political stand!?

Recently and sad to say still, we have a political crisis in Sweden.
To much to say about it so I won't go into detail.

The other day a bishop from the Lutheran church tweeted some lines in favour of the socialist prime minister, do to what he said and done during this crisis.

It didn't take long until the leader of the liberal party tweeted something about this Bishop. The tweet says: " I did not know that the Lutheran Church had opinion about politics, I thought the state church was abolished. "
For more clarifications the Bishop mentioned used to be involved in the socialist party.

After these tweets twitter totally exploded with tweets both for and against the Bishop. Many are saying she did the right thing, some say the church should not take political stand, some say religion is just for you to share in private, some say it is OK to talk politics since Jesus was the first socialist.....



First I don't think the Bishop took a political stand, even though I think a high positioned priest have to be more careful. Second the church and Christians can and sometimes have to take a political stand, but not in to a specific political party.

Jesus was not crucified for being a fool who thought he was the son of God, he was not crucified for trying to mislead the public, or having challenged Romans.

Jesus was not a warrior, a fighter a partisan so to say, neither did he take part in a political party or used any political platforms, but he used his voice and influence to impact life.


The Gospel of Matthew begins with King Herod trying to exterminate baby Jesus, his rival. He was doing all he could to find this boy. Surely he was afraid something would happen to his throne later on.


When Jesus was teaching, he never hide inside houses or caves, he went up on a mountain, high ground and announcing a new way, a new kingdom and it looks like he said: "here I am, "I am"

Jesus approached women, tax collectors, Samaritans, prostitutes, the sick, the poor like none had done in the past. He challenged the high priests, the temple.
He turned over the tables of loan sharks who were charging exorbitant exchange rates for Temple currency., challenging the economical Power of the temple.

Jesus told his followers to honor the governing authorities. That does not mean that he always obeyed the earthly rulers.

When standing in font of Pilate, Pilate did not see any problems in Jesus, he did not see anything threatening. Rome was totally scared of all opposition and rebellion against her Power and for Pilate to say this is extra ordinary. Yet he was crucified.

The Death on the cross is very well described by Professor N.T Wright :

" Most Western Christians have been taught that Jesus died so that they could escape the results of sin and go to heaven after they die. The New Testament, however, regularly speaks of Jesus’ death as the defeat of the powers of evil that have kept the world in captivity, with the implication that the world is actually going to change as a result—through the life and work and witness of those who believe this good news. Think of Revelation 5:9–10. Humans are rescued from their sin so that they can be “a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.” That began at Easter and, in the power of the Spirit, has continued ever since. Of course, the “reign” of Jesus’ people, like that of Jesus himself, is the reign of suffering love . . . but that’s a whole other story. Suffice it to say that the vocation of God’s people today is to continue to implement that revolution."

So we can say that Jesus was political, the Church has to be political but not of this World, the Church has to speak up, take a stand but not be involved in specific political party's.

The Church has to be careful when it comes to politics but not avoiding the truth. Christian faith is not something to hide away in a drawer, and Jesus was certainly not a socialist.