How Would Jesus Vote?

I’ve put it off as long as I can, but with the election just a few hours away I guess I should take a stab at the question every Christian has been asking from the beginning: How would Jesus vote?  The answer is, of course…

 

I don’t know.

 

I have a hunch he would side with the widows and the orphans, as his Father always has (a lot of us vote the way our daddies do).  His vote would probably favor the tax collectors and sinners (which is both bad news and good news for us).  But it’s possible he would skip Election Day altogether (which seems downright un-American).

 

I keep thinking about how his disciples wanted him to be a political leader with political solutions.  They kept hoping that he was the long-awaited Messiah—the one who would drive out the Romans, sit on the throne of his ancestor David, and restore the nation of Israel to its former glory.  When he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the crowd went wild.  They must have expected Jesus to go to the governor’s palace, throw Pontius Pilate into the street, and declare the independence of Israel.  Instead he went to the temple, turned over the tables of the moneychangers, and said, “My Father’s house is supposed to be a house of prayer but you’ve turned it into a den of robbers!”

 

Do you see what I mean? We want Jesus to care about this election just as much as we do.  We want him to think it’s the most important thing in the world.  We lean in close, asking him who we should vote for, but he seems to have a different agenda.  Instead of talking about the United States of America he’s likely to start in on one of those silly parables about the Kingdom of God.  

 

I hate it when he does that.

 

Doesn’t he know that we Christians are waiting for our leader to tell us how to vote?  Doesn’t he know that if we vote for the wrong person it could mean political disaster?  Or does he know what we often forget in the heat of an election, that some things are proximate while other things are ultimate?  

 

I’m going to vote on Tuesday.  I’ve read the newspapers and watched the debates.  I’ve read the Bible and said my prayers.  I feel prepared to make an informed choice.  But when I get to the voting booth I’m going to close the curtain and vote my conscience and then move on to other, more important, things.