You have probably heard someone say, “I voted Jesus.” You may have seen it in a friend’s Facebook comment, on a yard sign in the days before an election, or on a bumper sticker. The person saying so means well. They want their faith to shape their politics, and the voting booth is one more arena in which to display faithfulness. I share the same sentiment. Faith belongs in the public square.
The line does something else as well. It stamps divine authority on a chosen candidate or political party. Once you have voted for Jesus, the neighbor who voted the other way has voted against him, and the conversation ends before it even starts.
Let’s get something clear. Two imperfect and broken candidates are on the ballot, and Jesus is not one of them. Whoever you choose, you choose a person who will disappoint you.
I write as a pastor with members of varying political persuasions, and as an immigrant who cannot vote in American elections. But as members of the body of Christ, I offer this gentle reminder: our claim is that we are people of a different kingdom, with Jesus as Lord, not Caesar.
Jesus turned down the job
After Jesus fed 5,000 people, the crowd tried to seize him and make him king (John 6:15). Jesus said no. The Pharisees and the Herodians, two enemies who agreed on nothing, teamed up to ask him whether a faithful Jew should pay taxes to Rome (Matthew 22:15-22). Say yes, and he looks like a collaborator. Say no, and he becomes a rebel the Romans will arrest. Jesus asked for a coin, pointed to Caesar’s face on it, and told them to give Caesar what belongs to Caesar and God what belongs to God. None of them owned Jesus. Even now, Jesus cannot be owned. When Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” he replied that his kingdom was not from this world (John 18:33-36). Jesus was brutally killed because he refused to align with the powers that be. Every time someone handed him a political role, he handed it back.
Everyone says they voted for Jesus
Walk into a Black Baptist church, a Hispanic Catholic parish, a Mennonite congregation, or a Pentecostal church, and you will hear the same claim: “We voted Jesus.” Same claim, different ballots.
In 2020, 84 percent of white evangelical Protestants voted for Donald Trump, and 91 percent of Black Protestants voted for Joe Biden, according to Pew Research Center. Both groups read the same Bible. Both groups sing about the same Savior. Both groups pray before they vote. If Jesus were on the ballot, one of those groups would have missed him by a mile.
I grew up in Nigeria, where politicians quote Scripture at rallies. I have watched believers on opposite sides of a bitter election each insist God was with them. Then I came to the United States and heard the same music in a different key. It is a dangerous thing to claim divine authority for fallible choices.
Does Jesus care who you vote for?
I believe he cares about you, and your vote is part of you. He does not stand outside the booth with a preferred name on a card.
If we want our faith to inform our votes, the place to start is what candidates do, not what they say about God. Who cares for the least of these? Who does justice for all people, not for some? Who loves the neighbor who does not look like them, worship like them, or vote like them? Who seeks the good of the whole community rather than the good of a base? Even after you have asked these questions and chosen as faithfully as you know how, the claim “I voted for Jesus” remains false. You voted for a person, measured against what you hold to be Christian virtues.
So the question Jesus asks about your ballot is not “Which box did you check?” It sounds more like “Who were you thinking about when you checked the box?” Were you thinking about the family on the edge of eviction, the woman at the clinic, the man in the county jail, the child in the school down the road? Or were you thinking about your taxes, your fears, your side winning?
I want to believe that a Christian who votes Republican and a Christian who votes Democrat have each weighed the concerns of their neighbors and reached a different judgment about which policies serve them. Both of them might be wrong, or one might be right. But we must get one thing straight: neither of them voted for Jesus, because Jesus asked for something harder than a vote. He asks for your life, your loves, and your total devotion.
None of this is permission to stay home. Fewer than half of eligible Americans voted in the last midterm elections, and the people named above cannot afford for you to be in that half.
Take his name off the ballot
Jesus is not on the ballot. You are free to vote your conscience without pretending your conscience is God’s stamp on your preferred candidate. My prayer is simple. I hope your choice seeks the good of all, especially the disenfranchised, the poor, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner, the child in a failing school, and the family who are one missed paycheck away from the street. These are the people Jesus named when he described how he would judge the nations, and none of them has a lobbyist. May your power to vote become power for someone who has no power at all.
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