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 WHAT WERE JESUS' POLITICS? It's probably a mistake to try to fit Jesus too snugly under any modern political labels – left-wing, right-wing, Euro-sceptic. The political world of his time was just too different. But it's equally wrong to say that he was of the "bishops should stay out of politics" persuasion, that he was only interested in "religion" and steered clear of the whole political vipers' nest. For Jesus, like any first-century Jew, politics and religion were inextricably mixed. So what were Jesus' politics? Basically: the kingdom of God. Central to everything Jesus said is his announcement of the kingdom of God and his insistence that we should work and pray towards that end. That much is clear. What's not so clear is what "the kingdom of God" actually means. It's not a phrase Jesus invented. Jewish revolutionaries at the time wanted to throw off imperial Roman rule, and even the monarchy, and have no king but God. This wasn't an excuse for anarchy – like Cromwell in the English revolution, they wanted a regime of holiness and the law of the scriptures. Many of Jesus' followers seem to have assumed that he had the same manifesto. But Jesus clearly had no interest in taking on the Roman army. He called for the people of Israel to become "one nation under God" even under its present oppression, and for his followers to make a start by being a holy community. Which sounds exactly like rejecting politics for religion. Except that he also called for – and practised himself – some radical social changes: an end to the social exclusion of the "spiritually unclean" (such as prostitutes and people who collected taxes for the Romans), a more inclusive attitude to women and non-Jews, a rejection of violence, and social justice for the poor. More questions about Jesus' teaching |
Picture: 19th-century Bible illustration. |
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