As the United States is drawn deeper into another election – as we watch Republican candidates tear into one another in hopes they can be the one to compete against Barack Obama. It calls to mind the admonition in Hebrews 12:2. We aren’t called to look to men or women but rather to Jesus.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
The men who run for and who hold political office and who wield the powers of that office – great powers by any measure – do so in our names and with our consent. They are out there scrambling for our support. If we give it to them, they can take the helm of worldly power, muster great armies, cavort with the rich and famous.
Of course they testify to the power of the people – it is the source of their power.
But we have to be careful. Jesus did not reach out to the crowds around him to rally support for a cause. He wasn’t trying to become King. His power was not derived from the people around him – it came from God. His utter surrender to God’s will was the source of his strength. It was how he raised the dead, turned water into wine, healed the sick.
Jesus’ life is not testimony to he fact that a great man with the pwer of the people behind him can change the world. Rather, it is testimony to the power of faith in God – with that, even someone as poor and disempowered in worldly terms as Jesus was can change the world.
This is an important distinction. We are strong through God – not on our own. We do not lift God up through our efforts – God lifts us. What politician preaches this? They pay lip service to the power of God, to the witness of Jesus, but they are not playing by his rules. They are playing by the rules of the world.
Rather than endorse political candidates whose entire belief system is not only flawed but structurally incapable of accepting God’s power, we need to become witnesses ourselves. We need to be sure that we are laying up treasure in Heaven, not investing in the world.
We need to be men and women through whom God can work – not because we are grasping for the power of the people, the power of the world – but because we have accepted that only his power matters. This is the letting go, the surrender. This is the giving over of ourselves to God.
And no politician is doing that.