KANSAS CITY, Mo. (TNS) — The passing of Pope Francis and the conclave to elect a successor will fascinate many Americans. There are already articles listing front-runners and speculating on “liberal” or “conservative” cardinals as if they were political candidates.

But this is a trap. It has long been a practice to ask, “What would Jesus do?” about every contentious issue under the sun — immigration, health care, taxes, climate change, even what kind of car to drive. Political activists, pastors and media personalities alike seem eager to enlist Jesus as a kind of spiritual mascot for their side. He becomes a champion for climate justice, a defender of national borders, a critic of capitalism or socialism — depending on who’s speaking.

While this impulse is not new, it has become especially loud in our polarized age. Last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene compared Donald Trump to Jesus Christ, casting his legal troubles as a form of political persecution. Progressive Christian groups regularly invoke the Sermon on the Mount to argue for expansive welfare programs and open borders. Conservatives point to Christ’s silence on issues such as gender identity to argue he would oppose modern ideological movements.

Everyone wants Jesus on their team. But more than likely, if Jesus were walking among us today, he would take no part in any of it.

Christ isn’t indifferent to politics or to the moral questions embedded in our laws. But Jesus doesn’t do partisanship. In his earthly ministry, he repeatedly refused to take the bait on the political controversies of his time. Pressed on whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, he didn’t launch into a diatribe about Roman corruption or, much to my disappointment, marginal tax rates. Instead, he pointed to a coin and said: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s.”

The question was a trap — and he knew it. Jesus didn’t come to tweak tax policy or to lead a rebellion. He came to call sinners to repentance, to reveal the love of the Father, and to open the way to salvation.

His mission was not a political platform — it was the cross.

And while Jesus absolutely loved and spent time with those considered sinners — tax collectors, prostitutes, the outcast — he didn’t simply affirm them. He challenged them. To the woman caught in adultery, he said, “Neither will I condemn thee.” But he didn’t stop there. “Go,” he added, “and now sin no more.” That’s the Jesus most of our politics would rather forget: the one who forgives with mercy and demands with clarity. His words were often hard — he warned of hell, called for radical fidelity and exposed hypocrisy in religious and political leaders alike. His message was not vague encouragement, but absolute truth. Some will point out that the Catholic Church, and Christian tradition more broadly, has a long history of speaking into politics and policy. That’s true. But the church doesn’t engage in politics as a party or a pressure group. The church teaches from the Gospel. Its aim is not to draft legislation but to form consciences. When the church speaks on the dignity of the unborn, the rights of the migrant, the obligations of the wealthy or the sanctity of marriage, it is not choosing sides in a political fight — it is applying eternal truths to temporal questions.

Too often, we want Jesus to validate our positions. But the Christ of the Gospels does not rubber-stamp ideologies — he overturns expectations. He asks for our hearts, not our hashtags. He commands us not to win arguments, but to love our enemies, to forgive without measure, to give to the poor and to live in truth.

Jesus does not campaign. The Gospel is not a political manifesto. As for our political fights, we should remember an admonition often attributed to Mother Teresa: “God has not called me to be successful; he has called me to be faithful.”

So while we should engage in earnest discussion about all sorts of public policies, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Christ didn’t come to take our side.

He came to take us to his. (Patrick Tuohey is co-founder of Better Cities Project, a nonprofit focused on municipal policy solutions, and a senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to Missouri state policy work.)