Can Our Politics Be Raised From the Dead?
The gospel is political. Just ask someone in Jesus' day.
Imagine if you prayed through a psalm every day until Easter. Think what God might accomplish in your life. Below, you can download a calendar to guide you. Then, if you haven’t already, read 40 Days of Psalms. Finally, keep an eye out for the mid-week post, which will return to the topic of prayer and psalms.
Could We Talk About Anything Else?
I totally understand why some Christians want to steer clear of politics. The temperature of the conversation keeps rising in our country, and politicians aren’t exactly known for their Christ-like character. Lots of issues instantly bring out anger, fear, and even suspicion. Too many friendships between believers have crashed on these very rocks.
Yes, some issues are best avoided with certain people. And we might do well to steer clear of some subjects almost completely. But I don’t think Christians will succeed in sidestepping politics entirely. One reason is because in the first-century world of Jesus, the words that we know as church and gospel both had political meanings.
The Word ‘Church’ Means What?
You’ve probably heard that the word “church,” or ekklesia, means something along the lines of “the called-out ones.” A common explanation goes like this: as believers, we’ve been called by God to live for him and to share his message of salvation from sin. This is a fair description of what it means to live a “called out” life today. But have you ever wondered what purpose the ekklesia of ancient Greece was called out for?
The answer is politics.
The ekklesia was the political assembly of citizens in an ancient Greek state. It was a body that met 30-40 times per year, dealing with everything from changes in the law, to official appointments, to foreign treaties.
Peter Leithart argues that:
Calling the church in Ephesus an ekklesia is analogous to naming a church “First City Hall of Gardendale, Alabama.”
Why God chose this particular word to identify his people is open for discussion. As is how this should shape our understanding of the church. But there’s no way around the fact that the word ekklesia had political connotations in Jesus’ day.
Wait, ‘Gospel’ Too?
The word “gospel” also had a political meaning in the first century. It comes from the Old English word godspel, which means “good message.” Godspel, in turn, is a translation of the Greek euangelion. Just by looking at it, you can tell it’s the root of words like “evangelical” and “evangelism.”
Like ekklesia, the word euangelion had a political meaning in Jesus’ day. Back then, when a new Roman emperor came to power, he would send out messengers to deliver his euangelion or “gospel” message. Often delivered following a military victory, this “good news” announced a promise that the new ruler’s reign would bring great joy to those citizens who submitted to his authority.
You can see the connection to the word “gospel” as we commonly understand it today. Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose from the grave, and ascended to reign as King at the right hand of God. Yet, unlike emperors who come and go, Jesus is the eternal King who offers the everlasting joy of salvation.
We Need a Broader Understanding of Politics
Both ekklesia (church) and evangelion (gospel) had political overtones in Jesus’ day. Once you understand this, the argument that Christians should avoid the subject of politics becomes pretty flimsy. The claim that politics are a distraction from the gospel reveals that someone hasn’t looked deeply into the word’s origins. Jesus’ followers would have heard the word “gospel” as inherently political.
To understand this, it helps to recognize that politics can be understood much more broadly than we usually do. The political does include contentious issues and the decision-making of elected officials, but it also encompasses much more. Here’s another helpful quote from the same article by Leithart:
As Richard John Neuhaus often said, politics is better understood as the process by which we answer the question, “How ought we to order our life together?” How we pass on the heritage of the past to future generations; what values and priorities should determine the design of our built environment; how we get our food and water and ensure it’s safe and nutritious; how we care for the sick, elderly, dying, and dead; how we preserve the dignity of work—whether or not the state directly oversees these issues, they are all political questions because they involve deliberation and decision about our common life.
When we think of politics as “how we order our lives,” the connection to biblical terms like church and gospel feels a bit less jarring.
Deadly Leaven Rising
Of course, such a broad understanding of politics is not usually what people have in mind when they use the word today. And it’s certainly true that an obsession with political personalities and issues can distract from the church’s mission. As it’s often pointed out, anything can be turned into an idol. And for many people, politics is indeed a false god.
More commonly for Christians, though, it’s political leaven, rather than outright idolatry, that’s the problem. In church culture, “leaven” isn’t quite the zinger that “idol” is, nor is the term commonly used. But it’s a word we need to recover. The most familiar leaven today is yeast, which causes bread to rise. Here’s how Jesus used this image in Mark 8:14-17:
Now [the disciples] had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And [Jesus] cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?”
The disciples are concerned about their stomachs. Jesus is concerned about the influences taking hold within their souls. Pay attention to the two specific kinds of leaven he warns about. The first is from the Pharisees, who get a lot of attention in the gospel accounts of Jesus. They’re the hypocrites who appeared holy, but who Jesus said were like “whitewashed tombs.” They were full of spiritual death and decay. One kind of leaven, then, can lead to religious hypocrisy.
But Herod, on the other hand, was only nominally religious. He wasn’t pretending to be a super-spiritual person. Commonly thought of as a king, he was a tetrarch, the ruler over a particular region, yet under Rome. His leaven was political—the temptation of earthly power. Given Jesus’ warning here to his disciples, apparently the risk that sinful influence from politics poses to Christ-followers isn’t new.
The image of leaven underscores how we can be snared—even when everything seems fine. Bread rises little by little, until it hardly resembles its original form. We might think the “small” amount of sinful influence we allow in our lives is insignificant. But left unchecked over time, it can completely transform us.
Where To Now?
So where does that leave us? It kind of feels like we’re back where we started. If politics can smuggle sinful leaven into our lives, maybe it’s best avoided after all. Or maybe we’ve landed in an even more confusing place, snagged in a contradiction. Because if the words gospel and church are inherently political, we can’t avoid some kind of Christian politics.
When I pick this idea up in a future post, we’ll see if we can find a way out.
Thank you so much for reading. Until next time, keep up the prayer.
Religion informs Politics and together they form Worldview.
Every thought, word, and deed emanates from Worldview.
Religion and Politics are part of the fabric of life.
This is great, makes me rethink how I perceive Sunday gatherings. If we are coming together for town halls, it has implications on community, the kingdom, and the nature of Church authority!