, much of the time is spent yelling at each other and talking over each other. With Super Tuesday primary elections approaching, there is little clarity about who should lead or what direction leadership should take.

We are not the first society to experience polarization in its politics. In first century Judea, the Roman Empire had taken over control. They occupied the region with a military presence and assorted governmental authorities. There were members of Jewish society who saw no point in trying to resist Rome. Some found it advantageous to go to work for Rome as tax collectors, gathering revenue for the empire (and for themselves) within their own communities. Tax collectors typically are not popular figures anywhere, but tax collectors were especially disliked in Jewish society. They were seen as aiding and abetting a foreign oppressor–and lining their own pockets in the process.  At the opposite extreme, far from the tax collectors who served the Roman empire, there were radicals committed to fighting back against Rome. By the middle of the first century, there would be an organized group known as the Zealots, dedicated to the cause of ending Roman rule. During Jesus’ ministry years a couple decades before that, the anti-Roman sentiment was growing among the Jewish people. As Kenneth Yates of the Grace Evangelical Society has noted about views that became associated with the Zealot movement, “They hated the fact that Rome was ruling over Israel. The Romans were pagans and idolaters. The Zealots saw the situation as one that dishonored God.” 

When Jesus called together his inner circle of disciples–those he would train to be his apostles–he did not discriminate on the basis of politics. One of the men Jesus called was Matthew, also called Levi, who was a tax collector for the Roman Empire (cf. Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 5:27-32).  Another of Jesus’ chosen leaders-in-training was a man named Simon, “who was called the Zealot” (Luke 6:15). We don’t know for sure if this Simon was aligned with the political radicals that would become the Zealot party, devoted to opposing the Romans. The implication is there, though. And quite certainly, a revenue-collector for the occupying armies (such as Matthew) wouldn’t be a popular political choice with any of the others among the Twelve when Jesus gathered them. But that didn’t deter Jesus from making his choices. Jesus called them all to walk together as brothers and to work together for a cause higher than just earthly, social, political concerns.  Jesus calls us all to walk together as his disciples, serving him and bringing his love to all persons in the world.

Too easily we make judgments about people who think differently than we do, whose ideas about society are at odds with our own views. Some like to think that Jesus is on their side and theirs alone, looking for the Lord to cast down their opponents and champion their personal crusades. Jesus is bigger than that. His kingdom is bigger than that. The company of his followers was large enough to include imperial tax collectors as well as anti-imperial Zealots. As the Christian church grew in the first century, it included Roman soldiers as well as persons from places that Roman armies occupied. Christ’s followers included people from the highest economic standing down to those of the lowest. Christ’s family bridged across social, political, and ethnic divides. There are no “barbarians” or “savages” or persons unworthy of Christ’s love. Christ’s kingdom is expansive enough and inclusive enough to welcome all persons. And that means persons of different backgrounds and different politics are called to put Christ and his love first in their lives.

Let me close these thoughts with words from one of Christ’s apostles. Before Jesus stopped him in his tracks and made him rethink everything, Saul of Tarsus (whom we know as Paul the apostle) had stridently persecuted persons who didn’t see the world in the same way he did. But after seeing the light in Jesus, here is how he spoke to the church:

• Get rid of … anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal[e] there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

• As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.

(Colossians 3:8-15 NRSV)

If you’re a Super Tuesday voter, feel free to vote for a “Medicare for all” candidate … or not.  Or to vote in one party’s primary … or the other. It’s not my place to tell you which political cause or platform you should support. Simply remember the words of God’s prophet that rulers (leaders) should be people who know justice, and that they should not be power-hungry types who “hate the good and love the evil,” who abuse and take advantage of the people over whom they have authority (cf. Micah chapter 3). And let us come together in the family of God, called together by Christ, and conduct ourselves with “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” toward all others, as he calls us to do.