Jesus, it's Election Day

I wonder what Jesus would make of us. Our representative democracy, that is.

I'm pretty sure he'd be temple-table furious at the way money is poured out, not only in the campaign but as a weapon mightier than any Roman sword. So seldom is money used to empower the weak. It favors the strong. The last will not be first. The last simply get lost in a sea of cash used to manipulate. "Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink."

But what would Jesus think in principle about democracy? After all, he had most likely heard of some of the same participatory ideals. The Antiochenes might have been run out of Jerusalem by the Maccabees, and the Greeks and Maccabees alike might have been conquered by Rome, but something of that old Greek idea of a self-ruled demo-cratic people remained in the air.

I wonder what Jesus might have thought about that. He may have been on the fringes of social and political power (consider stories of the rich young man, perhaps a ruler?, coming to him; tax-man Matthew; associate professor Nicodemus, small business builders the Zebedee boys--these we're exceptions, not the rule). He knew that from the margins, truth can be told: pay attention to the hungry, the poor, the blind, the lame, the lonely. Health care, anyone? Come to me.

"You will always have the poor with you" wasn't an excuse but a tragic reality. I imagine Jesus would be surprised to hear we cite him to withhold health care or food. From the fringes, you can tell what people really need.

Messianic hopes were more often than not political. They were also eschatological, yes, but pertained to how justice might be done. And that meant they were also economic. How ironic that Jesus' future hopes from the margins have become packaged in tax breaks for the wealthy.

I suspect Jesus would go to the polls in NYC where the generators are running and the lines stretch for hours and would see a living parable. The kin-dom of heaven is like a woman who stood for hours on a dark line in the cold waiting to vote because in the end it's not about the money but her voice.

When his disciples asked what he meant, he said, "Can't you see? She believes her voice matters. And it should matter to you because it matters to me, and it matters to me because it matters to the one who sent me. Let those with even one good ear to hear, listen up!"