The last couple weeks have seen calls for President Biden to bow out of the presidential race, an assassination attempt on former president Trump, calls for unity and de-escalation alongside conspiracy theories, the announcement of Trump’s VP pick, and the start of the GOP convention – complete with prayers to Jesus by Christians, a speech from a former exotic dancer and OnlyFans star, the President of Teamsters Union, Hulk Hogan, and a Sikh ardas (prayer) to Waheguru. Add to this President Biden’s decision to drop out of the Presidential race, and I tend to agree with New York Times columnist David Brooks’ assessment, “mind blown.”

The reactions I’ve read to these events, largely reflect the approaches to Christian political engagement; Domination (see may last post), Assimilation and Fortification. These are each popular in their own way, and have held sway at different times in history, but I maintain they do not reflect the example of Jesus during his ministry, nor do they reflect his will for how his disciples live and move and have our being in this world, as seen in Jesus’ prayer in John 17.

Remember, our cultural backdrop and biblical basis for this blog series is Jesus’ exchange with religious leaders 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 point was to try and get Jesus to come down on a “side” of their tax issue, to pit Jesus against the state, against the people, or to make him irrelevant to both. Jesus, as we’ll see over the next few posts, would have none of it. He modeled a better way of cultural engagement generally, and political engagement specifically.

Last week I began by examining the first of three unhelpful and unhealthy approaches to cultural engagement adopted by Christians throughout history (Domination). In this post, I’ll briefly comment on Assimilation and Fortification.

Assimilation – This is an effort to “go along to get along.” In a cultural context, assimilation makes one culture’s values and convictions indistinguishable from another. For people of faith, it often comes by separating and minimizing faith from public life.

But this was not the way of Jesus. When presented with the question about the tax, if Jesus had sad, “yes, just pay it,” he’d have been seen as a sellout, which would have put himself at odds with the people and been charged with treason against God. Then and now, assimilation and compartmentalization aren’t viable options for Christian political witness because our faith is supposed to set us apart from the world.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. – John 17: 14-18

We lose our witness to the world when we are no longer distinguishable from the world. This doesn’t mean we should disappear (see Fortification below), but that we occupy a faithful and distinct presence of love and truth in and among this world and its people. Tim Keller described this as a posture as one “that both defies and resonates with the culture.”

Fortification – This approach responds to tough issues by withdrawing, retreating, disconnecting, or otherwise disengaging from the conversation and the culture. In Jesus’ day, a group called the Essenes took this route and created a fortified and isolated community focused on keeping the world and its influences outside its walls.

The group died out.

A large portion of the Christian community in the United States took this approach in the 1920’s following the Scopes Monkey Trial. An entire subculture has since developed with Christians starting their own schools and colleges, and creating “Christian” versions of everything from music, to clothing, and even breath mints (Testamints … I’m not kidding). Current manifestations of this approach can be seen in churches that hyper-focus internally, in some (but not all) sectors of homeschooling, and in writing like Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option.

While this approach carries a wide appeal and has a long history, it is not what Jesus modeled. Had Jesus responded to the tax question with silence he would have become irrelevant to both the people and the state. Followers of Jesus are not called to irrelevance. Ours is a mission of faithful presence. As Jeremiah wrote to the Jews exiled in Babylon,

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” – Jeremiah 29:4-7

Our personal peace and prosperity are linked to our concern for and promotion of the peace and prosperity of the place we live. Kingdom faith was never intended to be a weak, private, passive spiritual inner peace, nor was it to be a faith that manifests in domination, assimilation, or fortification.

So, what did Jesus model?

Incarnation – Jesus came into the world for the world. His Kingdom is a movement of people who oppose the kingdoms of this world through a practical, tangible, redemptive, compassionate, and intentional presence in this world for the people of this world.

This is the ministry of Immanuel, God with us.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

We are witnesses of his “withness,” when we, by his grace, are present in and with this world. When we are not in and with the world, we oppose and deny the way of Jesus.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ – Matthew 25:34-45

The passage above names external actions as indications of internal belief. The book of James echoes this, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? … faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead …  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” – James 2:14, 17, 26

Jesus’ love was demonstrated in his incarnation. We as his followers are called to no less.

What’s the point?

Citizens of God’s Kingdom are intended to be present in addressing socio-political issues of poverty, injustice, hunger, other issues, while also being present to address real spiritual bondage, and the freedom and flourishing available in Jesus. You can’t do that by bowing up and making enemies out of neighbors, blending in and becoming no different than the system, or hiding out and becoming irrelevant to everyone other than those in your bubble. Jesus’ witness of “withness” is a better way.

How to do that? Next week, we’ll examine how Jesus teaches us to think about political realities, how to value opportunities for political engagement, how to recognize the limits of politics, and how to do so as both faithful Christians, and active citizens.