When Sarah Mullally reinforced the Pope’s message of peace, she risked the ire of Trump. But both leaders were right to call for an end to conflict, says Tony Wilson. It’s their job to speak as Jesus taught, even when it seems counter-cultural to our political leaders
In her first meeting with Pope Leo XIV this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury took the opportunity to endorse his appeal to world leaders to lay down their arms.
In doing so, the Most Rev Dame Sarah Mullally risks the ire of President Trump and joining the ever-growing club of people who attract his condemnation.
From the perspective of a populist leader, the peace that Pope Leo and Archbishop Mullally cry out for smacks of naïve liberal progressivism. If they were political leaders, I would be prepared to say that Trump has a point. But they are church leaders and their calling is to bring us truths of a kingdom different from anything a president or prime minister has to handle.
Their purpose isn’t to bring us practical solutions to the problems of our present world. As the representatives of Jesus in the world today, they must speak with the same aim – that of the gospel.
Perfect holiness
The teaching, actions and miracles of Jesus that we read in the Gospels show us that His mission had two key aims.
Firstly, He lays before us a vision of human perfection and holiness that is completely impossible for us to replicate in our own lives. If you haven’t read the Sermon on the Mount recently, turn to Matthew chapters 5-7 and consider the practicality of this manifesto. Far from softening the Mosaic law, Jesus ramps up the difficulty by treating murder and anger as the same sin.
If this exposes a leader trying to justify their actions using the veneer of Christian faith to manipulate their supporters, so be it
Flick forward to Matthew 19:16-26 and reflect on the rich young man who asked Jesus what he had to do to gain eternal life. Jesus called him to give everything away and follow Him, and the rich young man went away despondent. He wanted a politician’s answer; something practical and achievable. Instead, Jesus pointed him, and us, to a heavenly kingdom which lays bare our frailties and unhelpful attachments.
The first part of Jesus’ mission was to show us that the gulf between the perfection of heaven and the reality of our human condition cannot be bridged by effort and willpower. The second part was to pour out love, grace and forgiveness on us through His death, resurrection and ascension.
He preached perfection not as an unreachable ideal, but as a reality we can only attain in and through Him. The two phases of Jesus’ mission are clear: Here is the ideal you must reach to be fit to meet my Heavenly Father, and here is my gift to you – the wherewithal to obtain it.
Counter-cultural faith
Our church leaders must consistently present the truths of this heavenly kingdom to our world. From the perspective of a political leader, they just don’t make sense and will never work.
The leaders alive during Jesus’ ministry didn’t understand Him either. They sought to ridicule, threaten, silence and, ultimately, kill Him. Saints throughout the centuries have been martyred for presenting the truths of the gospel to a world that can’t make sense of what their lives proclaim.
Many world leaders spend their lives proposing imperfect, grubby plans for an imperfect, grubby world. When we hold these up for scrutiny under the bright light of the gospel, we see them for what they are – evidence of our moral bankruptcy and our failure to live as we know we should.
In calling political leaders to lay down their arms, our church leaders are overlaying the perfection of heaven onto the reality of our world. All our failings and weaknesses are exposed, along with our abject inability to put things right.
Playing by different rules
The job of Pope Leo and Archbishop Mullally is not to sketch out a practical route to resolving the war in Iran. Instead, they must faithfully speak and act as Jesus would.
If this exposes a leader trying to justify their actions using the veneer of Christian faith to manipulate their supporters, so be it. When Jesus refused to play by the rules of the world, His holiness exposed the hypocrisy of the leaders of his time, too. And their anger and hatred burned against Him.
Our church leaders must consistently present the truths of this heavenly kingdom to our world
Yes, the world is a mess, and our leaders frequently make the mess worse. We all make a mess in our own sphere of influence, too.
The rules of heaven are not easy to apply among all this mess. Neither liberal progressivism or populist nationalism will ever clean it up. Instead, let’s do what we can to make the world kind, safe and sane, while remembering that our efforts will always be undermined by our collective brokenness.
For the perfection to which our church leaders lay before us, we must thank God for Jesus.
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