Following Judah's Lion

A Short Dialogue

A comment on another blog thread:

” His message was interpreted as a threat to politicians and religious leaders alike.”

My reply:

Yes, but mistakenly so. He came to bring life, but the politically minded misinterpreted Him as a threat to their power while others just as politically minded saw Him as their door to political power. Both were equally as wrong.
I agree that Jesus was THE revolution, but that revolution was not of this world. It may surely have implications here and now, but its substance and message was eternal, that when believed, will have many profound residual effects directly related to the message and not the effects themselves.
I submit that when believers get entangled with the affairs of this world, especially those designed to clean the outside of the cup, those residual effects are often muted and often mirror the “effects” exhibited by those who do not believe.
Politics is a man made effort to manipulate his surroundings through the strength of pressure, numbers, deceptive presentations, and massive amounts of money and complaining. It almost always leads to unwholesome alliances and it always leads to an elevated view of human power and the significance of political usefulness in the kingdom of God.
The message of Jesus was not designed to change men’s minds through the force of other men’s minds. The gospel is the agent through which men’s hearts can be changed, and in fact the most hollow and indeed dangerous scenario materializes when we are successful in changing men’s minds while their hearts remain unchanged. If the message of Jesus means anything as it pertains to the political machinations of men, it calls us to freedom from the bondage that is cleverly disguised as freedom. Democracy has become a religious idol.