This year my bible study has been in the book of Matthew. I was so looking forward to the study because Matthew was the first gospel I ever really studied after purposefully committing my life to Christ and making a point of reading my bible as a teenager. Anyways, in studying the book I have enjoyed getting to know Jesus at the human level. Alongside the study, I've slowly been readying Philip Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew". What an amazing book! Because of the book, I've tried to read the Matthew's account in light of a person at the time rather than looking back from now as a believer. I am amazed by the faith of people! I pray that I too would have such faith as the woman who touched just the edge of Jesus cloak to be healed or the boldness to ask to sit beside Jesus as the mother of James and John asked on their behalf. It is humbling and yet spurs me on to ask the Lord to continually increase my faith.
On that note, I feel the need to share a passage from the Yancey's book regarding Christians and politics. He expresses concern on the rise of Christians focusing more and more on politics and says "once Christians were ignored or scorned; now they are courted by every savvy politician. Evangelicals especially are identified with a certain political stance, so much so that the news media use the terms 'evangelical' and 'religious right' interchangeably. When I ask a stranger, 'What is an evangelical Christian?' I get an answer something like this: 'Someone who supports family values and opposes homosexual rights and abortion.'
"This trend troubles me because the gospel of Jesus was not primarily a political platform. The issues that confront Christians in a secular society must be faced and addressed and legislated, and a democracy gives Christians every right to express themselves. But we dare not invest so much in the kingdom of this world that we neglect our main task of introducing people to a different kind of kingdom, one based solely on God's grace and forgiveness. Passing laws to enforce morality serves a necessary function, to dam up evil, but it never solves human problems. If a century from now all that historians can say about evangelicals of the 1990s is that they stood for family values, then we will have failed the mission Jesus gave us to accomplish: to communicate God's reconciling love to sinners.
"Jesus did not say, 'All men will know you are my disciples ... if you pass just laws, suppress immorality, and restore decency to family and government,' but rather '... if you love one another.' He made that statement the night before his death, a night when human power, represented by the might of Rome and the full force of Jewish religious authorities, collided head-on with God's power. All his life, Jesus had been involved in a form of 'culture wars' against a rigid religious establishment and a pagan empire, yet he responded by giving his life for those who oppose him. On the cross, he forgave them. He had come, above all, to demonstrate love: 'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son..."
What a sobering reminder in light of the political chaos that has ensued and will continue through this election year. No matter which side has the power, as a believer, I have the responsibility to share Christ with the world, for that is truly what matters and furthers God's kingdom. I just pray that I won't get so wrapped up in world events that I miss out on the most important gift I have to share - salvation that is through Christ alone.
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