The incidence of James and John seeking the first and second top positions in God's kingdom is not the first example of church politics and won't be the last. Church politics stinks. It was church politics that caused Rome to think of itself more highly than the other four ancient centers of church leadership. It was the arrogance of self-proclaimed superior authority that saw the western church add filioqué to the Nicene Creed, ignoring the sensitivities and concerns of the eastern church. It was authoritarian church politics not good theology that allowed an ancient pop cult of Mary worship to take on the the dogma of infallibility.
Saint Peter's Bascilica in Rome stands as a monument not to Peter but to corrupt church politics, paid for by one of the greatest financial scandals of church history and stands as a memorial for the separation of northern European Christians from their southern brethren. It was intolerant church politics that caused Calvinists to persecute and murder Catholics. It is brutal and arrogant church politics that causes the Russian Orthodox Church to incite persecution of Evangelical churches today.
In my lifetime I have seen church politics close down churches, destroy good pastors and their families, destroy people's finances and drive people out of the church. I have seen people steal congregations for their own selfish ambitions, preach popular rubbish to make money, abuse church members as slave labor to build pastors' private homes, destroy families and marriages and withhold the truth in order not to lose numbers. Church politics almost destroyed my family and is the reason that some very dear loved ones do not attend church to this day. I pray that they will someday look beyond selfish human politics and come to see Jesus weeping for them.
We are all guilty of church politics by the way. When we push and shove and gossip and tear down and manipulate, we are as guilty as others. No church is immune to these sins, because every church contains us. Our church politics only destroys. Yet, we are called to build up the church, heal the sick, comfort the broken-hearted, tell the good news of God's grace and love one another.
In Matthew 20, it is clear that James and John wanted the first and second positions, overlooking the fact that they would have to remove Peter in their ambition. How about us? Do we turn a blind eye to the bodies we walk over when we play church politics? God forgive us! God help us to love and build and not play destructive politics!
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