Jesus is a Democrat
Jesus is a Republican
People will try to make you think they know who Jesus would vote for or that they know which party Jesus would belong to. Some people will say, Jesus was always right and God is always right, so obviously He’d lean politically to the right. So He is Republican, right? Others will point out Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and a donkey is a symbol of a democratic party. So Jesus is definitely a Democrat.
I don’t know about you, but it seems like we’ve never seen a more contentious political landscape. Has an election cycle ever created some kind of heartburn in you? Yeah, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Have you ever unfriended or been unfriended by someone on social media because of political posts? Do you feel uncomfortable and hate talking about politics or are you the one who likes to stir the pot and bring up the subject?
Now, I learned a long time ago that equally sincere followers of Jesus attempting to follow God’s word can have sincere disagreements over how those convictions best get expressed at the ballot box and in public policy. I think every follower of Jesus who is eligible to vote ought to, and that you ought to ask the Holy Spirit of God to guide you and to give you discernment in these areas. While Jesus was on the earth, some people tried to throw him a trick question, the kind that had political overtones to it. They asked, “Is it right for Jewish people to pay taxes to the Roman Empire”? The Jewish people were hoping he’d say no don’t pay taxes to Caesar because Caesar is evil and you shouldn’t support a corrupt political system like the Roman Empire. The Romans on the other hand, wanted him to say, you should pay your taxes to Caesar. So Jesus the great communicator turned it back on the crowd. He picked up a coin and said, “Whose picture is on the coin?” They replied that the coin had Caesar’s picture on it. Jesus explains in Matthew 22:21, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.” Jesus is making a very important point that you belong to two kingdoms. There’s a kingdom on earth that you belong to, and there’s a spiritual kingdom that you belong to, and you’re a citizen of both. And so you have spiritual responsibilities to God and you have civic responsibilities to the country or to the government that you are a part of.
If you’re an American, you have a civic responsibility and an incredible privilege that much of the world doesn’t have, to vote. I would encourage you, if you follow Jesus, to get on your knees to prayerfully discern what you believe are the biggest issues facing our country, facing our world, and to pray for wisdom and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in how you vote.
Election Day
I WANT TO CHALLENGE YOU BETWEEN NOW AND ELECTION DAY TO DO TWO THINGS:
PUT FAITH OVER POLITICS
Be a follower of Jesus first and a Republican or Democrat second. Be a follower of Jesus first and a libertarian or an independent or a liberal or a conservative second. Place your political views below your faith and Christian values. If for no other reason, than because nobody goes to Washington DC when they die. When you die, your political persuasion will be irrelevant. I’ve been called to the hospital bed of many people in their final days, final hours, and sometimes final rests. Never once in all those conversations that I’ve had with people in those final moments have they said to me would you read to me just a portion of the Constitution one more time. Why? Because intuitively we know faith is more important than politics.
PUT PEOPLE OVER POLITICS
Jesus reminds us the greatest commandment is to love God. And then he said, the second greatest commandment is to love people. He said, love your neighbor. Now what if everybody in America decided to really practice this? What if we really decided that people were most important? And between now and election day, we are going to love our neighbor as ourselves. Can you imagine really what would happen? It would be a powerful game changer if we just practiced this and loved our neighbor as ourselves. The laws that we have would be unneeded and irrelevant. The nation would feel so different. There’d be no violence. There’d be no murder. There’d be no bullying in school. There’d be no sexual assault. There would be no racism. There would be no hungry people in our land. Marriages would be restored, families would be unified.
Instead, what we have going on during this goofy election cycle, is we have believers in Jesus Christ who have sincere different points of view attacking each other, fighting and squabbling with each other. They become so adversarial and militant in their support of a particular candidate or political party that they are willing to endanger a relationship with someone who disagrees with them, sometimes even in their own family. Jesus said this is how everyone will recognize that you’re my disciples when they see the love that you have for each other.
Ultimately your opinion and my opinion doesn’t even matter. I’ll tell you what matters. Your vote matters. And if you’re mocking others on social over their political convictions, I think the Holy Spirit is grieved by that.
In a few short months, this election’s going be over and all that stuff you said in the heat of the moment and all those social media posts are going to be past us. Please don’t do something now that is going to sacrifice your influence with others later. How tragic if after the election, that guy that you work with, that person who lives down the block from you has a need and they can’t or won’t reach out to you or come in your direction because they would never ask you to do that because you lost influence with them by something you said or posted in the heat of an election.
That is why I have never, nor will I ever endorse a political candidate or a party. Eastside Christian Church does not endorse political candidates or parties. We don’t pass out voter guides. This means you can join us on a weekend with confidence between now and election day and know that you will be in a political-free zone.
That doesn’t mean we’re afraid to step into difficult issues because we’re not. It doesn’t mean that we don’t believe that God’s word gives us moral clarity in some areas of our lives, and we are going to be courageous enough around here to speak lovingly but truthfully to issues. Most of us have at least one question. It’s that question that comes to mind whenever people talk about God or faith or church. The question that makes us unsure of God and if believing in Him makes any sense. We may not have all the answers, but we want to talk about it. Join us as we start one of our most popular series, “You Asked For It.”
Our team has compiled some of the most challenging, difficult, controversial, frequently asked questions we get about faith and Christianity as it relates to life, morality, current events, the end of the world, sexuality, and more. Week by week we’ll unpack seven of these questions in ways that I think you’ll find fascinating and informative. These questions are often the roadblocks for people when it comes to faith and Christianity. We’ve even titled the final week of the series, the subject you thought we would skip and not have the courage to address. You can check out all the messages at eastside.com/you-asked-for-it.
Author: Gene Appel
Eastside Christian Church
Anaheim, CA
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