Kingdom Confusion
In the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl merchant found in Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus is telling us that God’s Kingdom is of such all-surpassing worth that we should sell and abandon all other things so that we might obtain it. Likewise, in verses 51-52, he indicates the secrets of the Kingdom are those true treasures we have been given to distribute to others. Benefiting from the full testimony of Scripture, we understand more precisely that the Kingdom is obtained through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and King and that this salvation is the crown jewel of those treasures we are to share with the world.
Amen and amen. How could anyone who calls themselves a Christian disagree? Our lips would hardly dare to do so, but our lives often venture some dissent. If we can imagine that our church would be radically transformed if we were sold out like the men in the parables, then there must be a persisting tendency that leaves that reality to mere imagination.
What is that tendency? Before answering, let’s throw ourselves into a different setting - Jesus’s examination before Pontius Pilate. Recall that this examination was to determine whether Jesus should be put to death:
[33] So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" [34] Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?" [35] Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?" [36] Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." [37] Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, "I find no guilt in him. - John 18:33-37 [ESV] [bolding mine]
Pilate’s line of questioning was aimed at determining if Jesus was a threat to the Roman Empire’s holdings in Palestine. If Jesus was claiming to be the King of the Jews, there would be threat of conflict. In his response, Jesus makes it clear that he’s playing chess while Pilate is playing checkers. He neither denies nor explicitly confirms[1] that he could be rightly called King of the Jews; this is because the plane of reality from which is operating completely transcends Pilates own frame of reference. Pilate’s reality is limited to terrestrial powers – he does not comprehend the possibility of a King whose power derives from heaven rather than earth, whose power need not be established by his servants fighting.
Puzzled, Pilate asks Jesus again if he is a king, as though to make sure he has this straight, and Jesus confirms this in so many words. In his response, he introduces positive purpose of his kingly presence – Jesus is here not to fight but “to bear witness to the truth.” This draws forth Pilates’ cynical response, “What is truth?” Subsequently, he goes out and tells the crowd he doesn’t find Jesus guilty. Guilty of what? Luke 23 indicates that the Jewish leaders had brought Jesus to Pilate under the accusation that he was stirring up rebellion and calling himself king. Clearly, Pilate did not believe Jesus was calling for insurrection. However, more than that, Pilate doesn’t seem to believe Jesus is guilty of being a king. We would easily guess that Pilate didn’t believe Jesus’s claim - his parting rhetorical question about truth suggests he doesn’t take Jesus seriously. We can imagine him thinking: “Caesar is a real king. Even Herod is a real king. But Jesus is not a real king. You can only be a king if you have a kingdom – where is this kingdom of which Jesus speaks?”
Now, let us return to the original question about the tendency which results in us offering mere lip service to the notion of being sold out for the kingdom. What exactly its that tendency? Well, I think it’s that tendency to discount the reality of the Kingdom. We just don’t take it seriously. Like Pilate, we only count as real those things we already see on earth; in our hearts of hearts we believe these are the things that really matter. Jesus has told us about the hidden nature of the Kingdom, that it is like the planting of a mustard seed and yeast working through dough. We have been explicitly told that God’s Kingdom is not from this world and that its eternal reality cannot be measured against the visibly predominating powers at work in the world today. Nevertheless, its reality rolls over us like water off a duck’s back.
This is why we are not very concerned about our neighbors. Most of them seem okay, they seem well off – job, house, car, and all that. If we have any interest in proselytizing, it’s usually only our political opinions, because those things seem to really matter. We only care about real things. I can see my kids report card. I can see him score a touchdown. I can see that acceptance letter to college. I can’t see his relationship with God or him resurrected from the dead (or so I apparently think?).
You see, we are confused. The earthly kingdom blinds our view of the heavenly kingdom. If the reality of God’s Kingdom impressed itself upon us with all its gravitational force, we would care deeply about the eternal welfare of our neighbors. Unquestionably, we would care far more about the discipleship of our sons and daughters than any fading garland of “success.” As for our own selves who have gone unmentioned, our deepest desire would be to live in true harmony and communion with God in Christ. We would want to start enjoying the promise of eternity now, rather than living under the envious angst over what earthly goods or experiences we lack.
Our sinful nature and the devil work against us perceiving this reality, because we would then know true liberty. Nothing is more helpful to our bondage than our distraction from the reality of God’s Kingdom. It is the devil’s purpose that we pursue the world and in the end lose all things. It is Christ’s purpose that we pursue the Kingdom, at the glad cost of everything, because our end is to receive all things in him.
“Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with ever fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Rev. Tom Loghry
Tom Loghry is the senior pastor of Rockland Community Church in North, Scituate, RI. He is a graduate of the Berkshire Institute for Christian Studies, Toccoa Falls College (B.S. Pastoral Ministry), and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.A. Theology). He is continuing his graduate studies in the area of “Ethics & Society” at GCTS.
[1] In Mark 15:2 [ESV] it is recorded that Jesus responds by saying “You have said so”, implying that would be a title rightly held by him. The Gospels differ in their accounts in this interaction not because they contradict one another but because they supply details the others do not, which is what we would expect from the gathering of eye-witness testimony and differing points of emphasis among the writers of the Gospel.
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.