121104 Walk with Me: Crazy Candidate Jesus

The last half of the third chapter of Mark’s gospel includes the calling of Jesus’ disciples, criticism from the religious right, serious concern from Jesus’ own family members regarding Jesus’ mental stability, and Jesus’ response to it all.

When Jesus put together his team, I find it very interesting – and refreshing – that he didn’t stack it with one type of person. He had a great mix of guys around his table: small business owners, religious and political conservatives, and religious and political progressives. He did this because he wanted to hear their perspective, and he knew that to reach many people of varied backgrounds required servants of various backgrounds. The dinner conversations must have been incredible…

While the twelve may have been gung-ho for Jesus, there were others who were less enthusiastic. His own family, for instance, wondered if he was really in control of himself. his ability to overpower demons and heal people seriously threatened the Washington elites (Jerusalem leaders), who simply wrote him off as a servant of Satan. Negative campaigning has gone on for a very long time, it seems. Jesus refused to play along, reasserted his authority, and kept doing his thing.

This Tuesday the United States will hold its next presidential election. Some pastors in pulpits across the nation have used their position to make their case for a particular candidate, often using some sort of Christian measure to make one stand out apart from the other. I think it’s right to vote – it is a privilege and responsibility. But I think it unwise to try to make a case for one candidate being more Christian than another. I think it makes the same mistake the Sadducees made in the first century – trading in their integrity for political power, and ending up with little of either.

As you live through this week, consider the following litany we read before taking communion in worship this morning, and remember where our allegiance really lies.

We remember and renew our vow with Christ as our primary leader in life.

• We’ll remember that real power in this world — the power to save, to transform, to change — ultimately rests not in political parties or presidents or protests but in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.
• We’ll remember that, through the Holy Spirit, this power dwells within otherwise ordinary people who as one body continue the mission of Jesus: preaching good news to the poor, freeing the captives, giving sight to the blind, releasing the oppressed, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:16-21).
• We’ll remember that freedom — true freedom — is given by God and is indeed not free. It comes with a cost and it looks like a cross.
• We’ll remember our sin and our need to repent.
• We’ll remember that the only Christian nation in this world is the Church, a holy nation that crosses all human-made boundaries and borders.
• We’ll remember that our passions are best placed within the passion of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
• We’ll remember that we do not conform to the patterns of this world, but we are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
• We’ll remember that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.
• And we’ll re-member the body of Christ as the body of Christ, confessing the ways in which partisan politics has separated us from one another and from God.