Which Side is Jesus On?

This morning,

my news feed reminded me

to register to vote.

Three simple words,

slipped between the weather

and the morning news.

Register to vote.

I do not write about politics.

There are enough lines drawn

through this country already.

Red here.

Blue there.

Choose.

Defend.

Distrust.

But seeing the Register to Vote reminder

brought up something

that continues to trouble me.

On the far right,

someone holds a Bible

and whispers the name of Jesus.

On the far left,

someone holds a Bible

and whispers the same name.

And between them

stand millions more,

Praying the same Our Father,

reading the same Gospel,

kneeling before the same Cross,

then rising with such different certainties.

How can this be?

How can the same Christ

lead us in such opposing directions?

I think the answer is that

Christ didn’t lead us here at all.

We arrived first,

chose our place,

planted our flag,

and then asked Christ

to stand beside us.

We have become skilled

at finding ourselves

in the Gospel.

Our cause.

Our grievance.

Our righteousness.

But less skilled at

allowing the Gospel

to find what is brokenin us.

I am not innocent.

I have a side toward which

my heart and conscience lean.

I have convictions

I hold tightly.

Like so many,

I am troubled

by what we have learned

to accept as normal.

Words are uglier.

Laughter, crueler.

Contempt, easier.

Then Sunday comes.

We walk into churches.

We kneel.

And together we pray,

Our Father.

Our.

What a dangerous little word.

It leaves no room for them.

Only us.

No political color

was poured out on Calvary.

Blood was.

And beneath the Cross,

the question was never,

which side does Christ belong to?

The question was,

who had truly understood him?

So I will vote.

I will wrestle

with my conscience

and my convictions.

I will make my choices.

But I pray

I never become

so certain of my side

that I stop asking

where Christ is leading.

Because He is not

standing on the right,

nor is He

 standing on the left.

He is walking ahead of us,

calling us beyond

the lines we have drawn,

still saying what He said

long before we invented

all these divisions:

Follow me.