The Politics of the Lamb: Revelation and the 2020 Election
Corey will be leading a session of midday prayer on Tuesday at noon for anyone who would like to participate, to bring our hearts and minds back to the Lord and to pray for peace. Join through Instagram live or use this zoom link.
When I told a good friend this summer that I was planning to preach through the book of Revelation this fall, he exclaimed, “Are you crazy?” While not denying a little bit of personal insanity, I’m really grateful that my friend Kevin Germer and I (pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church Richmond) decided together to preach through Revelation in our respective churches almost a year ago. Of course, at the time we had no idea about how “apocalyptic” this season would feel, but we did know that we would all be facing a highly contentious national election. In light of the election, we felt that the book of Revelation, which has been called “the most overtly political” of all the books in the Bible, has some highly relevant and applicable themes for the people of God as we face yet another anxiety-filled election cycle. Here are a few of the most salient lessons:
1// The Politics of the Throne
The heart of the book of Revelation is chapters 4 and 5, which is the scene of the heavenly throne room, where the throne is occupied by God the Father (4:3) and the Lamb (5:6). John is not only describing a heavenly reality, he also critiquing the social and political world of the time, calling God’s people to faithful resistance. In a pretty brilliant way, he is offering a parody of the political power of the Roman emperor, who declared himself as “Lord and God.” In portraying the heavenly throne, John is exposing the power of Rome and the rule of Caesar as impotent and fragile, and he is exposing every human ruler, especially those who claim ultimate power, as feeble parodies of the King of Kings.
As we process this election, followers of Jesus look at the throne and see the One who holds true power over reality. This throne is not up for grabs on November 3, and whether Trump or Biden is the next president makes no difference to the legitimacy and authority of Jesus’ Lordship. His Kingdom cannot be affected or shaken by any earthly Kingdom, whether Babylon or Rome or the United States. Therefore followers of Jesus never give to any earthly ruler what only God alone deserves, and we recognize that all earthly powers are a parody of the true power and sovereignty of God.
“Every time an election occurs, some Christians react as if the Kingdom of God has been destroyed or has triumphed depending on who was elected. But to align the success or failure of a particular political vision for a temporal nation-state with the success or failure of the Kingdom of God is nothing short of idolatry. ”
We rest deeply in the truth that our lives and our world are held strong under the total power of Jesus on the throne, no matter what earthly changes or upheavals are happening around us. Keep your eyes on reality: Revelation 4 and 5.
2// The Chastened Realism of Earthly Political Engagement
The modern evangelical movement has made two opposite and equally harmful mistakes when relating to modern politics. The first is to entirely align the Kingdom of Jesus with a particular political party or movement, which is idolatry (see number 1 above). The second mistake is to become so focused on our “heavenly hope” that we disengage entirely from politics, which is complacency. I’ve seen a couple of yard signs that read “Jesus 2020: Our Only Hope.” This is a sweet sentiment, but unfortunately Jesus is not on the ticket. Christians are called to participate in public life as good citizens (Jeremiah 29:4-7), and therefore we have to make messy and ambiguous choices as we participate in the political process.
Yet Revelation reminds us again and again that earthly politics, while used by God to bring order and sometimes even judgment, are highly ambiguous and untrustworthy. Whenever humans get power, humans do bad and stupid stuff. Revelation suggests that every human political arrangement, no matter how heartfelt, ultimately trends toward the politics of Babylon. For us, this means that no political platform, party or policy can ever be fully aligned with the Kingdom of Jesus. Scripture does not endorse one particular political platform over the other. Political parties will advocate for some biblical values that we can affirm, but no party supports all of them. When a Christian suggests otherwise by being so indefatigably committed to a political platform or party, he or she has embraced loyalty to an earthly agenda over and above the agenda of Jesus Christ, which cannot be contained or owned by any human program. The Kingdom of God brings judgment to every human platform, for the Kingdom of God is not of this world (John 18:36).
What does that mean for our vote? Christians have many different ideas about what that means for this particular election—I have read a lot of them! So ultimately, each person must consider his or her own conscience before God, seek leading from the Holy Spirit, talk with trusted Christian friends, and ultimately cast their vote in a way that most aligns with what they believe to express the love of God and neighbor. But we do so understanding the ambiguity of what we do, and that ultimately our allegiance lies with Jesus and his Kingdom (which is also why theologian Stanley Hauwerwas suggests that the first thing that any Christian should do after voting is confess their sins!). We participate in the political process but do so with chastened realism about the nature and efficacy of earthly politics.
3// The Peculiar Citizenship of Christians.
When you come to Jesus, you come to his community. And as we see in Revelation 7, his community is made up of people from “every nation, tribe, people and language” (7:9). You find yourself in a community of people made up of people who don’t look like you, act like you, think like you, or who may not have the same political convictions as you. But together we share a common love and allegiance to Jesus the Lamb. That commonality is infinitely more important than any political position you might hold.
So while we are citizens of the United States, Revelation insists that our primary citizenship is with the multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-spacial/temporal society of Jesus Christ. The church has flourished in every nation, in every kind of culture, in every political situation imaginable, from monarchies to democracies to anarchies. We are not bound to any one political vision or national identity, but we are bound together as fellow citizens in the new society of the Lamb. As Diognetus wrote in the 2nd Century:
“Christians live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land.”
So we engage in the political process out of love of God, neighbor and country, but we do so as aliens and exiles, recognizing that America herself is a mere footnote in the long annals of history. “Before and after America, there was and will be the Church. The nation is an experiment. The Church is a certainty,” Mark Dever writes.
So our primary identity is citizens of the new society of Jesus, and our primarily allegiance is not to political party or even nation-state, but to the multi-national, diverse body of Christ. We have a gift in our “politically purple” church to show a watching world what happens when allegiance to Jesus transcends the political divides of this current moment. And we have the responsibility to see fellow Christians, especially those that vote differently than we do or who have different cultural perspectives, as brothers and sisters in Christ who share common citizenship.
4// Lamb Power Wins
The scene in Revelation 5 is one of the greatest scenes of the Bible. John is told to look and “see the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (5:5). John turns to see the powerful and triumphant Lion of God. Instead, he sees a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain (5:6). In one of the most memorable symbols of Scripture, we learn that the power of God’s Kingdom is not carried out through violence and force but through sacrifice and suffering. Later we see that opposing the Lamb is the great Dragon, who symbolizes the Satanic force of selfishness and evil. We could call this “Dragon Power” versus “Lamb Power.” While Dragon Power pursues “power over others,” Lamb Power is “power given for others,” exemplified in Jesus’ own sacrificial death for us. He triumphed over evil through giving his life for the life of the world.
Let’s just be honest, most politics today is Dragon Power. It is the raw seizing of power over others. The interminable battles of one side taking back power from another, one side edging out the other through manipulative techniques, the perpetual name-calling and accusations and power grabs, feels like one long experience of collective whiplash. The intent of each side may be sincere, to achieve a certain political vision that is deemed best for the common good. Yet the method, we learn from the book of Revelation, will ultimately lead to destruction. When Christians rely on the human agencies of power to achieve desired spiritual ends, whether lining up unquestionably behind political leaders, trying to use the force of legislation as the principle means to achieve lasting change, or justifying sinful acts and attitudes to secure advantage, they are dangerously flirting with the way of the Dragon.
We learn from Revelation and in so many other places of Scripture that the way of God’s people is the way of suffering love. Christians care about changing the world and believe that Jesus’ Kingdom is currently advancing, but we are suspicious of all efforts to advance his Kingdom that rely on manipulation, force, power-grabs or the maligning of fellow human beings made in the image of God.
“We recognize that while politics may achieve some temporal good, we know that true and lasting change will come through the quiet commitments of love, as we follow Jesus in giving our money, our time, our resources, and our very lives away for others. ”
We don’t know what kind of unrest or violence may await us in the coming days, but as follower of Jesus, we commit whole heartedly to going the way of peace, refusing to demonize fellow human beings, rejecting violence of any kind, and laying down our lives for others, even our enemies. Lamb Power is the way of victory.
Conclusion
We’ve been saying throughout this series that what all of us need most right now is a bigger, clearer, more realistic picture of Jesus, who he is for us and for the world right now. And that is what the book of Revelation gives us. Here is an unmatched dose of perspective on our current situation. My recommendation for Wednesday (or whenever we discover the results) is to take some deep breaths, pray for the winners and losers, and then read Revelation 4-5, the throne room of God. Here is true reality, here is the King of Kings.