Manchester Lutheran Church

Should the church try to transform politics?

Many people claim that the church should be explicitly political.

On Wednesday, Anne and I met someone at the Humanist Society who claimed: “Jesus absolutely wanted to start a social revolution.”

For decades, significant and popular movements in the UK, have claimed that political and social transformation is at the heart of Jesus’ message and work.

At seminary I was taught that the church should be seeking to transform British culture, by transforming things like politics, art, and education.

Some of us may have heard the phrase “New Perspective on Paul”. That’s a movement which claims that the focus of the Bible is on Jesus bringing the Kingdom of God visibly now: transformation of creation through Jesus as king, and that transformation starts now.

The Church of England, my former denomination, describes what they call 5 marks of mission. And mark 4 is this:

To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation

The question for us is this: Is this what the church should be doing? Is this part of the church’s mission?

And the reader of Matthew’s Gospel might be asking this kind of question as they get to the end of chapter 20.

Matthew’s Gospel is organised around 5 big speeches of Jesus, followed by events and stories that illustrate or work out the themes of these speeches in practice.

That last big speech was in chapter 18, where Jesus taught about the true nature of his kingdom.

In chapters 19-20 the reader of Matthew, has then seen people interacting with Jesus about life in his kingdom: marriage; children; wealth; faith, not works; and humility, not pride.

And in each of these areas, Jesus lifts people’s eyes from this world to the next world, from the visible to the invisible.

Now, finally, here in chapter 21, we see Jesus engage with the crowds, and the public, political expectations of the Jewish people.

They wanted a political messiah, a king who would overthrow the rule of the Romans.

Which is why the reader of Matthew would be coming to this passage with the question we started with: Should the church try to transform politics?

And we see in this story an answer in two parts:

1) We want Jesus to do things we can see immediately
2) Jesus’ power is as the king of peace, not of politics

Part 1) We want Jesus to do things we can see immediately

Please look again at how the people in Jerusalem receive Jesus in vv. 8-9:

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

The people in Jerusalem are happy to see Jesus. But Matthew gives us hints they misunderstand him.

They called Jesus the “Son of David”. Because Jesus is God’s Messiah who fulfils the promises made to David 1000 years earlier.

On the one hand, you could understand this to mean Jesus will bring God’s spiritual kingdom.

On the other hand you could understood this to be a political title, —that’s the interpretation of many people today —and those who teach the New Perspective.

The people shout “Hosanna”, which in Hebrew means “Saviour”!

On the one hand, you could understand this to mean Jesus saves us from our sins.

On the other hand you could understand them to be saying Jesus will politically save them from the Romans.

In both cases, the people have the wrong idea—a political idea. They throw cloaks and branches on the ground.

This was how Jewish political kings were honoured. 2 Kings 9:13 says this:

Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”

And they say Jesus is coming in the name of the Lord. A phrase that appears twice in the Old Testament, both times talking about a political king who brings military victory.

When David was facing Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:45-46 he said this:

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,

The people are directly quoting Psalm 118:26—a Psalm about God saving Israel through military victories. vv. 10-12 of that Psalm say this:

All nations surrounded me; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off!

We want Jesus to do things we can see immediately

We want the church to be a political party, a social justice movement, a moral watchdog. Because there is something by nature in all of us that naturally distrusts God.

By nature we don’t believe him that our biggest problem is our sin. By nature we are suspicious of the crucifixion… …part of us naturally thinks: “God is going over the top, surely he could just let sins go, becoming a man to die for me—that’s overkill.”

And so, by nature, we want the church to be “useful” by doing something else than proclaiming forgiveness.

In Luke 12:14, when a man asked him to resolve a legal dispute, Jesus answered:

Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?

—he refused to take on the role of a civil judge or king.

The last couple of weeks, a friend of mine in Manchester has been repeatedly saying to me: The church needs to do something useful without religion. I keep telling him all I’m here to do is to tell him his sins are forgiven and that God loves him.

On some level, you and I think like that too, which means on some level we think God is a liar, when he tells us this is our biggest problem. But, Scripture says, Isaiah 59:2:

your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you

Romans 6:23:

the wages of sin is death

And so God warns us about our natural instincts Jeremiah 17:9:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

But, despite our natural disbelief and opposition to God’s priorities, the second part of Matthew’s answer to our question is this:

Jesus’ power is as the king of peace, not of politics

Please look again at vv. 1-3

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’

Jesus makes his omnipotent power absolutely clear.

He is God himself become man. Jesus has absolute control over all things. Jesus has knowledge of all things. Jesus is present everywhere.

He knows the future. He can see every detail of this neighbouring village. He knows precisely how a conversation will play out.

Jesus has absolute power:
—more control than Kier Starmer
—his Word carries far more authority than Trump’s executive orders
—he commands armies of angels far more powerful than Putin’s forces

And yet, Jesus, with the power to command armies of angels, doesn’t ride into Jerusalem on a chariot, a horse, a tank… rather, vv. 6-7:

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.

The pattern for thousands of years in Israel was that political kings ride and gather horses. 1 Kings 10:26:

And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

And so the Old Testament contained many warnings not to trust in politics instead of the Lord. Here’s how Psalm 20:7 gives that warning:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

Horses are a sign of political power and strength. And so Jesus deliberately avoided riding a horse. Instead, he chooses to ride in to the capital city on a donkey, which is a deliberate choice, look again at vv. 4-5:

This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, ‘Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

And in the very next verse of that prophecy from Zechariah, the prophet says this:

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

This Messiah does not come to crush his enemies on the battlefield or at the ballot box: he comes to carry their sin in his body.

The Messiah will rule from sea to sea: but it will not be a political rule —it will be a rule based on a message that is explicitly non-political: speaking peace to the nations.

Not a political, worldly, temporary, shallow peace, but peace between us and God, as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:13-16:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Jesus’ power is as the king of peace, not of politics

And so… don’t be stressed out about the news! The church doesn’t need to win elections. We don’t need to stress about taking over the media, or education, or the narrative. You don’t need to stress out about being “relevant”. We don’t need to worry about our cultural impact. The power of the gospel is not tied to them.

Jesus is fully in charge of all these things, and he’s trustworthy. He knows exactly where the donkeys are… …he sees everything… …he knows every detail of the future.

He has all things in hand. And this Jesus is on your side. He died for you. He’s made peace with you.

Now, Jesus exercises his rule in two ways, through two kingdoms.

His right hand kingdom is the church, here he rules through His Word, by faith, here Christ has revealed himself clearly.

His left hand kingdom is the governments of the world, here he rules through power, by reason, here Christ’s rule is hidden.

God sent the church to proclaim forgiveness of sins.

God appointed government to punish visible transgression.

And you are a citizen of both kingdoms.

In the church you are a priest, you have the role to proclaim forgiveness of sins, to others inside the church and to people outside.

In the world you are a citizen, you have the calling to live out vocations of love, which includes being politically active.

So, political activity: voting, serving in government, campaigning …these all have their place in your life as an outworking of love because you are called to be a citizen of the world.

But, as a priest to others, speaking on behalf of God …all you can do is proclaim his Word tell each other and those outside about Jesus’ work, which is not a political message.

And I am the called pastor of Manchester Lutheran Church, which means, because of your consent, I exercise your priesthood on behalf of the congregation. So, in that capacity, I cannot and should not make political claims.

I can as a private citizen, but not as a public pastor.

God cares about you and through the blood of Christ has made peace with you: and has placed you in both these kingdoms for your good, and so that from faith you can do good.

So, Should the church try to transform politics?

Plenty of Christians today claim it should, and even that this is the central message of the Bible.

But, this is not the case.

We want Jesus to do things we can see immediately

Like the crowd, by nature we desire political and immediate solutions to the problems we see. That’s because inside all of us is a natural distrust of God and his warnings about the true seriousness of sin.

But, Jesus’ power is as the king of peace, not of politics

God the Son paid for your sin with his own blood, even when you didn’t understand how serious it was, even when you didn’t want him to, and were in open rebellion against him.

He controls all things, sees all things, and yet unconditionally loves all things. So, you do not need to worry about politics, society and culture.

And remember, we are a citizens of both these kingdoms.

In the church we are all priests, with the power to proclaim God’s Word.

In the world we are citizens, where one aspect of living out love, as private individuals we are politically active.

As we look ahead this week to Easter, receive Jesus into your affections and thoughts, not as a political activist with a worldly agenda, but as “your king” who “is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey”

Your king who comes not to spill blood of his enemies, but to give his blood for those who hate him.