He Holds the Field Forever

You and I have arrived at “the election of our lifetime”, one where “the very soul of America is at stake!” And words like these demand that they be heard. And they are. Every single election cycle.

You hope the presidential candidate you like will win. You hope they will exemplify honesty and integrity as a leader of the free world. You hope they will usher in an era of nationwide prosperity. You hope they will take seriously the growing concerns regarding our climate. You hope they will solve crippling issues of poverty, unemployment, and healthcare. You hope their policies will curb – if not conclude the ending of unborn lives. You hope they will bring about peace, correct injustices past, and do justice in the present. You hope they combat racism and heal the racial divide in our country. You hope they will lead us and our nation’s economy out of this pandemic. Our lives, like America, are broken. And we find ourselves voting for someone not just to pick up the pieces, but to put those pieces back together.

We invest so, so much hope in our politicians, don’t we?

But what happens if that candidate you’re hoping will win loses? Or, what happens if they win and fall through on the promises they made during their campaign? What if their presidency is a complete train-wreck? What happens if they get impeached? What if your life is just as broken after their time in office? Or even worse than before? Then what?

There’s always next election, right? And when that new election cycle rolls around, we’ll be struck with the same amnesia all over again, eyes glazed over with near (if not, entirely) utopian promises from a new array of politicians. Some pan out to be power-hungry, or pocket-padding, or mere panderers. The best of them will bring about change that won’t truly last, while others will never actually finish painting the picture they sold you at the auction.

Called to be a Citizen

While our government (no matter the party) is one that God himself established to be a blessing, that doesn’t mean our leaders and their platforms are exempt of or without fault. Even the best politicians aren’t perfect. They are still sinners. Yet, the imperfection of our government isn’t license for Christians to punt their God-given civic duty to their neighbor in apathy or resignation. Christians are citizens of two kingdoms, after all: a citizen of heaven first, and then a citizen of the state.

We, as Christ commanded, “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” We, as citizens of the state, have a God-given privilege and civic responsibility to individually participate in our political process – as it is a means for us individually as citizens of heaven to steward and care for the world God has given us – and, more importantly, a venue for us individually as citizens of heaven to be salt and light for a dark and dying world.

That dual citizenship is unavoidably uncomfortable for the Christian – notably every election season. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. Followers of Jesus traverse a narrow walk of lifelong cross-carrying and daily death to self. It comes with the territory when your leader claims to be God Incarnate. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus says. “There is no entry into heaven nor rightness with God except through me.”

Christ’s platform isn’t just countercultural: it’s inherently politically incorrect. As Christ-followers and citizens of heaven, we won’t sit comfortably in any political party.

Giving Caesar What is God’s

Yet even now, Christ calls us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. And American Christians have really struggled with that recently. It’s hard for Christians to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s – notably when we are belittled, bullied, and even beaten by him for believing in Jesus. But I suspect the struggle for American Christians isn’t failure to give Caesar what is Caesar’s. With how politicized everything has become, we’re plenty eager to give Caesar his due, if not even more. No, the ditch American Christians are diving into is giving Caesar what is God’s.

On the one hand, we allow Caesar, in all his dishonesty and duplicitousness, to tell us how we are to carry out our Christian duty to our neighbor – not the Triune God of grace and truth. We, at Caesar’s command, vote uninformed. We resonate our echo chamber. We lazily reduce the entirety of a given candidate’s platform to a single issue. On the other hand, we let Caesar, in all his self-righteousness and scandal, become the ontic referent and foundation for what is objectively moral and good – not a divine, personal, loving, just, righteous Creator. We, at Caesar’s command, condemn with brazen bias the moral failings and illogicities of one side of the aisle, yet are completely numb to and unphased by the utter nonsense and moral atrociousness of the other. Instead of all arguments being made captive to the will and Word of God, our convictions are made captive to a political platform. Little by little, our political preferences start to engender our Christianity, and our understanding of the gospel starts to sound more Red or Blue rather than biblical.

And if the unique mission and message of the Church isn’t being cancelled or coopted by Caesar, we might be trying to outsource it directly to him – convinced that voting the right someone into office will magically translate America into a “more Christian” nation – that manmade legislation will somehow legislate Christian faith into the hearts of Americans. And while it is true that a nation’s laws can shape the moral fabric of society and inform conversations on morality, moral conformity to manmade laws doesn’t make someone a Christian. Manmade legislation can’t create faith in people’s hearts. Not even God’s perfect Law does that. The letter kills, the Bible says. It’s the gospel that gives life.

Do we, as Christians, still have the right to get mad when people call for the removal of “God” from schools and courtrooms when we Christians have already evicted God from our everyday conversations?

Do we, as Christians, still have the right to lament the rampant secularization of our society when our own social media and front lawns plastered with picket signs shout to the world not “In God” but “In POTUS we trust”?

Do we, as Christians still have the right to decry the insipid, political vitriol on the news and social media when our own speech is neither seasoned with salt, nor full of grace? When we, too, are maliciously mocking a presidential candidate in one breath and insulting the IQ of their followers in another?

How is any of that a win for Christ? How does any of that not affirm what millions of Americans already think about the Christian Church – that we’re a bunch of morality-policing, unloving, hypocritical lobbyists?

When we, as Christians, give any and all of what is God’s alone to Caesar, we give the world the impression we have nothing better or greater to give them than they already could give themselves.

A Need for a greater message

God has entrusted the universally needed message of the gospel uniquely to the Church to proclaim both corporately and individually to the world. The beating heart of the gospel is that we, in Christ, are justified – made right with God – purely by God’s grace alone, on account of Christ alone, made ours through faith in him alone. And when cardinals and councils demanded Martin Luther take such teachings back, Luther couldn’t. He was willing to stake his life for the freedom that is in Christ by grace through faith. Because that central teaching, Luther contested, is the one by which the Church stands or falls. Without it, the unique “Christian” flavor is indistinguishable from the world around us. The “light” of the gospel gets snuffed out.

If we hinge all our hopes and dreams on any earthly leader, we're bound to be devastated. Whether we feel our politicians are gone too fast or not gone soon enough, we betray a desperate hope we have in sinful, broken people - that they will somehow make this sinful, broken world completely better. They won’t. Because they can’t. The best presidential cabinet can’t remotely tackle this dying world’s greatest existential problems. Our greatest politicians don’t anchor the answer to questions of meaning, purpose, identity, and destiny. Our greatest leaders can’t undo death. Our greatest legislators can neither legislate us into God’s heart, nor into his heaven. They can never make real heaven a reality for you.

And that’s why we need Jesus – all of who he is, and all of what he’s done.

A need for a Greater King

The eternal Son of God didn’t come to compete with Caesar. Jesus came because Caesar couldn’t possibly fix this dying world’s greatest problems – let alone, give you what you were literally dying without. Christ came to win you life, and life to the full – to give you a new identity, and with it, a life of meaning and purpose. Your life has value, because God gives it value. You were bought with the price of God’s very own blood! You, in Christ, are set free from your guilt, your shame, your regrets, and all of your fears – including fear of death. The triumphant song of gospel victory still reverberates in Christ’s empty tomb. And in Christ, you have an eternal citizenship in heaven with him.

When true freedom, peace, and joy couldn’t be found in Caesar’s kingdom – our Heavenly Father sent his Son to win us that freedom. And the freedom and peace that Jesus gives is nothing like the fleeting, hollow peace the best of this world could muster: the peace Jesus gives is peace forever with the Almighty God himself, a peace bought with his own blood. You aren’t just a number to him: you are fearfully and wonderfully made by him! He didn’t die for you because there was something about you that rendered you worthy or deserving of his love: no, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! He didn’t pursue you because you voted for him: you didn’t chose him; he, in love, chose you!

You didn't have to write in "Jesus" on your ballot for him to be King: he already is. And he reigns and rules all things in love for you. No matter how this election shakes out, your King remains in control. He’s the gracious King who didn’t cast aside, but died for broken sinners such as you and me. He’s the King who, by his Spirit and through his Word, created faith in your heart. He's a King that will never disappoint. He's a king that says and delivers. And you're living proof of that, because he's delivered you! And he will deliver you through poverty, sickness, this pandemic, and even death to be with him in paradise. And he doesn’t just rule over us – he walks beside us and dwells within us. He doesn’t call us his servants: he calls us his friends.

That’s the kind of King I want to reign. And that’s the King I want to share.

You see, you have something greater to give this hurting, dying world than your tears, your solidarity, your raised fist in protest, and even your vote in the ballot box. You have someone far greater in whom to rest your hope than whoever will occupy the White House next week. That something is the gospel. That someone is Jesus.

“He Holds the Field Forever”

Our true citizenship and better citizenship is a heavenly one. And when we seek first that heavenly kingdom, it’s easier to exercise our citizenship of the state. So, let’s serve our God and our neighbor as citizens of the state and citizens of heaven. Let’s get out of our echo chambers and listen. Out of love for God and neighbor, let’s strive to be informed.

Let’s pray for our government - and pray against any evil it may cause. Let’s pray for the courage to speak out against sin and injustice - protesting peacefully if necessary.

Exercise your civic duty. Serve within the government, even! At the very least, go vote! Ask yourselves: Which of these leader’s platforms best corresponds with God’s moral law? Which of these leader’s policies will best promote an environment for sharing Christ and his gospel – what alone changes hearts and lives forever? Let’s pray that God be glorified in our individual involvement with American politics - be it in an office or by our ballots.

But don’t just be ready to vote; be ready to give people Jesus. Just as your Christian faith isn’t confined to an hour on Sunday, your Christian voice as a dual citizen isn’t confined to a ballot, either.

Be ready to give the reason for the eternal hope you have in Jesus – and do so with Christ-like gentleness and respect. Let your conversations be seasoned with salt and full of grace. Be an agent of gospel change.

Shine and showcase your Savior. He holds the field forever, just as he holds you forever.