Kingdom Life

Last night was perhaps one of the more difficult moments emotionally and physically. I was unable to physically go up the stairs to my bedroom and thus stayed downstairs to sleep on the couch. That was my first time that I can remember spending the night on the couch. Needless to say with the pain, the anxiety, and the physical structure of the couch, I did not sleep much. As I ponder these moments, I wonder if my life's best days were behind me. I am now using a walker to get from room to room, and I feel old and a bit useless. I can't do much anymore and I am only 31. A while ago I pondered taking a health psychology class but never did. I know now that there really is a connection between psychological state and illness. There are these physical realities. My perceived state of hopelessness and uselessness. There are however spiritual realities that transcend physical limitation. All too often we only see a part, and not in whole. 

Jesus gives us a picture of Kingdom life and Kingdom living in His most popular sermon recorded in Matthew 5-7. It is a high ideal that Jesus describes, but it is His will and desire for Christians to become. When Jesus began His ministry, there were different factions who believed to have an answer to Israel's problems. Wiersbe (2007) describes these different groups: "The Pharisees clamed that the nation could experience freedom and blessing only if the people returned to the traditions of the fathers. The Sadducees, on the other hand, urged the people to update their religion and become more liberal. The Essenes taught that salvation would come only through separation from the world, so they established their own communities and remained outside the life of the nation. At the other extreme were Zealots, a revolutionary group that sought to overthrow Rome by revolt and force. Unwilling to wait for gradual change, the Zealots murdered and destroyed in the name of Jewish patriotism" (pp. 21-22). I could not help but see the comparison to today. In this election year, the commercials and news concerning elections is everywhere. The beliefs are the same. Conservatives want to go back to the founding fathers and to the good old days of yesterday. The liberals want to go forward and modernize. The extremists want to go against and try to destroy the institutions. We need only be reminded of the Occupy movements over the past year.

I love what Wiersbe says about these groups: "Jesus in effect says, "All of these approaches are right in some respects and wrong in other respects. Their chief weakness is that they are fragmentary; they each deal with a facet of truth but not with the whole of truth.” For example, there is nothing wrong with the tradition of the fathers. But the Old Testament law was temporary; it was preparation for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. We should not duplicate the religion of Israel under the old covenant. Instead, we must let this Old Testament truth develop into New Testament truth through Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17). The Old Testament law was the seed; the gospel of Christ is the fruit... If the Pharisees wanted to hold on to the past and reject the present, the Sadducees went to the other extreme: They wanted to take the rational approach to life and sacrifice the authority of the Word on the altar of intellectual credibility. They were the modernists of their day. Jesus agreed with them that the Word must be a living reality today, but He rejected their anti-supernatural approach. "The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits" (Acts 23:8). When the Sadducees tried to trip Jesus up with their theological questions, He swept them aside with one devastating statement: "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God" (Matthew 22:29). It is through the Word of God and the power of God by His Spirit that believers today experience the reign of God in their lives. The Pharisees lost the present by trying to return to the past. The Sadducees lost the present by denying the past. Both were wrong" (pp. 22-23).

These groups saw only a piece and not the whole. Losing the present by returning to the past or losing the present by denying the past. When we consider the Gospel narratives we find both groups miss the point. One group was so focused on the traditions of the past and the other denied the authority of Scripture entirely. I wonder what misinterpretation of God and life-fulfillment are prevalent today. Many try to have "religion" without God whatever form that make take. Some make religion into a God.   

There are a couple more groups that have only a part of truth. The Essenes in their desire for holy living, was right in intention. Scripture describes a Holy God and the command for the people of God to be set apart. However, isolationism was and still is the wrong approach. Jesus calls His disciples to go into the world and change the world, not retreat from it. We find in the great commission that we are to go into the entire world starting with our Jerusalem and then to the ends of the earth. Isolationism also does not address the root of sin which can only be changed by the power of the Spirit and not by seclusion. The last group is the Zealots:

"As for the Zealots, Jesus chose one of their number to be one of His disciples: "Simon, who was called the Zealot" (Luke 6:35). Imagine selecting a political fanatic to be among the first disciples! No doubt Jesus admired their zeal and devotion, just as He certainly opposed their violent methods. He would say to Simon, "Yes, some things in 'the establishment' need to be destroyed, but not through hatred, violence, and human force. The weapons we use are not of the flesh; they are of the Spirit. It is not by killing others but by being willing to die yourself that you will establish God's kingdom." (p. 24).

The political phonetics look to radically change the social systems by force. Yet, Jesus did not come to establish a political or physical Kingdom. The disciples at the time were mistaken in why Christ came. They too wanted Jesus to restore Israel through a physical Kingdom. The Kingdom that Jesus describes is one radically different. In Matthew 5:20: "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" Jesus describes the requirements for the Kingdom. By first glance, it would appear difficult to achieve these requirements. After all, there were over six hundred laws to observe. Yet, it is precisely these laws that Jesus came to challenge. True righteousness is not external rules to follow. In one of His parables, "Jesus had the Pharisee pray: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get" (Luke 18:11-12). Certainly there is nothing good about being an extortionist or an adulterer, and there is nothing bad about fasting or tithing. But if that is the whole of a person's religion, he or she has nothing. And if people are proud of their religious activities to the point of looking down upon fellow sinners, then they are in bad condition spiritually" (Wiersbe, 2007 p. 24-25). This kind of religion is highly problematic. It is rule-focused, and self-centered. Additionally, it makes false comparisons. Certainly, when we compare ourselves to "sinners" who have done far worse "sins" we appear rather "saintly". What if we compare ourselves to ministry leaders? The point certainly is not to make comparisons to others, but false righteousness has a tendency to make oneself look better than one really is. If anything, we conform ourselves to the likeness to Christ. Furthermore, in the sermon on the mount Jesus looks not merely at the physical act of murder or lust, but the heart intention. True righteousness goes much deeper than external behavior.

Wiersbe (2007) goes on to describe not just the mark of true righteousness but the motive. "Not only were the Pharisees and scribes mistaken about righteousness and sin, but they were also mistaken in their motives for serving God, and Jesus deals with this error in Matthew 6. The Pharisees and scribes were religious in order to get the approval and praise of others. But true Christians have a greater motive than that: They live for the approval and praise of God. After all, if true righteousness is a matter of the heart and only God can see the heart, then only God can give the reward. "I am he who searches- hearts and minds" (Revelation 2:23) (p. 26). In chapter six of Matthew, Jesus discusses the acts of giving, prayer, and fasting. All three activities were falsely done in front of people for the praise of people. Jesus challenges the motive by which we do what we do. We aim to please God. I recognize how difficult it is to actually do this and not care what other people think. In grad school I gave four or five presentations a semester and so many times I was caught up in worrying about saying the wrong thing or not knowing the right response. It was not until my final semester when I was able to let go, and was able to do my last five presentations caring only what my Heavenly Father saw. Stories earlier this year have been told also of Jeremy Lin and his early struggles in playing for the audience and how it impacted his performances. It is when we play and live for an audience of One that we live with freedom.

Wiersbe (2007) considers the Beatitudes individually, but before going into them in detail he describes them collectively: Having received the righteousness of Christ, I can begin to manifest in my life the character of God. I become merciful instead of condemning; I seek to cultivate purity of heart; I become a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. As I grow to become more like Christ, I experience the kind of treatment He received when He was on earth—reviling, persecution, and false accusations. But because of His grace, I become salt and light in a world that is decayed and dark. Having entered the kingdom, it is now my privilege to enlarge the kingdom by applying His righteousness in the world about me... The Beatitudes tell us how to enter and enlarge the kingdom, but they also tell us how to enjoy the kingdom. "Blessed are . . . for they will. . ." They will what? Just read the promises, and you will see how much believers enjoy from God when they seek to cultivate true Christian character. "Theirs is the kingdom"—authority. "They will be comforted"—encouragement. "They will inherit the earth"—provision for every need. "They will be filled"—satisfaction. "They will be shown mercy"—provision for ministry to others. "They will see God"—spiritual vision. "They will be called sons of God"—becoming more like God in daily life. There is a price to pay, but the results are well worth it.

Jesus Christ invites you and me into a life of enrichment and enlargement.

Will you and I pay the price?" (pp. 27-28).

Peace, purity, mercy, these are the realities of true righteousness. The results just mentioned, authority, satisfaction, spiritual vision, encouragement, provision, these are the blessings, but most importantly, being children of God. This final passage sums up the sermon on the mount and Kingdom Life as it is meant to be now.

Prayer:

Father, I confess that I only see in part. At any given moment, I miss the point. I take on the beliefs of the zealot who thinks politics and anarchy could be the answer or isolationism, or returning to the past or modernization. The answer as I am seeing lies not in these external changes but inner change. It is seeking true righteousness and the change of the heart. To do that, we need the enabling of Your Spirit. We are already Children by position and as such we have Your provision, encouragement, spiritual vision and true satisfaction. Open my eyes I pray to Your Kingdom realities to become less and less self-focused and more and more Christ-centered.