The Kingdom and the Cross

Tomorrow changes everything. On the agenda: finish my PowerPoint presentation (I've never worked with PowerPoint before), quit work-study (its risks/benefit ratio is abysmal), finish editing my classmate's short fiction piece (just shy of terrible), eek out enough time to write 2000 words or more (nigh on impossible, and not for lack of long-windedness), and somehow still find time to eat and get some rest (all the while processing the rest of the day in extraneous parenthetical statements, such as this one). Nothing earth-shattering, at first glance.

Yet if I dare to look deeper, past the shiny veneer with which I've covered over my failures, I'll discover, once more, that I am still a man in desperate need of a savior. Indeed, we Christians are saved, are being saved, and shall be saved; but here and now, in the present, I find that I am often in need of something more than vague spiritual comfort.

I need a cross.

Paul was so adamant on this point that he he told the Corinthians he was "determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2). But why this focus on the cross? Didn't Jesus preach love, forgiveness, redemption, peace, comfort, and joy?

Several weeks ago I read through the beginning of the Gospels. I was struck by John the Baptist's message: Repent! Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand! Those few words about the Kingdom precipitated a torrential cascade of ideas and thoughts. What is this thing, this 'Kingdom'? And why does John seem so focused, so single-minded, so simplistic?

A good friend of mine recently blogged about tunnel vision and its inherent dangers. Did John suffer from a sever case? Isn't he missing the richness of the Gospel? Possibly. But then again, Jesus preaches only one message, too: If you love Me, obey me. Over and over again He gives the command to love: to love God and man and, most of all, to love deeply and with ripe generosity. But what is the end purpose of this love? Obedience. It's all about lying down and dying. And that is precisely what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 2.

The Gospel message doesn't change. Repent, love, obey---die. Yes, die. For the sake of the Savior. For the sake of the King.

For the sake of the Kingdom.

The Greek word for Kingdom is Basilea, which means the 'rule, authority, and power of a Kingdom.' In other words, the Kingdom is not about a physical location. Rather, the Kingdom of God is about the rule, authority, and power of God. And as citizens of the Kingdom, who were ransomed from the kingdom of darkness and saved from the slave market of sin, we are called to walk in this Kingdom (rule and authority and power) day by day.

Walking in the Kingdom affirms that God alone is the center, and we are able do all things only by the King's grace. It means that we are in reality ambassadors, complete with political immunity. And we must learn to live and move and have our being within the context of walking in the rule, authority, and power of the Kingdom.

Fine sounding doctrine, perhaps, but still vague. Yes, the Kingdom is about authority; how do we live in that authority? Words are well and good, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of the everyday stuff of life, words diminish in significance. How does the Kingdom affect our lives? Does it even? Strangely enough, Hollywood provided an answer.

Last week I watched Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom as a young knight who crusades in the Holy Land. As the army of Jerusalem advanced, they carried a cross before them to lead the way. Sorrow roared through my soul; I was deeply grieved that they dared to reduce the cross to a mere talisman. The cross had nothing to do with their version of the kingdom of heaven, after all.

And then it hit me: The cross has everything to do with the true Kingdom. In truth, the two are so inseparable that the Kingdom is the cross.

God invaded two millennia ago. His power broke into the kingdom of darkness, which is in bondage, and scattered the power of the evil one. He has not stopped His conquest. In our lives, day by day, we must submit to the power and rule of the Kingdom. And that means embracing the cross. The cross is the key to the Kingdom and its untamed glory.

So let's review my to-do list in light of the message of the Gospel. I'm procrastinating, to be honest. I'm displaying a flagrant disregard for authority and discipline. Let me be blunt: That is not the way of the cross. When I shirk responsibility, I am rebelling against my King.

He demands my obedience. If I truly love Him, I will obey Him. I will submit. I will learn how to glory in the cross. And I will learn to live simply. It's so easy to embroider my speech with eloquence and gild my words with aureate turns of phrase. But living in the simple, everyday stuff---homework, PowerPoint presentations, cleaning bathrooms, editing fiction, writing, eating, and the rest---that's the linchpin of Kingdom life.

And it starts with the cross.


Grace and peace,
Andrew <><