President Messiah?

And Saul said, “God do so to me and more also; you shall surely die, Jonathan.” Then the people said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it!” 1 Samuel 14:44-45

A few years ago, I was watching my football team play a fierce rival when I became annoyed with one of the players on the opposing team. He was aggressive, he was arrogant, and he talked a lot of trash. Worst of all though, he was really good, which made life miserable for my team. He was a brazen, brash bully, and I just couldn’t stand him and his stupid long hair. Annoying me even further was the fact that the other team’s fans seemed to love him. He was one of their favorites! Thinking about it though, I realized that if he was on my side, I’d love him too. No one likes a bully . . . until he’s your bully, fighting for you.

This was the phenomenon experienced by the Israelites as they waited for the messiah. Because Christ was born into a culture where Israel had been subjugated by a big, bad bully – the Roman empire – his people looked to him for military deliverance. They wanted a big, bad bully of their own who would smash the Romans in the face. They imagined a fierce king. What they got was Jesus. Jesus though, had no interest in politics. Instead, he preached love and grace, changing one life at a time, drawing people to God. He had no use for the power of man, yet his meek life changed the world more than anyone else in history. To many Israelites at the time though, Jesus was a huge disappointment. They wanted a big, bad bully king.

Not incidentally, this was the same mistake God’s people made 1,000 years before Christ. God intended to be his people’s king, but the people looked at the nations around them and they desired a human king – someone who would lead them to military and political victory. So, they anointed King Saul, who, in today’s passage, planned to put his own son – Jonathan – to death for disobeying one of his commands. Jonathan though, had just defeated the Philistines and so, the people rose up in unified objection to Saul’s absurd command.

I generally avoid politics in my blog, but this bully-concept has been on my mind for a while. In our current climate, it’s hard not to see that Christians today are falling into the same trap. Whatever you feel about the current president though, he’s not our savior. It may be profoundly appealing for Christians to celebrate the big, bad bully they believe to be on their side, but the power of Christ isn’t manifest in politics. The power of man always corrupts, and when we seek it, we risk corruption ourselves. I’m not saying that Christians shouldn’t vote their conscience or get involved in politics. I’m just saying that Jesus wouldn’t have sought the presidency. Rather, he’d be on the street, rescuing those who were homeless, addicted, and trafficked. As Christians, our trust isn’t in politics or the big, bad bully, even when we think he’s on our side, sitting in the White House. Rather, our trust is in Christ alone.