The Party CrasherSýnishorn

CHURCH POLITICS

“Jesus is Lord”—the central Christian proclamation—is a po­litical statement. It has to do with who is the rightful ruler of the world and of our lives.

In Jesus’s day, everyone knew that Caesar was lord. He was the top dog, the man in charge. But the early church brought a rude awakening: There was a new King in town. They claimed that Jesus is King over Caesar.

The New Testa­ment boldly declares that because of Jesus’s sacrificial death, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:9-11).

Upon Jesus’s resurrection, God gave him “all authority in heaven and on earth” and established him as “king of kings and lord of lords” (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 19:16).

Jesus is the desire of the nations, the judge of the living and the dead. The day is coming when “the kingdoms of this world [will] have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15).

The church is called not to impose this reign by force but to bear witness to its reality through our shared life and public wit­ness. To show the world that the King of kings is throwing a better party, forming a common table in a conflicted world. His table has people who lean in all different directions but refuse to bow to the idols that hold sway.

The church’s wit­ness is to follow the way of Jesus, the way of the cross. To do justice, show mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). To em­body compassion and conviction, with soft hearts and steel spines, “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). To lay down our lives in sacri­ficial service, faithful witness, and extravagant love—even for our so-called political enemies—because we follow a King who’s done the same for us.

That’s church politics.

How do your words and actions proclaim that Jesus is Lord?