Early in the Gospels there is a verse which says that Jesus trusted nobody because he knew what was in their hearts. In particular he did not trust people who flocked to him. He was anti-populist. In the desert, he refused the first temptation to make bread for the masses, the second, to be a sensation by throwing himself from the Temple unhurt and the third of receiving all the kingdoms of the earth while compromising with evil. Each was the easy route to charismatic rule. He walked out on the popularity after the feeding of the five thousand. He moved away from the adulation of the crowds coming into Jerusalem to weep over it, because it was going in a false direction. He could see through the way the crowd was worked before the crucifixion. Indeed, the question of how the great miracle worker and lover of ordinary people could be so deliberately unpopular demands to be addressed. He was, as Isaiah prophesied, “despised and rejected of men”, and ironically pointed out to his disciples that the crowds of thousands had dwindled to a dozen when he did not do what the crowds wanted. So, what is going on here? What was the Son of Man, with two billion plus followers now, doing then to destroy populism?

Oh, you say, surely, this was not about political ideology? But, of course, it was. What else? The King of the Jews, the Messiah, the Son of God, preaching about the Kingdom or Government of God was always presenting Government on God’s terms, for the whole of life, including for politics. He is the centre of good world government and Populism, he seems to suggest, is an evil aberration. He shreds it.

And, of course, really we know it does not work. It is not just Caesars organising Olympic Games and gladiatorial combat in the Coliseum, or Hitler showing his armpit to the adoring masses, or Trump insisting that his crowds were the biggest (they were not), but all popular leaders are dangerous. They can promise, exaggerate, use false emotions, present fake news, optimize, manipulate and especially claim credit and disown failure to get the people’s vote. Democratic rule is accountable service, doing justice, especially by the weak. SUCCESS-ME-FAILURE-THEM is a dangerous myth and Christ refuses it and lays bare the attitudes that cause it. “Do not do things to be seen by people, but do what is right before God whatever.” “Don’t judge others, but judge yourself.” Don’t bluster, but make your Yes and No true. So, the Christ brings to heel all the demagogues and teaches us distrust of them and to hunger and thirst after justice. We know it, but we forget it.

For we, the followers, will follow the Pied Piper and go awhoring after the tunes of nationalism, glory, hate or the glory of war (home by Christmas, and by the way, your sons will be killed). As a careful reading of history shows, often in elections the wrong person/party/government is chosen. We lap up the band music and march in step. We the followers, the masses, the flattered, those worked up to a false god or a false hope or a false wrong or to kill are not to be trusted either. We often goof democracy. Good democracy is not the rule of the people, but government by with and for people under the justice, care, peace and accountability of the Spirit of God.

Do we understand this? Do we see the demagogues, the flatterers, the bribes? Do we see the dangerous sheep, following the false shepherd? It is not easy work. This is not an easy lesson. Yet, it is not even taught in our churches. Untaught Christians, as we know from the States, can be the most gullible. People do not hear the subtlety of Christ, the irony, the demolishing of strongholds, the “they do not practice what they preach”, the “they go after followers, but then make them slaves”. Until Christ, who will do no harm to anyone is at the centre of politics, we are at risk from mass media populism, and it would be a start if Christians were not gullible, conformist and going with the crowd. Rather we are nonconformists, dissenters, protestants against the wide road that leads to destruction, stick with the unpopular truth, refuse to discuss the speck of dust and swallow the camel, and address weightier matters like inequality, world poverty, global warming, war and violence. Then we will be faithful and wise followers of Christ, iron will sharpen iron, and world culture will see and learn to deconstruct political populism before it destroys us.