Your Kingdom, Not Ours
Humans, like water, seek the easiest path. We slip and fall into gravitational pulls and swell into pools. We forget we’re different – or meant to be. We lose track of the water we’re swimming in. We adapt our gills to extract the oxygen our culture gives us. We feel at home. We feel stronger in larger bodies.
From pools to ponds to lakes to oceans. The cultural currents carry us into powerful, salty waters. Our salt is lost (Matt 5:13) and we blend with the waves and believe we have become mighty.
We were never meant to live this way.
When did God call us to swim in these waters, mixed and blended in?
When did God call us to be comfortable?
When did God call us into cultural prominence?
When did God permit us to be entitled?
When did God empower us to political influence and dominance?
The kingdom of God should be a salty, upside-down way of living. But it’s hard to live upside down. It’s hard to be different to the point of rejection—even though we’re told to expect it. It’s easier to be oil in water than it is to change the salinity of the ocean, to be a river traveling uphill.
When the church began, they turned the world upside down. They did not do this in the way anyone else in history did. No conquering or political power. They turned it upside down in an upside-down way. Today, most church efforts, particularly in the West, are trying to turn the world upside-down using right-side-up tactics. This has failed.
In a sense, “We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven.” - Tennyson
Our ways were never supposed to be the ways of the world, yet here we find ourselves—propping up politicians, fighting in school board meetings, producing stylish Sunday experiences, and hating those we are commanded to love.
Rather than ambassadors of God’s Kingdom we have become citizens of the kingdom of the world. The way we are living looks like we are locals—not foreigners. The left of us hates the right of us and vice-versa. We don’t turn the other cheek, we load weapons. In the name of justice, we embrace offense and reject forgiveness.
We make others earn what Christ gave us freely.
We seek what we think we deserve which is everything even though from first breath we deserve nothing.
“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire” – Seneca
The Kingdom of God was Jesus’ primary message. He speaks of this Way of living more than any other topic.
The upside-down kingdom is found throughout Christ’s teachings. This is especially obvious in the beatitudes:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you
because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Most Christians would profess to like this poetic little intro to the s=Sermon on the Mount. But when pressured to follow this script, we don’t play our part well. We pick and choose. We choose to comfort ourselves with these words when we find ourselves in them.
“I’m mourning, so I will be comforted.”
“I am (feeling) persecuted, so the kingdom of Heaven is mine.”
We apply these words like a salve rather than follow them as map to Kingdom living. Each of these affirmed postures that Christ points out are completely undesirable. Yet, those who can be characterized by the beatitudes are living in the upside-down Kingdom. They make us look like foreigners. They help us be salt.
When we’re living in the kingdom of the world, we don’t want to be poor in spirit, we want to claim power of every type – including spiritual. We don’t want to be peacemakers, we want to destroy our enemies because we have dehumanized them. We don’t want meekness, especially in our chosen leaders and political saviors. We don’t want to be merciful – we want to be vindicated and justified in our anger which we laughably call righteous. Instead of trusting the eternal victory of the cross, we seek to bypass persecution and live in victory—a victory of earthly prosperity and safety.
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So if our methods don’t reflect God’s Kingdom, are we serving the True King?
If it’s not upside, it’s not The Kingdom.
If it’s not true in every country, in every context, in every time period, it’s not Kingdom.
If it doesn’t apply to the powerful and the powerless, it’s not Kingdom.
If it’s comfortable, it’s not Kingdom.
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References to the Kingdom of God : 90 Bible Verses on the Kingdom of God | Bible to Life
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