Put Not Your Trust in Princes

I write this 10 days after an assassination attempt on a former president.  We are grateful for former President Trump’s safety and grieve the death of an innocent bystander.  I write this two days after a president stepped down from his reelection campaign.  We pray for President Biden’s well-being as he completes his term as president, the hardest job in the world.  
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As the political climate in our country grows more tumultuous, I notice an increase in “messianic” language applied to candidates.  Words like “save,” “deliver,” and “chosen one.”  In Wisconsin last week I passed dozens of “Save America” signs.  

Messianic language is often existential language - that our very existence depends on a particular outcome.  Political rhetoric has often used religiously suggestive language to create urgency and action.  When political parties use existential language, there is a feeling that heaven or hell are at stake.  Our survival is up for grabs.  

Whenever we feel our existence is threatened, we move toward extremes.   Anger, worry, hysteria, conspiracy, paranoia, and even violence.  We are witnessing this right now, even (and especially) from Christians.
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Of course, the Christian already has a Messiah.  “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).  Our very essence and identity is in the Messiah, King Jesus, Lord over every lord, president, and prime minister.  If this is true, no election should be existential in nature.  And no candidate is messianic in character. “Put not your trust in princes” (Ps. 146:3).  

I do not dismiss the significance of this moment for our country.  But for those under the reign of Jesus, elections are important, not existential.  My ultimate existence is not bound to a party, a candidate, or the fate of a nation.  Do you remember the candidacy of Caesar Augustus?  No, but you know Jesus of Nazareth.  Do you remember Herod the Great’s time in office?  It’s only a backdrop in the salvation story of Christ the King.  In the Scriptures, rulers of the nations are footnotes in the much larger movement of the kingdom of God.

This moment is consequential, but not existential.  If that’s true, it changes how Christians compose themselves in this climate.  We are the steady presence in a sea of turmoil.  We are people of peace in a land of hysteria.  

There is nothing in the Bible that says, “freak out” or “obsess.”  Rather we have exhortations to such things as contentedness in all circumstances (Phil. 4:11; I Tim. 6:6).  Living wisely toward outsiders (Col. 4:6).  Practicing the “fruits of the Spirit” in the face of the world’s tumult (Gal. 5:22-23).

The coming weeks will be a test of faith and character.  You have a Messiah.  All existential questions were answered eternally at the cross.  “Put not your trust in princes.”  This frees us to be distinctive people, ambassadors for the Prince of Peace.  
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