Jesus' Tempation and James Dobson: Are Overt Forays into Politics Meaningful?

I’d like to return to a moment in Christ’s life, as recounted in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. This moment is often called “The Temptation” and it happened right before he began His public ministry. Jesus went out to the wilderness to be alone with His Father, evidently to prepare for the trying three-year ordeal He was about to embark on. While he was out there, Satan paid Him a visit, and directed three specific attacks on Jesus.

The first temptation had to do with Christ’s physical condition. After fasting for 40 days, I’d imagine His body was absolutely crying out to Him for food (my body cries out after about 6 hours, by the way). Satan says, “Why don’t you turn one of those rocks over there into bread.”

To which Jesus responds, basically, “There’s more to sustaining a man than food for the body. Man also needs food for the soul, and that’s more important.”

The text says that then Satan takes Jesus to a high place and shows Him (in some sort of vision I assume) all the kingdoms of the world. Satan says, “I’ll make you King of all this, if you just, you know, join my side. I'll make you second in command.”

Jesus is offered to be instant ruler of the world’s kingdoms. Satan offers to make him an amalgam of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Bill Gates: more power, more wealth, more command than anyone on earth. Amazingly, Jesus turned it down, saying, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”

Jesus often used Scripture to shoot down attackers, but this one is particularly important, I think. When offered the chance to bring about His kingdom by political and military might, Jesus turns it down.

I've often wondered why this was. Seems to me that if that were the case now, and Jesus had a cadre of evangelical leaders by his side advising him, most of them would push him to go ahead and take that route.

"Can you imagine the mighty ways we could change the globe," I can imagine some of them saying, nearly quivering with excitement. "We could establish clearly and in writing, for all to see, exactly what God expects and what God wants. Humanity will be changed forever. This is indisbutable. God's laws will be the trumph card, finally, and everyone, regardless of what they think, will have to bow down!"

Seems like a good road. And certainly those wanting a Chief Emperor Jesus don't have bad intentions. Bringing about God's kingdom is a noble goal, after all.

But Jesus turned it down. Why? I mean, wouldn't it have made the whole thing a lot easier?

Apparently not. Hundreds of years earlier, Israel had the chance to be God’s representative on earth. They were the most powerful nation on earth, with more political and military might than any other nation, and that didn’t work out so well. They were beat into the dust twice: once by Assyria and once by Babylon. And God took Israel from that place of dreaming about being a world superpower all the way to the other extreme: they became a small broken, exiled remnant of people with next to no power or money or might. The only thing this ragtag group had in common was a love for God and each other.

Jesus would work the same way, with another ragtag group.

I say all this as a reminder to James Dobson, whose work as of late is so political and so entrenched in the inner workings of the political machinery of the United States that I fear that he has changed camps. It’s as though he’s stopped believing in the power of the Church and began placing his trust in the power of the United States legislature and judiciary and executive branches. Wrong trinity, Mr. Dobson.

On its face, it seems like a good deal. I mean, change the laws of this nation to reflect what God would want, and you can influence millions. But that’s not the way Christ chose to work (and He could have). He chose, instead, the local church, which means that the local church has got a lot more power than the US will ever have. Even if it is slower and clumsier, nothing can stop it, because it has God.

I just wish Dobson would remember that when he’s devoting all his time attempting to rig judicial appointments and change state and national laws and outlaw homosexual marriage or ban abortion. Jesus didn’t attempt to bring his Kingdom about through laws, but through people whose hearts He had won.

I wish Dobson would remember that the real power in this world doesn’t come from what laws are made, or who governs us, but in the real and living Christ doing transformative work in the hearts of individuals.

That’s something worth devoting your life to. Even if it is slow and clumsy and painstaking, it’s the way Jesus chose.