Jesus Died for You. Don’t Mock His Sacrifice for Politics.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Jesus Christ

Jesus gave the Apostles an explicit mission statement. 

Go.

Make disciples of ALL nations.

Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach them all the commands I have given you. 

Jesus did not say “I want you to become powerful in government. I want you to change the laws. I want you put powerful politicians in place of me to do my will by force of law.”  

When our Risen Lord commissioned the Apostles to go out and do His work, He told them to 

1. Convert all the people of the world, 

2. Baptize the converts, and 

3. Teach them His commands

When satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of this world, Jesus refused by saying “Be gone Satan. It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.”

Our Lord suffered the horrors of His Passion to redeem us from our sins. He was mocked, beaten, tortured and murdered so that we could have eternal life. 

Jesus didn’t have to do that. He laid down his life willingly. No one takes my life from me, I give it up willingly, He said.

Jesus — God in human flesh — consented to the torture of the cross. For us. 

This sacrifice is our faith. It is our only hope. It is the assurance of forgiveness, the manifestation of God’s love for us, the reality of healing that we cannot find anywhere else except at the Cross. 

The Cross of Christ, the transforming power of Our Lord’s Passion, means everything to me. I cling to it daily as I grapple with the existential horrors and random terrors of this life. It is the antidote for all fear and the healing balm the transforms our brokenness into His purpose. 

I do not understand it when I see Christians debase the Cross and the Passion of our dear Lord by using it as a crass political gotcha. I don’t understand how they can do this. 

There is something deeply wrong with people who do this. Their values and understanding of where we stand in the created order of things is way off. 

Christians without reverence for the Cross are nothing. Christians who have turned to politics instead of the Cross for their salvation are worse than lost. They are actively working against the Kingdom. 

We should all strive to live out the commandments of Christ in whatever place we find ourselves, including politics. But doing that requires absolutely straight priorities. 

When you bend the teachings of Christ, and subvert them and misapply them and use them as a club to gain points in political battles, you are not following Christ and you most certainly are not applying your faith to your actions. 

The truth is, genuinely following Christ in politics is a costly and painful exercise. It does not benefit you. It costs you. No one who is truly following Christ can follow anything else. That means true followers of Christ will cross their political party. It means they will often walk alone and be attacked for doing it. 

When someone twists the teachings of Christ to fit their political party, they are serving satan, not God. 

This can easily become a kind of idolatry of power. And it can lead to some of the most crass, vulgar sacrilege imaginable. 

A case in point is some of the reactions from fallen clergy on behalf of Donald Trump after his conviction for election interference. 

I am speaking specifically of memes I’ve seen, one of which came from a high-profile defrocked Catholic priest. 

This meme has a photo of Trump next to a photo of a famous painting of Jesus Christ, hanging on the cross. 

At the top it says in bold letters “If you’re not sure you can continue to vote for a convicted criminal,” And at the bottom, it says “Remember, you worship one.” 

I’ve seen several other memes doing the same thing. 

These memes are clearly illogical, since Charles Manson, Ted Bundy and Al Capone were also convicted criminals. But the crazy MAGA illogic is not what upset me. 

I’m accustomed to the twists and turns of illogic and denial of reality that MAGA employ to keep from facing what they are doing by fanatically backing a slimeball like Trump. 

What disturbs me is the cheapening and degrading of the Cross, of making Jesus’ sacrifice into a cheap political gotcha. 

These people are mocking my Jesus more horrifically than any wild-eyed, flame-throwing evangelical atheist ever could. They are claiming they are Christians — followers of Christ — and they are crucifying Him all over again by degrading His Passion.

I suppose I should be more sanguine about sacrilege and heresy from the MAGA crowd. I hear them equate Trump with Christ in one way or another almost every day. 

I see how they have dumped Christ’s commandments and exchanged them for MAGA hate talk. I understand that they have replaced the Cross with the Republican Party in their hearts. I see evidence of it every day when they consistently choose the party over the Gospels and claim with a straight face that by following the Republican Party they are following Christ. 

Just for the record, you follow Christ when you follow Christ. There is no substitute. 

American Christianity has completely lost its way.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the world. 

That is the commission Jesus Christ our Lord and God gave to the Apostles and to all Christians for all times until He comes again. That is what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. It is our vocation and we are supposed to live it wherever we are and whatever else we do. 

American Christianity ignores that commission and even defies it by misusing the prophetic and moral voice of the church to attack, slander and smear on behalf of right-wing politics and political power. 

I no longer expect to hear Christ preached by American clergy of any right-leaning denomination. I expect to hear an apologia for evil that is designed to gain political power in the quest to own the same kingdoms of this world that Jesus rejected when Satan offered it to Him. 

I view these memes desecrating the Cross and Our Lord’s Passion on behalf of Donald Trump in the same light. They are being put forth in order to gain political power through the election of Trump to the presidency. 

It appalls me that the Cross means so little to these people. It is painful to witness. 

I’ve taken the praying the Seven Sorrows of Mary as an antidote for this evil. I pray for the people who do this. They are mocking God.