Suppose, hypothetically, that God was actually on the planet and chose to enter into the midst of the frey of the emotionally-charged political frenzy in our nation.  Many people these days seem to quite confident of where He actually stands in the matter so it seems appropriate to get right to heart of the issue and imagine if He was a citizen right here in the good ole’ United States of America.  Would God stride into the voting booth and punch His ballot short and swift for a straight-party ticket (making sure there was no hanging ‘chad’ to confuse the issue and skew the results, of course)?  It seems such a perspective is the reigning consenus among the Church with only three weeks to go until the big day.  Yet how can we possibly conceive of God – the living God- being a registered voter and taking part in this election?  Isn’t a bit audacious to presume to know with such vigor what He would do, nevermind imagining Him actually doing such a thing to begin with?  How absurd, right?  Wrong.  God – the Creator and Sovereign Ruler of all - was in fact a citizen of a little land on the other side of the world at a real point in history when religious and political tempers flared.  And by looking at His life and what exactly He did we might just be able to tell a lot about what He would do in our present circumstances.  Surely in light of the grave importance we have attached to political figures and their policies, Jesus would have left us a clear pattern to follow.

As we turn and behold the majestic life recorded for us in the pages of the Gospels we do in fact find an example to emulate that is unwavering in its consistency.  After a flash of brightness beneath the shadow of a wicked king at His birth, Jesus fell into complete obscurity for the better part of thirty years.  Emerging out of this silence into the tumult of the national spotlight, His first public act deeply offended the religious leadership of Jerusalem.  To their outrage Jesus replied only with a riddle of sorts, seeking neither their favor nor their ear for His purposes.  Though the bulk of His ministry was spent in Galilee, far removed from the locus of religious and political ‘power’ in the hills of Judea, the times He did return to Jerusalem His relationship with those in influence did not exactly demonstrate a desire to garner their support.  Never did Jesus seek an audience with the High Priest, who was the most powerful man in Judaism.  In fact it was not until the night before His crucifixion that their paths intersected.  His sparse words seem to indicate that Jesus did not view the meeting as particularly important as opportunities for influence go.  Similarly, His imminent death was also the occasion for His first encounter with those at the top of the political hierarchy.  Pilate extracted a few sentences from Jesus, while Herod Antipas only a blanket of silence.  Thus throughout Jesus’ brief sojourn on the earth leading up to the cross we discover not a single instance of appealing to the religious or political elite as part of His strategy to change history forever.  There was no special counsel with Herod, no dinner with Pilate, no pilgrimage to Rome to talk to Caesar about really making some changes in the Roman Empire.  All told it would seem He viewed their ‘power’ and ‘position’ as…irrelevant.  Even after His resurrection when certainly an appearance in Pilate’s bedroom would have gone a long way for furthering support for His fledgling band of followers, Jesus chose to reveal Himself instead to the brokenhearted woman whom He had delivered from seven demons. 

Perhaps Jesus’ actions fall into some sort of category of exception because He was God in the flesh…what about how His followers are supposed to act (besides being like Him, of course)?  In terms of what their actual life was like, there is no figure in the New Testament whom we know more about than the Apostle Paul.  His ministry turned the world upside down and radically changed the landscape of Asia Minor.   Yet faced with the formidable task of advancing the gospel in the gross immorality and idolatry of Roman culture, what did Paul do?  Did he rally supporters and lobby members of the Roman senate for an upheaval of their policies?  Did he travel through the land getting signatures on a petition to be able to talk to Caesar?  Not once do we find Paul ever doing such a thing.  He simply preached Christ, and Him crucified – his single and preeminent issue and passion.  And like the One he so loved, Paul’s only confrontation with political authorities was when his hands were bound in chains.

Vote as you will, but let us not be swept along in the momentum of a political current that ultimately leads nowhere.  Biblically God’s winds of change do not blow from capitals and courtrooms, nor are they the least bit hindered by the resistance of wicked men.  The greatest revival in history began in the city that crucified the Lord of Glory, and spread like wild-fire through an empire that worshiped their leader.  My guess is that neither of the candidates in this election will soon seek to demand worship, but even if they surprised us all and did, America would not be disqualified.  And regardless of who gets elected America will still be the recipient of God’s judgment, for no matter who the nation crowns on November 4th, men and women all across this land will lie down on their bed after turning off the news and give no heed to the glory of Christ and His infinite worth.  My concern is not that men and women in the Church have voiced support for a particular candidate, but that in doing so they have demonstrated more commitment and more zeal than they do for the majesty and renown of Jesus.  We are consumed with a host of things but not with Him, and it is this disease of Christ-less Christianity that threatens the future of our nation, not a movement to the left or the right of the political aisle.  We must awake and return to our first love, curing the malady that now runs rampant under quaint country steeples and in the sprawling suburban campuses of mega-churches alike.