In God We Trust: What Are You Doing Unto Me?

I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me...
I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. - Jesus (Mt. 25:40, 45 NIV)

The religious leaders had a temple to take care of, at least. They had fancy clothes with which they were set apart and treated with great reverence. Reading Jesus’ attitude toward those who ruled the religious life Jewish people, you get the idea that he was none too impressed with their leadership. They were proud. They had a tendency to recognize great fault in others, and yet seemed blind to their own imperfections.

In reality, the Kingdom suffered under their leadership. The Jewish people as a whole had been suffering now for hundreds of years under various oppressors. The land which was theirs had been taken away from them. Actually, according to the prophets when things went from bad to worse, it wasn’t taken away at all – Israel gave away their land to whoever was strong enough to claim it.

They gave it away with every apathetic action that denied their own Jewish culture and principles.

Collectively, they stopped living out the system God showed them. They stopped supporting the work of the temple, which meant the priests could not perform their duties at a competent level because they had to devote their time to other work to put bread on the table. The physical Temple began to reflect the inattention as well, and began falling apart. Within a few generations, the cult was barely hanging on. They became easy prey.

This broke God’s heart. Because God’s hope was to change the world through those who fully devoted themselves to the Ways of God.

Jesus shows up centuries after the last prophet has died. Rome rules the world, not the Kingdom of God. He came to recalibrate our thinking about where our hope really lies, and challenge our behavior to become aligned with that hope.

There is at least one thing wrong that Obama said during an interview with David Letterman (well-known source of deep, thoughtful interviews). He said that the United States is the last great hope for the world.

Whatever the question, it was the wrong answer.

No nation is the final and greatest hope of the world. That title has already been given to the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus is giving this parable about who did and didn’t care for the least of these, I believe that his primary focus was the disciples (there is an ongoing debate about this in academia). Jesus was reiterating what the prophets of old were saying to Israel hundreds of years before Jesus was born. He was restating the basic instruction that God gave to the people through Moses in the earliest covenant. He was simply saying this: take care of the Kingdom work, and it will take care of you. Neglect it, and expect all hell to break loose.

The Kingdom is the only plan God has. There’s no back up. In our view as Jesus followers, the Church is the agency on earth through which the Kingdom is proclaimed and perpetuated. We, the gathered people of God, are the ones who have been given the charge to present the Good News in ways that our audience understands. It is in the cult of the Kingdom where we discover our True Self and learn how to shed our old nature and embrace the new. It is in the Church where we learn that we are the hands and feet of God, and maybe the bread bakers, too.

So the question is, do you understand how critically important the Church is in bringing about changes in the world that must happen in order for all of our hopes and dreams to be realized?
At least one thing Obama said in his speech on election night in Chicago was right. He challenged the citizens of the US to roll up their sleeves, to all pull together, if we want to see ourselves pull out of the difficult times we now face. As honorable citizens, we should.

But how much more should we do the same for the actual greatest hope for the world?
When we are all in for Christ, more happens than we can ever expect. We invest in the Kingdom, and we find ourselves living in it, more and more attuned to the Spirit’s leading. There is a direct connection, I believe, between your level of life-investment in the Kingdom of God and the potency of God’s power and presence in your life.

So, six of CrossWalk’s devoted Jesus followers took a vacation together to Cabo San Lucas. One day they fished. They caught a tuna that was so big, they didn’t know what to do with all the meat. Enter the Spirit. Before you could say Chicken of the Sea, these six found themselves connecting up with an orphanage in town, offering them the meat. They discovered that these kids don’t have coats or jackets for the evening, when the breeze off the sea gets pretty cold. Just so happens that these six are leaders in our Coats for Kids mission here in Napa. Now the kids have tuna in their tummies, and jackets on their backs.

I am confident that if these six were not so invested in the Kingdom, they would not have been sensitive to the Spirit’s prompting. The kids would miss the meat, and would be shivering tonight. But because these six got it and get it, the Kingdom expanded.

How invested are you in God’s Plan A? In terms of your support for the Kingdom work – the Church of Jesus Christ in our view – what does the way you manage your life report about your investment?

If you are fully devoted, fully invested Jesus follower, then take great comfort and confidence that you have chosen wisely, and that your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed, not are they without a significant return. Your devotion is keeping these lights on, and helping get The Light into dark places.

If you have never thought about this stuff in this way, then I urge you consider carefully where your greatest hope lies, and whether or not that belief is supported by the way you order your life.

May we all come to grips with the great privilege we have been given to literally serve Christ by supporting His Kingdom. May we all live our lives so that in the final analysis, we will discover that we are more like a sheep than a goat!