At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you. 32 He replied, Go tell that fox, I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’” Luke 13:31-32-31
Politics doesnt belong in the church. I cant tell you how many times I and many of my clergy colleagues have heard some form of this statement. (But usually not clergy who call themselves evangelicals because a certain type of political leaning is typically expected from them).
But after a while it becomes exhausting pointing out the fact that the entire Bible itself is a political document.
In fact, the word politics itself comes from the ancient Greek word politeia which is derived from the Greek word polis which means city or state.
So the word political simply describes how we live together in community within a city or state (or nation). And of course, the Old Testament begins with narratives of how Adam and Eve and their sons lived together, and then how Abraham and his descendants lived together, and then the Law of Moses codified how the Hebrew people were to live together, and then the prophets decried how the people of Israel were failing to live together as God had called them. Then in the New Testament, Jesus came on the scene and constantly chided the Pharisees for failing to live together in a God-pleasing way.
And after his death, the apostle Paul went on to write to the early church about how they should live together with the Gentiles and each other. So suffice it to say, the whole Bible is laced with directives to people of faith about how to live together with one another (i.e. politics).
The unfortunate thing is that many people unintentionally (or sometimes intentionally) conflate the word political with the word partisan. Jesus was in fact very political, but he was not partisan.
There is a huge difference. Being partisan has to do with joining a party and aligning yourself with the power structures that exist within that political party. And the parties of Jesus day were not just religious, they were political (and he had plenty to choose from). There were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots. But he didnt align himself with any of them. He knew no political group had a perfect corner on every aspect of Gods will. So he thought and taught independently about every political issue of his day (and there were many of them).
When Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and said the second one like it was to love our neighbor as ourselves, he was making two separate statements. The first commandment was strictly religious, and the second was strictly political. How we love God is a matter of religion; but how we love our neighbors is a matter of politics. And calling the political leader of his time a fox was not only a political statement, but an example of him speaking truth to power.
Just last week my sister in the faith, Bishop Mariann Budde, received criticism for her sermon at the inaugural prayer service, which was deemed political.
What was her crime? Asking the president to be merciful to immigrants living in our country. Guess what? Her message was very much political and very much biblical (which anyone who has ever read the Bible would know). She was attacked as all prophets are in their time (from the Old Testament to MLK Jr.) but like all of them, history will prove her words to be righteous and true.
So what did Jesus mean by calling Herod a fox? I suspect he meant that Herod was a ruthless predator who looked for vulnerable prey to pounce upon, and used his cunning to achieve his goals, no matter who it hurt. Given that definition, would Jesus refer to the current leader of our government using that term? I dont know. You tell me. Because I wouldnt want to appear political.
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