By Neil Earle
A few years ago a book came out titled “The Upside Down Kingdom” about how the Kingdom Jesus Christ brought was so different than what everyone was looking for in the First Century…and ever since.
Remember, the Jewish people of Jesus’ day were expecting a great Deliverer to come from Bethlehem. They were chafing under the oppressive heel of Roman rule. Joseph and Mary were compelled to make a difficult journey to Bethlehem to be either taxed or enrolled by decree of Emperor Caesar Augustus (BC31-15AD). One of Jesus’ disciples was a former Zealot named Simon. The Zealots were sworn terrorists who had vowed to wreak whatever havoc they could upon Roman rule and their puppets, the Herods.
The Gospels are written against this backdrop of explosive political and social tension. Jesus’ statements about carrying someone’s baggage two miles if they forced you to carry it one was a commentary on a situation whereby Roman soldiers often pulled a sword to forcibly conscript Jewish peasants to carry their gear.
Yet in the midst of all this comes a little baby born in Bethlehem true to the prophecy of Micah, a baby with a manger for a bed. He grew up to be Jesus the Christ and as an adult he proclaimed over and over again that what he was all about was the Kingdom of God. Bible teachers such as Gordon Fee and others have stated emphatically that “Kingdom of God” is the absolutely indispensible term for understanding Jesus and his teaching.
The word “Kingdom” must have seemed like a cry of liberty in the ears of many of Jesus’ hearers. If his listeners had checked into it they would have learned that wise men came from the east bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus at his birth. This was fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah 60: 1-12 that the One born in the city of David would become a great ruler. Those Magi worshipped him. They had followed a star which reliable Chinese sources state was a supernova visible in Chinese territory for seventy days in 5BCE. (See Mark Kidger, The Star of Bethlehem). With Herod dying in 4BCE and Jesus born in his reign (Matthew 2:1) this supernova could well be the star that set those wide men wandering from either Babylon or Persia.
God, in other words, moved heaven and earth and influenced a mighty Roman conqueror to arrange a census so that Jesus would not only be born in Bethlehem but worshipped by Gentile kings at his birth.
So with all that show of might – including an angelic choir appearing over Bethlehem to certain shepherds – what happened to the Kingdom Jesus proclaimed and of which he was indisputably King?
It’s a good question for this time of year.
Surely, the very fact that the Christ child was born in a fairly “small potatoes” town such as Bethlehem and not mighty Jerusalem five miles north should make us think. That, and the manger scene. As well as the fact that Luke records that at the baby’s purification ceremony Joseph and Mary offered two turtle-doves (Luke 2:24) which was the offering of the poor. These small details paint a picture of a Kingdom coming in weakness, coming in great humility, coming in great insignificance to most of the rich and famous of the First Century. Which is why the title “The Upside Down Kingdom” is such a good one.
Robert Capon in his writing on the parables has said that Jesus consistently represented “left-handed power” as opposed to the right handed power of the despots and rulers of this era, especially those such as cruel Herod who had all the boy babies killed in Bethlehem to stamp out this rumor of “King of the Jews.” Left-handed power, says Capon, is “a paradoxical power, power that looks for all the world like weakness, intervention that seems indistinguishable from nonintervention.” It’s an intriguing phrase, like Upside Down Kingdom. It’s all about the way Jesus worked and taught – a ministry hinging on cups of cold water given in his name, boys with loaves and fishes to feed thousands, meek children as the forerunners of the kingdom, forgiving fathers, charitable Samaritans and housewives who throw a party because she’s found her lost coin.
All this helps answer the question – where is the Kingdom Jesus promised? Why are people still dying in Pakistan, or Iraq or Somalia, or on the highways or in hospitals or trying to stay warm under a freeway tunnel or falling from a ladder? What’s going on? Has Jesus let us down? Where is the King of Mighty David’s Royal Line, the Deliverer the Jewish people were expecting? We could all use a Deliverer right about now after a year like 2009.
Well, take heart. The Kingdom is here only it deploys Left-handedness. It is present in weakness, in smallness, in great invisibility. The Parables Jesus gave make this clear. Over and over again he taught, the Kingdom of heaven is like…like leaven, which a woman puts in three measure of meal. “The Kingdom? Like Fleishmann’s yeast? Jesus – you’ve got to be kidding,” we might say.
But wait! There’s something about leaven. It is small and miniscule yet steady, relentless, unstoppable and ultimately quite transformative. That is a great tipoff to the way it works in the Kingdom of God. In his provocative Commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, the Anglican evangelist Michael Green raises the questions about the Kingdom that the parables of Matthew 13 answer. As well as the hiddeness and ordinary every-dayness of the Kingdom enshrined in the leaven analogy, Green explores other answers Jesus offers to our questions:
“Why it seems, Lord, that hardly anyone is responding?” – the Parable of the Sower answers this. Of four categories described only the fourth group seem to “get it” (Matthew 13:1-9). Capon, by the way, has a better answer for that in his book, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment.
“Why the kingdom, dear Master, seems so ineffective in the disastrous news of the world today?” But don’t look in the wrong place. Remember the parable of the Mustard Seed—starts miniscule and tiny and takes over (Matthew 13:31-32).
“Well it seems, forgive me, my King, so hard to keep before us with all that’s happening?” Ah, well don’t forget the parable of the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44-45). It takes a special kind of person to spot the kingdom at work.
“Why is it so weak, Jesus, and why does evil persist?” – the parable of the weeds among the wheat reminds us that there is a judgment coming. The future glory of the Kingdom will be the great equalizer (Matthew 13:24-30).
“Why do we have to wait, forgive me dear Lord, so long for vindication?” Look again at the parable of the great dragnet. The Lord’s keeping score (Matthew 13:47-50).
By now we begin to see. Our questions have answers. Our job is to pass out cups of cold water, scrounge about for loaves and fishes to feed the hungry, visit the sick, encourage the prisoners, pass out Thanksgiving turkeys, run food banks, staff cold-weather shelters – in other words, the kind of work that Christians have been doing for centuries. It doesn’t seem like its changing the world does it? But it is making a big big difference in the lives of millions and millions of people. The kingdom that began at Bethlehem is small, quiet, humble, insidious almost, but very very effective, like leaven. Take another look – the Kingdom is at hand.