What Election Are We Focused On?

by Aaron
I am sure there are a million blogs about this past election and I don’t want to simply be another opinion in the cacophony of voices saying the same thing, so let me try to take a different approach. I am in the middle of writing a series we will go through when we are in our new building that is a re-centering on the Gospel of Jesus (I know, you are thinking ‘what’s new with that?’ You are always talking about the Gospel).
 
Today, in my message hopefully destined for 2018, I am writing about the death of Jesus, the centrality of that event, how it overshadows all of time…and the election. When Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem the week before His death, the crowds show up and they start singing and shouting (and I know some people’s singing sounds like shouting). John 12:12-13 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, (this is from Psalm 118)"Hosanna!" (Which means, “save now”) "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Even the King of Israel!"
 
At first this all looks great, but what they are really doing is telling Jesus what to do. ‘Save US NOW – Blessed is the King of Israel’—that’s the key, they are calling for a revolution and they want a King.
 
Jesus has, at this point, been preaching for 3 years in His public ministry and teaching people about what the Kingdom of God truly is. He keeps pointing them back to the rule and reign of God in our lives first, but no one hears His message for what is truly was. Instead, when Jesus comes into Jerusalem they bare palm branches which was indicative of receiving a military hero or king. They have missed the point of all of Jesus’ teachings about the “Kingdom of God.” People have agendas and because Jesus won’t fulfill their agenda they will instead yell, “Crucify him” a mere few days later. These people wanted to elect themselves a king who would rule how they wanted, when Jesus doesn’t do it, they turn on Him because we all think we know better than God how to rule.
 
We today call the presidential race an election because it comes from a Latin root meaning “choice,” we get to decide who holds offices that govern our laws. When we talk about the Gospel though, it was also an election, a choice, not made by us, but made by God Himself. God elected to save us by making a choice to send Jesus as a substitute for our sins. The death of Jesus for our sins is what God elected to do for us, but He used people’s rebellion to bring it about.
 
The chief priests arrest Jesus and send Him in front of the Roman governor Pilate to be tried (and sentenced to death). There is this very interesting interchange that takes place during His trail…it’s in John 18 & 19. The Israelites and Romans were a lot like us and they thought political power was the power to influence and fix the world, this is why Jesus keeps talking about the kingdom of God…this is why God keeps reminding them who the Messiah would be… Is 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. See, it’s a different kingdom. God keeps saying that what the human race needs is something that no human can give.
 
When Jesus is standing before Pilate being questioned He says John 18:36 “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” This is a remarkable statement and Pilate becomes totally dumbfounded by it…kingdoms work through military/political might and yet Jesus’ followers won’t rise up? The Jews wanted someone to slaughter Romans not save Romans, but Jesus came to save the Romans too!
 
We need to understand what the people in Jesus’ failed to grasp, we don’t elect Jesus, but He elects to save us and call us to be those who live in His kingdom now, today. He calls us as those who live in His kingdom to try and understand the motivations of those who disagree with us in order to help them see the reality that the Kingdom of God can be (here and now). Even as Jesus died for our sins on a cross those that trusted Him thought their “candidate” not only lost, but died. They in turn, on seeing, hearing and understanding the resurrection will in turn respond with love and grace that embraces those they consider their enemy and eventually change the world.
 
This is why the Gospel, the right understanding of God, Jesus death and ultimate resurrection, brings many things.
  • Hope – because we know our circumstances are not the final word, God’s is the final word. The Gospel reminds us that God will bring about His will because He is good for His promise.
  • Peace - The ability to yield ourselves to the will of the Father doesn’t mean we are passive and throw our hands up, we yield to God in the hard places so we get through it and move on to what God desires.
  • Clarity of the Love of God – We must remember in whatever circumstance that we find ourselves in, that the ropes and nails did not constrain Jesus to His beating and execution...His love for us did. God is bigger than our sin, our error, our mistakes, our elections, and He will bend all of this to His will. Our God is tremendously mighty and nothing is greater than our God.
  • Freedom – We live in a world obsessed with controlling and predicting tomorrow. Jesus says “don’t worry about it.” Plan, but don’t worry. We do not need to know the future because we know God and God knows the future and He is trustworthy. There is freedom in that. We don’t need foreknowledge we just need faith.
 
In your life what is going on right now may seem very big, but God is not just bigger, He is also close to us. When we rely in His strength we can have the strength and confidence to see the other side of an issue. We can become those who understand why people do what they do. We can then ultimately steer everything back to God’s Kingdom. We don’t need to teach our children to fear the future because we get to teach them to have hope for what God can and will, do even in the midst our sinful choices.
 
The Gospel trumps Hillary, Johnson, Stein, and even trumps Trump. Let us live in the Gospel and not in the passing fears that today brings, let us live in hope with the ability to listen to how one another thinks and feels, let us honor the image of God in one another, and let us put Jesus first in all things.