It’s GOTCHA season. From now until Election Day, every politician and minion will scour every speech and every answer from his or her opponents to find logical inconsistencies, flip flops on issues, and outright unAmerican positions and worldviews. 

In other words, it’s a good time to watch sports rather than the news. 

Could political talk radio exist without Ye Olde Political Trap tactics? Probably not. The Trap was tried on Jesus. It didn’t work. Instead, it exposed the bad theology of both the Pharisees and the Sadducees. As Linus in the Peanuts comic strip says, “Good theology is like that.”

People have a lot of funny ideas about God. Even people who study God at a professional level can come up with some doozies. Matthew 22 is full of tactics and issue-framing practices still in use today. 

Jesus did not get caught in their traps. He didn’t fail any of their tests. Instead, he turned the tables on those trying to prove he was not who everyone thought he was. As it turns out, he was, and is, God With Us. 

Here’s the only GOTCHA game Jesus plays: He wants you to know and experience him in a deep and abiding relationship where you participate in his highest and best gifts and purpose now and forever. 

Why settle for trying to prove the other guy or gal wrong when we can know, embrace, and live in the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

—

I will set my mind on God’s truth and God’s plans instead of political traps and accusations.

—

Our Father, angry political rhetoric is not making this a better world. Speaking the truth in love redirects our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Save us from the traps set to cause us indignation, and free us to live in the joy of known and experiencing you. Amen.