What does it mean to be a follower of Christ?

Let’s look at Philippians 2. We are to have the same attitude in this world as Jesus did. He was God, but he let go of that power and privilege and instead became a servant, loving the people of this world. He was born to love. He was humble. He was obedient to the point of giving up his life for all people.

There is a movement afoot. No, it’s been around for many a long, long year. (Since 381 A.D.)

 It is a temptation to power. It equates a nation’s identity with that of Christianity. It’s not new. It started with Emperor Constantine in the late 4th century, when he saw a ‘vision’ of the cross as a sign that he would conquer his enemies. It was an identity theft of the highest magnitude.

Consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 26, when Jesus is being arrested. One of the disciples used a sword and cut off the ear of one of the high priest’s men. Jesus responded, “Put your sword away. People who use the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you understand that if I wanted to, I could call on my father and have him send me more than a million armed soldiers with guns and missiles to wipe out all my enemies (I paraphrase).”

It was actually 72,000 angelic soldiers.

That is not the way of the Kingdom of God. 

It’s not the way of the disciples of Jesus today.

Certainly, we vote our consciences for policies and people that help our nation. But as Christians, we are servants, caring for the poor, the widowed, the strangers in our land, and the ‘least of these’ as Jesus called the most needful people. (See Matthew 25)

We don’t exert power over people.

See what happened when the disciples asked Jesus if he would make them powerful associates of his in the future. Actually, in one account, it’s the mother of the two disciples who approached Jesus. (Make of that what you will.)

“It’s about my two sons. Please say that, when you are king, they may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left.” (Matthew 20)

Well, that started quite a bruhaha among the rest of the disciples. They all wanted some power over people.  But Jesus responded, “Knock it off. That’s what worldly people do. They get all high and mighty and let everybody know. But that’s not the case with my followers. If you want to be great, then you must be the servant of all people.” (somewhat paraphrased)

We need to be careful not to confuse the kingdom of the world with the Kingdom of God. We can’t let ourselves identify God’s Kingdom with the world’s power. 

Now I want to be careful about what I say next. 

IN the 1930s, Christians found the talk of nationalism very appealing. They were living in hard times imposed on them after they lost in WWI. The churches embraced the idea that God was on their side, even to the point of persecuting Jews and Communists.

The situation went from bad to worse. Jews couldn’t work. Their shops were closed down. They couldn’t marry Gentiles. And the atrocities that followed are recorded in more books than I can count. We know the horrible outcome.

Caution: Christians are NOT Christian nationalists.

Christian Nationalism means that we identify our nation’s goals with those of Christ, as Emperor Constantine did in the late 4th Century (yes, I’m repeating myself). That identification led to the death of the Christian nation’s enemies.

A nation is a world kingdom that, by laws and force, can appear to be ethically and morally Christian. But God’s Kingdom revealed in Jesus is not about power ‘over’ people. Rather, His is about the power of love and serving. Our weapons are not laws, guns, threats, and such. We are called to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, welcome the strangers, feed the hungry, and bear the Cross, not the sword. Jesus is our only King.

So let’s be good citizens of our country, but never forget that we are first and foremost followers of Jesus in all that we say and do. And yes, even when that to which we are called opposes the laws of our nation.

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