My Political Jesus

And he led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Luke 4:5-8)

Is your Jesus political?

Does your Jesus care more about which political party is in office than the legislation that passes?

Is your Jesus a Republican?

Democrat?

Or maybe he’s an Independent?

Libertarian?

Green Party?

Is your Jesus going to cure the world from social injustices, terrorism, poverty, and all the other awful things in this world . . . solely through political agendas?

I turned on the news this morning, just like I do every morning, and all the news networks display is this political party pushing this agenda and then this other political party pushing back. What scares me is not that our country may be going in the wrong direction, or staying in the wrong errors of past injustices. What concerns me is how passionate people are getting over political topic, and forgetting about each other.

Did you see the other day where one man in political office called everyone in the opposing party A-holes? Or how about the story where two people started arguing at a health care demonstration and then one man bit off the other man's finger? How about the countless stories of town hall meetings getting out of hand and the public disrespecting the officials and vice versa? Is this Jesus’ kingdom on Earth coming to power?

This weekend I went to a Tea Party and I was able to see people voice their concerns about the direction our country is going in. I think this is a positive thing for both political parties to do, however this is not a solution. I wholeheartedly believe this, because my political Jesus turned down public office. He knew and knows what political agendas are capable of, and realizes how insufficient they truly are to change the world in a remarkable way. My very political Jesus must have also realized how easy it is to lose the focus of one another, of the human element when we push political agendas.

The Christian message is simple, and always has been, and always will be. The message is so simple that many people are able to deliver this message without ever reading the Bible, or saying the right prayers, or going to the right church. The Gospel is one that delivers and receives Love. God is God loving God loving God loving humanity (The Trinity). True humanity is humans loving God and other humans. Politics can’t make us love, but our Love can make our politics.

In the Love of the Love loving Love loving you, (a.k.a Jesus),

The walk into the Desert

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness (Luke 4:1).

After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he proceeded out into the uncompassionate wilderness[1] being led by the Spirit. Jesus was not being forced into the desert by the demons, nor led astray by the world into the desert, nor was it the deceptions of the Devil that made the Lord leave his comfortable home to enter an alien land. Jesus was led out in to this harsh, dry, unforgiving environment by none other than the Holy Spirit. Why would the Spirit led Jesus into the wasteland? Could it be the things Jesus learned and experienced in these forty days molded and formed the rest of Jesus’ ministry?[2] Was God testing Jesus? Was God testing himself? Was God demonstrating to the Devil the strength and perseverance of the miraculous ability of Jesus, the God-Man incarnate who would save the world? Was God, was Jesus trying to live in solidarity with man-kind?

For many of us we have went through times of our lives where we were pushed to our limits, tried, and refined by the harshness of the world around us. Yes, refined. Do you remember a time when you were in the desert, a time that has already passed and that has made you a better person, a time when you were so low that you could taste the dirt? You know the time when you felt like you hit rock bottom, and there was only one way to go, UP? The time when your faith walk no longer looked like a walk, but a crawl, and in fact the word “crawl” was an over exaggeration. Do you remember this? Looking back, many situations that the dirt of our lives still tastes like raw earth, however other events this taste of dirt stops being the surplus of dry dirty earth and starts to become the preamble of honey.

In the Grace of Christ Almighty,

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[1] The word for wilderness is the Greek word ἔρημος (eremos). According to Strongs’ Concordance ἔρημος (eremos) means lonesome, waste, desert, desolate, solitary, and/or wilderness.

[2] Could it have been that Jesus had to let Satan know who he was? Could it have been that Jesus needed to allow God to see who is? Could it have been that Jesus had to prove to himself who he was going to be?