Clean Up

For those of you new to this, I don’t write about politics in my morning pieces this week. It is Holy Week. We should focus on our world view and Christ, not the political news of the day. Those of you who are paid subscribers will get my show notes around noon today and I will be on radio this week. The Good Friday Show is coming this Friday.

For those of you who are not paid subscribers, your subscription does not only give you the Show Notes and other stuff, but you allow me to write stuff like this and support what has become, to a degree, a ministry. And you keep me from being canceled for weaving a Christ centered message into my daily radio show. So, if you are inclined:

Now, on with the email.

Today is Holy Monday. Christians dwell on two things today. First, we dwell on Christ chasing the money changers out of the temple. Second, we focus on the withered fig tree.

I work hard to avoid politics in these, but I cannot help but think about the times we live in.

I see more and more right-of-center “influencers” trying to use God’s Word as a cudgel against their political opponents.

Think about the money changers in the temple. They thought they served a purpose related to people’s worship. They came to believe it. But really, whole systems had been set in place for the money lenders to profit off others and faith had been steered towards the culture of the day.

Christ overturned the tables and chased out those who were making profit for the sake of profit using his name.

Today, in both the church and in politics, a lot of people are proclaiming Christ as King, but instead of calling others to love their neighbors, they are using Christ as a political dividing line. It should go without saying, but Christ does not care about your political party — all of which are run by sinners.

Christ cares that you “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and that you “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)

Too many people in the United States are using Christ in their political arguments to advance not God’s Kingdom, but their own political agenda. I have to tell you that I have struggled mightily over the years with whether I am conforming my faith to my politics or my politics to my faith. But I’m increasingly more aware that many do not struggle with that at all. In conforming their faith to their politics, they sleep well at night and hate their neighbor while awake.

That leads me to the fig tree. Christ the Creator who spoke the world into existence approached the fig tree hungry and it bore Him no fruit. He cursed it and it withered.

If you’re gaining members of your political party or growing your podcast listeners or building your social media following and you are not glorifying God along the way, you are that fig tree.

And here’s the thing about the fig tree. It had leaves and was out of season for fruit. It should have had some figs left, given where it was and that it had leaves — those trees produced the figs before the leaves and then produced more figs. But this fig tree was full of leaves as if it was healthy and productive, but had no fruit.

We see this a lot in politics. Like the money changers, we have a lot of people monetizing Christ for political gain, but they are not producing fruit, just more anger, more clicks, and more adherents for a political cause, not a God in Heaven. They have leaves as if they are productive, healthy, and alive, but they have no fruit to show for all their green leaves — just the green of cash.

Just as Christ turned over the tables and chased away the money lenders from the temple, we really do, as believers, need to be more vigilant about cleansing our own side of those who preach a Christ as a weapon, not Christ as a redeemer.

Christ is neither Democrat nor Republican. He is God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. If you weaponize and politicize Him, you have turned Him into an idol and a tool, not the only God and our King. If you have never had to question your political positions because of your faith, you have probably aligned your faith to your politics instead of aligning your politics to your faith. Christ should make all of us uncomfortable with your political shibboleths and compel us to elevate Him above our politics.

Christian, if you cannot call out your side politically because of your faith, you might just be worshiping an idol, not God.