Politics and the WWJD Fallacy

When the righteous increase,

the people are glad, But when a wicked man rules, people groan.

Proverbs 29:2

Have you ever heard/read someone say something like,

“Jesus didn’t try to influence the government of His day,”

or

“Jesus came to win souls, not wrangle about politics”?

If you have been following any of the discussions pertaining to Christian Nationalism over the past few years, then you’ve definitely heard variations of such arguments, and maybe even made them yourself.

Every true Christian looks to Christ for his example. Jesus is our example. But how we understand the function and content of that example is important.

We all know that Jesus was sent to do things that we were never sent to do; and He, as the God-man, was able to do things that we are not.

How might Jesus behave in a group setting, in the midst of the self-righteous and the repentant? Well, He just might read the mind of the self-righteous. He just might heal the repentant, and proclaim their forgiveness of sin.

We understand that we cannot do those things.

Jesus was sent to do things you and I weren’t. He was sent to preach that the Kingdom is at hand. He was to raise the dead, and heal the sick and the lame.

He was to live as a Jew under the law, in submission to the Roman Empire with no citizenship.

He was to offer Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t stop people from appealing to Jesus for their political theology. But I’ll get there in a minute.

Jesus wasn’t sent to have a wife, with conjugal relations becoming one-flesh with her, to grow old with her and her infirmities, and ensure her long term care, while seeking to prefer her over Himself in the things of this world. No, we wont find that example from Him.

He wasn’t sent to raise children, and all that entails. He wasn’t sent to show us how to discipline a 3 year old, or how to lead family worship. We wont find that example in Him.

He wasn’t sent to excel at a trade and to teach it to His children so that they’d be both self supporting, and productive members of society.

He wasn’t sent to oversee the eduction of children. He wasn’t sent to discern the pros and cons of a secular-state-run education, and decide between that and a private school, or homeschooling. He wasn’t sent to consider being on the local school board.

He wasn’t sent to be the sole breadwinner in His family, and to ensure that after He died that His wife and children would be taken care of. We’re not going to learn about life insurance and wills from Him.

We wont go to the New Testament and look to Jesus on what kind of car to buy. He wont teach us about eating organic. He left us no social media model, and no views on watching football, American or otherwise.

Of course I could go on and on…

To be fair, most people would never claim that He did give us examples in those areas. But that is precisely my point.

So, why do so many keep looking to the example of Jesus of how to be the best citizen in a constitutional republic ?

Jesus was a Jew, and He lived under the law.

Jesus lived as a subject in the Roman Empire. He did not possess citizenship. He never held the office of voter.

Probably every person reading this blog lives in a very different context.

We cannot look to Jesus for an example on voting. Why? Because He never lived in a society where they voted for their cilvil leaders. Jesus never held off the office of “voter.”

You and I have been appointed, by God, to hold the office of voter (and will therefore give an account for our stewardship).

That concept was simply foreign to Him.

You and I possess citizenship in our country, Jesus did not.

We enjoy all the rights and all the responsibilities of being a citizen, Jesus did not.

He never bore the responsibility of choosing the local mayor of Nazareth. He didn’t get to choose the Governor of Judea. He had no vote in who would be the next Caesar.

He was never going to be accountable for such things.

We will.

Paul had the rights of citizenship, and we have two examples of him using those rights.

The first example, he let his rights be violated, and then later asserted them, which put massive leverage on the local magistrates and made them very fearful of dealing harshly with the local church. The second time, in Jerusalem, he appealed to his rights to save himself a whipping.

But Jesus didn’t have to think through voting. He was not going to be held accountable for that stewardship.

Jesus did not live in a nation in which there was a supreme civil law of the land, that He could point civil leaders to. Rome had no Constitution, no Bill of Rights.

He had no input on what the content of law of the land would be. His neighbors had no say in the law of the land. Jesus had the obligation to love His neighbor as Himself (which He fulfilled perfectly), but that never included considering the laws His neighbor would be under. He was not His brother’s keeper, in that way.

Jesus never had to think about how a particular bill might affect the ability of His children to work. He didn’t have to think through what would happen to His neighbor if a particular politician was voted in. He had no say, and He had no accountability to God for such a stewardship.

The same simply cannot be said of us.

So if we’re not going to look to Jesus on life insurance, or what car to buy, why would we look to Him on voting?

Why should we seek His example in interacting with elected officials, when He never interacted with an elected official?

If we’re not going to find, in the New Testament, arguments for and against eating organic, or buying a hybrid car, then why would we look to Jesus on how to be the most loving neighbor in a constitutional republic?

We can (and should) move beyond Jesus, to the Apostles. Which one on them do we turn to for an example of how to raise children? On how to be the best steward of your home? On voting, and being an informed citizen to best love and serve my neighbor?

I am all for considering how Jesus would live in our day, in our context, with our stewardships. But I don’t think we’d find that example in His life under the law, as a subject of Rome…