Jesus and politics, 2020 edition

Sometimes, we think that the way to fix the world is through politics. Jesus didn’t try that. There were lots of poor people, but He didn’t campaign for higher taxes on the rich to help them. The illegal aliens were running the country, but He didn’t try to get rid of them. Abortion may have been practiced in Israel, and perhaps infanticide was, too -- it seems to have been common among the Greeks and Romans. There's not a Biblical record of Jesus mentioning either of these practices. There weren’t any Muslims yet, but there were Samaritans, and He got one of them to be an evangelist to her village, and told a story, to a Jewish audience, about the goodness of another Samaritan. The Romans had open carry, but the Jews didn’t. There was slavery, and women were second-class citizens. He didn’t try a political solution for any of these things. He helped individuals that He came across, lived a sinless life, and died and rose for our sins. That, plus training the disciples, was His way of attacking the problems around Him.

Note: Apparently, sometimes God calls a person to become politically active. Wilberforce’s crusade against slavery seems to have been a case of this.

John 18:36a Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.” (World English Bible, public domain)

Thanks for reading!