by George Trifanoff
Reflecting over recent Axiom Sunday messages, I’ve been thinking a bit about those passages in Matthew 5, particularly the utterances of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. It is easy to fall into a trap and see these just as moral aphorisms, detached from the Gospel arc. But these are radical prescriptions that should deeply influence how any Jesus follower interacts with the world.
Blessed are the oppressed, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the nonviolent, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the compassionate, for they will receive compassion.
Blessed are the contemplative in mind, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
How can we read these eight “Beatitudes” and come to the conclusion that Jesus wasn’t political?
I realize that any reference to politics in the church (or the church in politics) is laden with landmines, but here I venture into that space, and I hope to honor God by going there in a spirit of Christlike love.
For many, the word “politics” has become so polluted, so tainted, that we come to associate it with television talking heads yelling at each other or the vile derisive messages posted on social media timelines. But the etymology of the word comes from the Greek word polis, meaning “affairs of the cities.” Technically, every act and decision made in a community setting is of a political nature. But we’ve siphoned the positive aspects of the term and rendered it an ugly, confrontational noun. To say “I’m not political” is to assert “I’m not responsible for anything happening around me.”
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, is issuing a harsh critique of the values of his culture. He flips upside down the overarching allegiance to the dominant institutions of family, religion, power, and the economic system. He challenged his hearers to embrace a different reality—a loyalty to a Kingdom of God. Most seemed unready for this radical transformation of consciousness, and this cost Jesus popularity, scorn from the authorities, immense inner agony, and eventually his human life.
Is our culture today that radically different from that of Jesus’ time? Sure, we inhabit a world light years ahead, technologically speaking, with all of the modern comforts and miracles of electricity, the internet, and other wonders the ancients could only dream of. Yet in our age, money and power might be more dominant frames than they ever were. An ethos of production and consumption rules the Christian world. But followers of Jesus are called to embrace a radically different worldview—one of sacrificial love, one that honors the lowly over the exalted of society, one that takes the side of the oppressed over the ruling class. When you bear the yoke of Jesus, it should be accompanied by an all-encompassing metanoia that revolutionizes how you interact with everything in your life.
Whatever your political tilt, be it conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism, or whatever-ism, a committed Jesus follower should wrestle with Gospel implications on all the political and social community concerns in both the local and global environment.
For myself, it leads me to ponder questions like these:
Why is it only class warfare when it is the poor against the rich?
Is our economy oriented toward restoration over exploitation?
Do we have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it?
Why do most Christians disregard the teachings of Jesus on nonviolence and his admonition to love your enemies and instead are no different than the non-believer on beliefs regarding war and torture?
How can many Christians not see immigrants and refugees in the light of how the Bible frames what our attitude should be in welcoming strangers?
How can we treat all of our brothers and sisters as beautiful image-bearers of God? How do we truly foster a culture that honors the sacredness of life?
The justice agenda for Jesus was humility and loving thy neighbor. It is our job as Kingdom servants to tear down walls and build bridges. Our identity as Jesus followers is not one of nationalistic emblems, icons, and slogans, but a new identity with space for everyone to belong and be loved. Truly transformed people can change the world, while those unchanged serve only as cheerleaders for the status quo.
A caution here though—we must be vigilant not to be overcome with a certainty that has us acting as if we were gods ourselves.
What I submit to you is this: the very darkness which Jesus came to shed light on was our habit as human beings of seeing things in terms of light and dark. In other words, we have this habit of setting ourselves up as the judges of who belongs to the light and who belongs to the darkness. We see ourselves as belonging to the light and someone else as belonging to the darkness. It is this habit of ours which is itself the darkness that Jesus came to shed light on. Why else would Jesus let himself be judged so, as a person of the dark? First, he was accused of hanging around with sinners, with those of the darkness. Then he was condemned as one of the darkness and executed accordingly. It is only the light of Easter morning which begins to open our eyes to the darkness of our entire game of deciding who’s in the light and who’s in the dark.
As a Jesus follower, when I enter into the realm of the political, I strive not to conduct myself in a partisan or polarizing manner. I’d like to boast that I always hit the mark here, but I do not always act in accordance with my better angels. But we urgently need to address politics in the language of the heart—that we’re all in this together, that “us and them” does not have to mean “us versus them;” it should just be “us.” And we need to develop an ability to hold political tension with those holding different views in life-giving ways.
As the 2020 US election year unfolds, the forecast is for a heated and turbulent season. My prayer is that we who pledge allegiance to the way of Jesus would inscribe on our hearts the instructions of Jesus on loving our enemies (or our friends and acquaintances who differ with us on the issues), the practice of forgiveness, and conducting political dialogue in a spirit of love.
The call of Jesus, for me, is to be a Kingdom servant in God’s politics—by compassionately focusing on the least in Jesus’ family, by being intentional in helping forge the beloved community, and by committing to be an agent in advancing the Kingdom. The Kingdom Jesus pronounced was at hand.
1 The Axiom Church Podcast, https://axiomchurchaz.podbean.com/
2 Epiphany 4A, http://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/epiphany4a/
3 Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polis
4 David Dark, Beloved America, https://chapter16.org/beloved-america/
5 Center for Action and Contemplation, “Bias from the Bottom”, https://cac.org/changing-our-minds-2016-03-29/
6 Paul J. Nuechterlein, “Rise, Shine, You People”, http://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-a/epiphany5a_1999_ser/