With the first Presidential debate in the books, the responses have ranged from being disappointed to being disturbed … and that’s’s putting it mildly. As I watched the conversation unfold, I couldn’t help but think of the movie, Grumpy Old Men. One friend suggested debates might have run their course, since the participants seemed incapable of reasoned, measured, coherent, and substantive argumentation. I mean, the candidates for the most powerful office in the world were bickering about … golf scores?

It caused me to ponder when I’d last witnessed a political debate that ended with people being amazed … in a positive sense?

I’m still pondering …

Yet time and again, when Jesus of Nazareth was faced with seemingly impossible questions, his answers amazed both his fans and his foes. What can we learn from Jesus that will help us understand how to engage with the political and cultural structures of our time? What would an “amazing” Christian political witness look like?

The answer begins within the question posed to Jesus in Mark 12:13-15,  Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

The tax here is a particular tax, not taxes in general. This was a “Head Tax” collected once per year for being a subject of Caesar.  About 25 years earlier, when the tax was implemented, an armed revolt was led by a man known as Judas the Galilean, who

• Cleansed the Temple
• Declared the establishment of God’s Kingdom
• Called Jews to refuse to pay the tax

Do a couple of those sound familiar?

At this point in Jesus’ ministry he’d been preaching the kingdom and had just cleansed the Temple, so the people wanted to know about his view on the tax.  However, the tax was not the primary issue here. What they really wanted to know was whose political side was Jesus on? What was he really about? Did he line up with their expectations or not? Would they take him seriously or not?

This tax controversy was intended to bait and trap Jesus by either pitting him against the state, against the people, or making him irrelevant to both. It’s the same trap of binary (either/or) thinking many Christians walk into, and a trap many Christ-followers set for each other.  

I want to explore how Jesus shows us a better way, but first, let’s examine three approaches to political and cultural engagement that are neither healthy, nor helpful. They are, Domination, Assimilation, and Fortification. I’ll briefly explain these each over the next few posts. This post addresses Domination.

1. Domination – Often seen in language of warfare and aggression. You hear this in phrases like, “Fight for our values” or “take back America.” It’s an overall approach that motivates uprisings meant to overtake another group. If Jesus had done as Judas the Galilean, and told people to refuse to pay the tax, he would have been calling for open revolt and, like Judas the Galilean, would have been crushed by the state for sedition.

But Kevin, aren’t we supposed to stand up and fight for what’s right? Yes, we are indeed called to take a stand, but how and against whom we make that stand makes a difference. The recent Presidential debate was between two people who each claim faith in Jesus Christ, yet it sounded no different than any other disrespectful verbal exchange. Scripture calls Christians to a different way,

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

This passage is about discipline, self-control, reason, measured strength, precision, and discernment. Hardly the stuff of dominant aggression, by which we make enemies out of those Jesus defined as our neighbor.

But Kevin, why are we called to put on the armor of God if not to engage the enemy? After all, scripture teaches, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:10-13

Yes, but in a domination mindset, it’s easy to utilize the language of spiritual and cultural warfare to conflate our idealogical opponents with our real enemy. In his book, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, Russell Moore writes, “Spiritual warfare is biblically revealed to be against ‘the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.'” Moore cautions against mistaking “human beings as the demons to be opposed.”

Why is this distinction important? Because demons are irredeemable. So when we conflate demons and people, or we confuse ideological opponents with the “spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly realms,” we treat the people we’ve demonized in de-humanizing ways, undermining our call to be salt and light to the world Jesus loves (John 3:16-17), and into which we’ve been sent as his ambassadors (Matthew 5:13-14, John 17:14-19, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21). Moore explains, “The cross of Christ saves fallen humans, not fallen angels (Heb 2:16). We are not called to persuade demons to do the right thing. We are not called to love demons and bear with them patiently. Demons are to be opposed-full stop. When we confuse this spiritual struggle with our tribal (human) rivalries, awful things can happen – if only just our ongoing rage and inability to love and pray for, and even evangelize those with whom we disagree.”

It’s true that we face human opponents in this world, but we must remember our true enemy is supernatural. Jesus has already secured victory in himself, so our stand is in him and the work he’s already done, not in our own strength, or in a posture of aggressive domination.

Next week, we’ll examine a second approach to political and cultural engagement; Assimilation. We’ll see that going along just to get along doesn’t really get us anywhere.