At that time, some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go elsewhere. Herod wants you to kill you. 32 He replied: “Go and say that Fox,” I will continue to chase demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and the third day, I will reach my goal. » – – Luke 13: 31-32-31
“Politics does not belong to the Church.” I cannot tell you how many times me and many of my clergy colleagues have heard a form of this declaration. (But generally not the clergy called evangelicals because a certain type of political inclination is generally expected from them).
But after a while, he becomes exhausting by stressing the fact that the whole Bible itself is a political document.
In fact, the word “political” itself comes from the ancient Greek word “politeia” which is derived from the “polished” Greek word which means “city” or “state”.
Thus, the word “political” simply describes how we live together in the community within a city or a state (or a nation). And of course, the Old Testament begins with stories of the way Adam and Eve and their sons lived together, then how Abraham and his descendants lived together, then the law of Moses codified how the Hebrew people had to live together , then the prophets denounced the way in which the people of Israel did not live together as God had called them. Then, in the New Testament, Jesus came to the stage and constantly reprimanded the Pharisees for not having lived together in a pleasant way to God.
And after his death, the apostle Paul continued to write to the first church on the way they should live with the Gentiles and the others. It is therefore enough to say that the whole Bible is prevented from guidelines of people of faith on the way of living together (that is to say politics).
What is unfortunate is that many people involuntarily confuse (or sometimes intentionally) the word “political” with the word “partisan”. Jesus was in fact very political, but he was not a supporter.
There is a huge difference. Being a supporter has to do with the fact of joining a “party” and aligning yourself with the power structures that exist within this political party. And the parties of the Jesus of Jesus were not only religious, they were political (and he had a lot of choice). There were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Fanatics. But he did not align with any of them. He knew that no political group had a perfect corner on all aspects of the will of God. He therefore thought and taught independently of each political problem of his time (and there were many).
When Jesus said that the greatest command was to love God with all our hearts, our soul and our mind, and said that the second as it was to love our neighbor as ourselves, he made two declarations distinct. The first command was strictly religious and the second was strictly political. The way we love God is a question of religion; But the way we love our neighbors is a matter of politics. And calling the political leader of his time a “fox” was not only a political declaration, but an example of telling him the truth in power.
Last week, my sister in faith, Mgr Mariann Budde, was criticized for his sermon at the first prayer service, deemed “political”.
What was his crime? Ask the president to be merciful to immigrants living in our country. Guess what? His message was very political and very biblical (which anyone who has ever read the Bible knows it). She was attacked as all the prophets are in their time (from the Old Testament to Mlk Jr.) but as all, the story will prove that her words are just and true.
So what did Jesus mean by calling Herod a “fox”? I suspect that he meant Herode was a ruthless predator who was looking for vulnerable prey on which swinging, and used his cunning to achieve his goals, no matter who hurt. Given this definition, would Jesus refer to the current leader of our government using this term? I don’t know. You tell me. Because I wouldn’t like to seem “political”.