In yesterday’s entry, The Gospel According To…, I mentioned that I thought Jesus would be considered a liberal if he ever served in a political body like the city council. Is that true?
My argument was that Jesus showed compassion for the sick, the poor, the widow, and the orphan in his personal dealings, so I figured that the same compassion exhibited on the city council would result in—what? Subsidized housing and free medical care?
But at the time I hadn’t considered the people who didn’t get what they wanted from Jesus. There were some. The rich young ruler in Mark 10, and Martha in Luke 10, for instance. I guess what I’m saying is that Jesus didn’t always do the “bleeding heart” thing, so why don’t I try to apply what I know of his teachings to some of the problems that would come before city council.
For instance, what would Jesus do about medical services to the poor? When he would personally encounter a sick person, he often healed them. But you can’t craft a successful public policy based on miracles. What happens when term limits force him off the council? Who will work the miracles then?
No, Jesus would have to propose a policy for how the government should deal with sick people who couldn’t afford their own medical care. Would everyone who got sick get free medical care? Or only those who couldn’t afford their own care? Or should the government stay out of this area altogether?
When he met the demoniac in Mark 5, this guy was in no position to help himself. So Jesus helped him preemtively. The same can be said about the lame man at the pool of Bethsaida in John 5. I see a possible government program here for people so far down that they can’t help themselves.
However, when someone asked him for something that was in their own power to provide, what did he say?
And what about Jesus’ concern that people deal with real issues like their sin before he eased their temporal concerns like health and hunger? Didn’t Jesus tell a hillside full of people not to worry about what they would eat or where they would sleep, but trust in God for that stuff?