Degree of Difficulty

A friend commented on one of my posts on Facebook. She said that the choice for the presidential election is difficult this time for a Christian. I agree. I also believe it should be difficult for anyone of any system of belief for every election. 
Candidates often want you to believe that their positions are based on religious morals. Often they are looking to garner the support of a certain block of voters. Political parties are the same way. If you look at the party platforms and compare them to what actually gets done, there is often a big difference. Also, most religions, especially Christianity, have many different groups with many different beliefs and morals. So is there any standard that we can use to make our choices?
The following is based on my belief system which has been influenced by growing up as a Lutheran Christian.
Jesus had problems with the Jewish leaders of his time. They were part of the reason he was crucified. The problems stemmed from the leader’s concern with the law, the morals that they decided were important. They followed their rules, but had little regard for other people’s needs. They also thought they were better than others because most people couldn’t keep all their rules, while the leaders spent all their time following their rules and didn’t worry about much else. Jesus looked at the law differently. He in fact purposely broke some of the laws to make his point.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?
He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 3:23-28

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [ ] One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
​But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
​John 5:1-11

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Law was made for man, not man for the Law. And below is what Jesus says about the greatest Laws.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31

The law is based on love and is not fixed. The laws and policies we enact must reflect love for our neighbor. When we are faced with a moral question, we must ask what is the loving and unselfish thing to do. The difficulty that faces us is that the answer may be different in different situations. Which politicians come closest to understanding this and endorsing policies that will support this.
I used the word “closest” because like all of us, politicians are all human and sinful. This is why we should not base our decision based on party loyalty or what is best for us. We must always ask the question, “Who will show love to our neighbors?”, knowing that, as we can read in the story of the Good Samaritan, even our enemies are our neighbors.

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