Politics and the Incarnation

Given the recent election, the length of the campaign, the amount of money spent, the hyperbolic language thrown around, and the unbridled expectations attached to our president-elect, it’s hard to imagine that there is anything more important than politics and politicians. We in the church are not immune to this. Our own perceptions of the future seem to rise and fall depending upon who gets elected. Why is this? I suspect it has to do with the relationship between the power wielded by politicians and the power of God

All authority (the power to rule) resides in God and God alone. He it is who is sovereign, who possesses supreme authority, not being ruled by another. This assertion is based upon Romans 13:1 “. . . there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” This reality is why Jesus responds as he does when brought before Pontius Pilate just prior to his crucifixion: “. . . Pilate said to him, ‘You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above . . .’” (John 19:10,11). What does this make political rulers? They are in the words of Paul in Romans 13 “servants of God.”

I think it is possible that people place so much hope in politics and politicians because people, whether they realize it or not (most likely not), sense that politicians handle the very power of God and are, therefore, in a position to do tremendous good or evil.

People spend their lives living. And living life brings with it all manners of joys and sorrows, victories and defeats, necessities and wishes; the list could go on and on. Living life is a complex, multi-faceted enterprise. It is made even more complicated by the fact that, while we each live out life as individuals, we do so in society with others. Our individually experienced lives are somehow to be lived out among others who are likewise experiencing their lives. Most times this poses few problems, as people find enough social space to live their lives. But at other times problems are presented because, living in society, an individual’s actions have the potential to significantly affect another, and human beings have demonstrated that their impulses are not always good. That is, they will do things that affect others in ways that do not respect the rights, dignity, and humanity of the other. This kind of anti-social behavior can be done by on a very small scale, one on one, or on a larger, societal scale. In the times when we feel that the line has been crossed we look to someone to wield righteous power to right the wrong and maintain a society that allows for social discourse and civility

You see we need to be governed; this is the way we were designed by God. And, as it is represented for us in Scripture, we discover that human beings were to be governed by God. The Lord created them and set before them how they were to live. They rejected that rule, however, and suffered the consequences. But their rejection of God’s rule did not mean that they no longer needed to be governed. We were created to be ruled. The process only became much more complicated when we rejected the direct rule of God.

So, along comes another election cycle and hopes are renewed that one who is wise, humble, self-sacrificing, and merciful, who is at the same time is courageous, forthright, and willing to stand up to injustices and brutes, will emerge. I believe the near messianic descriptions of the coming presidential tenure is grounded in the fact that we know, or intuit, that we need to be governed and we want a leader, an individual, who will lead us to peace, prosperity, and justice. That being said, I can safely predict that such expectations will meet with disappointment. For the ruler in whom hope has been placed himself needs to be ruled, for he is subject to the same failings as the ones he has been elected to govern.

This is why we need to proceed with caution. History is replete with men, and occasionally women, who have been given, or seized, what is inherently God’s authority, and wielded it as though he or she was God himself. “Power will intoxicate the best hearts as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough, to be trusted with unlimited power” warns C.C. Colton. Indeed as Plutarch observes: “There is no stronger test of a man’s character than power and authority.”

There is only one man who has lived in whom such trust can be placed. He alone understands divine authority, being divine, and through his obedience to the will of his heavenly Father, won the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9), and is declared to be “King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

This is the One of whom we sing during this season of Advent.