Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch. And in today's episode, we are asking the question, was Jesus a political rebel? This is prompted by an opinion piece that was in the New York Times, written by Andrew Thayer, who's an Episcopal priest.

And his argument is that we've misunderstood Jesus, especially when it comes to Palm Sunday and what he was doing on his way into Jerusalem. In fact, the essay is titled Palm Sunday was a protest, not a procession. His argument goes like this. Jesus on Palm Sunday was juxtaposing his own approach to authority, his own approach to leadership to that of Rome. Whereas Rome was about pomp and circumstance, an ostentatious kind of call to look at me, Jesus came in on a donkey.

Jesus was about serving, not about spectacle. That Jesus, even by choosing a donkey, was mocking the Roman Empire, showing the ridiculous nature of of their grand shows of power. That the next day when Jesus goes into the temple and is turning over tables, he's confronting the power of Rome. And Fair's point is that in Jesus, we should see not just a political rebel to Rome, but a political rebel to our own power structures, particularly as he calls it, a rise of Christian nationalism. That Jesus's procession into Jerusalem, his activity in the temple, and even his crucifixion and his resurrection are about justice.

And he's wrong. That's not what Jesus's procession or crucifixion or resurrection was about. Jesus says time and time again in the gospels, he is not a political figure. He will say to Pilate who tries to engage him in politics in the gospel of John that my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my followers would rise up against you.

He says, but my kingdom is to come. Jesus, his coming, his living, his dying was about the true human problem, which isn't Rome, and it isn't Washington. It isn't Republicans, and it isn't Democrats. It's not Christian nationalism or militant Islam or anything else. The true human problem is our sin and our brokenness and the way that that disconnects us from God and places us rightfully underneath his wrath and judgment as a holy God whom we have sinned against Jesus.

In the words of second Corinthians five twenty one, came to take on our sin in order to pay the penalty of that sin so that in his death and his resurrection, we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus came to save sinners, not to overthrow governments or to point to them mockingly or even to wag his finger at them. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There's always a danger. It lives in mister Thayer.

It lives in me. It lives in you to turn Jesus into a spokesperson for what we think God should be talking about, to turn Jesus into a figurehead of a movement that we are passionate about, to make Jesus a political icon for our own politics. But when we do that, it is fundamentally a misdirection. You see, the truth is you and I would rather talk politics than we would talk about our own sin. You and I would rather demonize our enemies and uphold our own worldview than we would deal with our brokenness before God, but Jesus won't let us.

Even on the night he institutes communion, when he's talking about this is my body and this is my blood, he says broken and shed for you. He is putting it on our radar. Here's why I've come. Here's why I'm going to die. Your sin, God's judgment on you.

That's what I've come to do. When Jesus says the night he's arrested, if possible, father, take this cup from me. It's not the cup of Christian nationalism he's talking about or the cup of mocking Rome. It's the cup of the anger and wrath of God over my sin. Jesus wasn't mocking or protesting Rome.

Jesus, by the way, is eternal. Rome to Jesus is a moment. It it's too insignificant. That's why in the gospels, Jesus really doesn't aim at Rome all that much because he knows Rome is going to give way to Europe, Europe to America, America to Southeast Asia. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall.

Leaders come and leaders go. Jesus is building a kingdom of God, a kingdom of forgiven, justified sinners through his life, his death, and his resurrection that transcends all of that. Was Jesus a political rebel? No. And I'm so glad he wasn't.

He's so much more. The resurrected son of God who came and lived and died and rose for you and for me. Hey. Thanks for watching this episode of wake up look up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it.

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