Mudslinging
It’s election season, which means our mailboxes are stuffed with card stock treasures from a gaggle of brave and/or foolish public servants. And like the junk food that fills the sacks of Halloween trick-or-treaters, our recycling bins are packed with junk mail. The assortment of rainbow-colored ads is mostly bitter, not sweet, as the most effective persuasion technique appears to be good old-fashioned mudslinging.
According to these flyers, depending how I cast my vote, I will be voting to put women, men, and children in danger of unspeakable things. I will be voting to spend too much but also not nearly enough on the important things that all Oregonians must have to survive. I will be on the wrong side of history even while working against our future. Worst of all, I might be voting for someone from California!
Mudslinging is an ancient propaganda technique, and a brazen example is found in Luke 15, where the religious folks were getting awfully uneasy around the crowds Jesus was drawing. We’re talking about the worst kind of crowds, including tax collectors and “sinners”. These filthy people, if empowered, would likely pollute the lives of hard-working ordinary Jews. Too much time would be spent caring for these valueless people, too much money would be spent on them, and their shameful lifestyles would be enabled and even celebrated!
These crowds of sinners were seen as being on the wrong side of history and working against whatever future the Pharisees had imagined for the Jews. About Jesus, they muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2)
An average politician canvassing for votes might have denied this accusation or returned the attacks with even more malicious rhetoric. But Jesus responded coolly to their mudslinging with three parables: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.
He appealed to logic, knowing anyone with a bit of sense would understand that a lost sheep and a silver coin are worth the time and effort to find. Wouldn’t any normal person do the same as the shepherd and the housewife? Then why not move land and sea to bring one sinner to repentance?
For the stubborn electorate who missed the point of the first two stories, Jesus told a third one that brought it all home. How I wish we had an account of the Pharisees’ and scribes’ immediate reactions after the parable of the lost son! Did they repent? Did they get angrier? We only know that not enough were convinced in the end, and their mudslinging escalated to murder. They had him crucified.
Yet even as he received constant hateful attacks, amidst the mocking and torture at Calvary, and even as his body hung beaten and pierced on a cross, Jesus loved them all as a father loves his wayward son.
As you retrieve your mail this week, whenever you see or hear a bit of political mudslinging, I encourage you to remember that our way is not the way of election campaigns. We are to follow the good Father and love our enemies. We are to pray for the repentance of sinners, not attack them. Pray for our sinful tax collectors, our lost leaders and voters, and the broken lives that are a result of a world that follows Satan instead of Jesus. Pray for Christ’s kingdom to come and his will to be done even here in Oregon as it is in heaven. And maybe even pray for California if you believe it’s still redeemable.
