Friday, November 5, 2010

Live Like Jesus

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." -- Luke 4:18-19

One of the reasons the religious leaders had so much trouble accepting Jesus as the Messiah is because He didn't arrive as they'd expected. He wasn't dressed in purple robes and wearing a gold crown on His head. Instead, He was born in a stable and raised by a carpenter and his wife. Jesus wasn't what they were looking for.

When He began preaching, He really upset them. He wasn't proclaiming the rights and virtues of the religious leaders and powerful rulers. Instead, Jesus came for you and me. He came for the poor and weary, for the sick and the outcast. Jesus came for those who were blind, whether that blindness was merely eyesight or an inability to see God as He really is and not what some manmade rules claimed He was and is.

In other words, Jesus was very unpopular with those who had and became a ray of hope for those who had none. Of course, before the end, many of those who chanted His name and called out to Him for healing would abandon Him. But for a while there, they raised Him up and grabbed on to His message like the lifeline they needed.

We've just finished a bruising political race, with lies and misspoken words on all sides. I think everyone was more than ready to see it end. Now we go forth with, in many cases, new leaders proclaiming to do things differently. But will they? Words are easily spoken in the heat of a campaign victory. The reality of politics and decision making isn't.

The conservatives claim to be a party of strong moral values. I wonder if they're speaking of their own or of those Jesus gave us through His example. Will they speak for the poor and downtrodden? Will they reach out to those who have no hope and provide for the widows and orphans? Or will they raise up new policies and benefits for those who have much already?

It's easy to talk about what we'll do when power comes our way. It's not so easy to truly live as though Jesus were guiding your every step. Let's hope the values they talked about in their campaign are the same values Jesus laid out during His short time on earth as a Man.