Whose side is God on?

Have you ever heard someone assert that God favors a particular athletic team, politician, political party, or country?

It reminds me of the 1962 film “The Longest Day” about the Allies’ invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Early in the movie, John Wayne, as American Army Lt. Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort, is distressing over the poor weather forecasts as D-Day approaches. He complains, “Sometimes I wonder which side God is on.”[1] Later, as the Allies are hitting the beaches, Curd Jürgens, as German Major General Gunther Blumentritt, laments the Germans’ failure to properly respond to the invasion because Hitler is asleep and therefore cannot issue the appropriate orders. In his frustration Blumentritt says, “We are going to lose the war because our glorious Führer has taken a sleeping pill and is not to be awakened. Sometimes I wonder which side God is on.”[2]

What an amusing contrast. Both sides assumed that God was on their side.

The Jews thought God was on their side when they rebelled against the Romans in 66 A.D. Four years later the Romans destroyed their temple in Jerusalem. Many of the Jews died, and many others ended up scattered throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.

I believe we tread dangerously whenever we assume that God favors a particular individual or a particular side.

Jesus did not heal merely Jews, but Gentiles as well.[3] As we saw a couple of weeks ago, he shared the good news with Samaritans as well as Jews.

The Jews believed God was on their side because they were descendants of Abraham, but John the Baptist told them

do not assume that you can say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father”; for I tell you that God is able, from these stones, to raise up children for Abraham.[4]

And Paul said

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.[5]

Jesus told his disciples to treat everyone with mercy, kindness, and love, just as God does, “for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”[6] And Paul says, “God shows no partiality.”[7]

We should not assume that God is on the side of any particular country or political party or individual.

God is on the side of peace. God is on the side of truth and mercy and compassion. God is on the side of all that is good and right and just.

Above all, God is on the side of love.

[1]. https://www.moviechurches.com/2018/01/mitchum-movie-month-continues-longest.html

[2]. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/characters/nm0432007

[3]. See, for example, Matthew 15:21-28, where Jesus heals the daughter of a Canaanite woman.

[4]. Matthew 3:9; see also Luke 3:8

[5]. Galatians 3:28

[6]. Matthew 5:45

[7], Galatians 2:6; see also Acts 10:34