Well, full disclosure, I did not make it to church this Palm Sunday. I got up, not feeling great, and had to go back to bed. Then one of the kids got sick to her stomach. So we’ll rest and gear up for Easter. Just one of those days.
But it is also Palm Sunday and Holy Week and those of you who are new to this need to note something. This week, no politics around here in my morning posts.
The President might resign, Ron DeSantis might officially declare, etc. and I’ll find a way to sneak in a blurb, but the main focus must not be that but Holy Week.
Over the last two decades of writing, I have found it necessary to force myself to think about the bigger picture than the news of the day. And so I want to start here, now, with Palm Sunday.
Six days removed from a school shooting at a church school in Nashville, Tennessee, we have seen the world turn even more to madness. The national press corps has made the shooter of the children the most sympathetic mass murderer in history. More ink was spilled, and words poured out from the Biden Administration about sympathies to the trans community than the families of the victims. The national press corps wrung its collective hands more about misgendering the shooter than about the children murdered.
As scripture admonishes, you can be angry, but do not sin.
A growing movement of people on the right who can quote scripture and never darken the door of a church are gravitating toward the Jesus who chased money changers out of his Father’s house. They want to be the fists of Christ against a world defiantly against God.
But Christ told us the things of the world will hate the things of God. We should see affirmation of our faith in the fallout of the shooting this week. The things of the world rallied to the shooter, and the people of God mourned the dead.
Today, Christians remember Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on the way to his execution. Jesus Christ did not fight to save his way of life. He cleaned out his Father’s house, but otherwise, he laid down his life for those he loved. Be angry, but do not sin. Do not decide that in becoming Christ-like, you are becoming the guy who throws punches in Jesus’s name. Jesus was more likely to turn the other cheek. Do not so want to wage war against the world in Jesus’s name that you co-opt a few lines of scripture to justify behaving like the world.
Satan did that to Christ in the desert, selectively quoting scripture.
The whole of scripture is this — Christ Jesus loves us so much that he willingly laid down his life for all of us and conquered death so that we might have eternal life with Him. Any who put their faith in Christ can have that life.
Be angry, but do not sin. The Book of Life is already written. The story has already been written. The conclusion is already known. Christ wins, and those in Christ win. Do not trust your own actions over the sovereignty of God. He has a plan. It is being executed. Do not lose eternity to own the left.
Christ has entered the city. In a few days, those who placed palm branches in front of Him will instead choose to send Christ to the cross in exchange for the life of a political rebel who scratched their itch for a fight against the government.
Do not want to own the other side so bad, you crucify Christ and free Barabbas.
Amen!
For many years, I was caught up in the effort to confront the world on the world's stage with the world's weapons. Very good people in very good organizations implored believers to "get involved politically", "make a difference with our votes", and save this blessed country from the impending moral chaos, and eventual moral collapse, that we saw coming from miles away. Those same people still preach the same message. The argument to confront evil in that way made sense then. Today, not so much.
That effort has just given us momentary victories. The Republican party, the only real choice for a political answer, has proven time and again to be as toothless and ineffective as a Gospel without Jesus. It just doesn't have any power. Even the massive Supreme Court decison to gut Roe has become a money maker and rallying cry for those who want to kill babies. Praise the Lord for that victory, for there WILL BE babies who will not be sucked out of their mother's wombs. There WILL BE women, and men, who will not endure the agony of reliving a terrible decison. But that SC decision has also forced people to make a personal judgment about the evil of abortion, and many have decided that babies must be sacrificed in order for women to feel whole, or empowered, or unencumbered by an inconvenient pregnancy. The "what if" question concerning the unintended pregnancies trumped the "what about the unborn life" question that should be paramount. Now, even conservative state legislatures have rejected opportunities to ban abortion. It just got too personal for some people.
All of that to say that your words, Erick, ring loud and clear to this reformed "politics is the answer" junkie. I always said out loud that the only thing that would save us from ourselves was real revival, but I secretly held out hope that the right man in office could turn things around. I couldn't have been more wrong. I repent in dust and ashes. How silly to think that a spiritual battle could even be fought, much less won, with worldly, fleshy weapons. Our situation today proves that only Jesus-loving, Jesus-following, Jesus-worshipping people will make any difference in this broken world, and that will require us to accept the cross that He hands us and lay down out swords. I am not a pacifist. I am not a pansy. I do not believe that politics has to be avoided (that's actually impossible). I just realize that when my voice carries across a room and all anyone can hear is a political message, then they will probably turn their backs on me and never hear my heart that they can know the Savior who saved even this worthless sinner. Thanks for the words you write. May Jesus be honored by His people.