Where is the Kingdom?

After Lazarus’ sister, Mary, anoints Jesus’ feet with costly perfume and He enters triumphantly into Jerusalem, Jesus again speaks of His coming death. Only if a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies will it produce a great harvest, Jesus tells his disciples in John 12:24. This was surely not what the disciples wanted to hear. Hadn’t Jesus just announced Himself as King? “Do not fear, O, Daughter of Zion, Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” And didn’t He tell them not to fear? What was this talk of death? No, that’s not what anyone wanted to hear. It was the Kingdom He should be talking about. A Kingdom where they no longer had to fear the Romans, poverty, hunger, sickness, disease. So why was Jesus talking about death? And telling them “Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” (John 12:24 Amplified)

Many of the bystanders heard it too. No, no, no! This is not what was promised. “We have learned from the Law that the Christ (Messiah) is to remain forever; how then can You say the Son of Man must be lifted up (on the cross)? Who is this Son of Man?” they say, feeing, I’m sure, taken back and angry and cheated. Thrones, crowns, riches, that’s what they had signed up for. A life of peace and safety. A life of prosperity. Although the disciples didn’t voice their own objections, I’m sure they had negative feelings of their own: disappointment, fear, confusion. After all, Jesus was telling them that He—the Light—would soon be taken away from them and that they had to be prepared to lose their own lives if they wanted to follow Him.

In some ways this is how we Christians often function today. We want the salvation Jesus offers and all that it implies. We want the “life and life more abundantly,” but sometimes we want the kingdom without a king, life without death, triumph without trials. And it’s not to be had. I truly want to be an over-comer, but in my heart I really don’t want anything to over-come; no trials, no sorrows, nothing unpleasant. But Jesus never promised us that if we follow Him, life would be easy. Or full of earthly riches. Or health. Or always happy. Indeed, many times life is hard. And sometimes this makes us question our King. Why isn’t He coming through for us? Where is His kingdom?

In all fairness, if one looks around the world today and sees the staggering number of Christians, especially in Muslim countries, being slaughtered, crucified, beheaded; their churches, homes and businesses destroyed, it’s easy to ask, “Where is the kingdom?” An insidious rise of anti-Christian sentiment is beginning to blanket the globe, and yes, even here in America. And it will only increase. I don’t believe life is going to be easy for a Christian in the coming years, and it’s best we understand that. But there really is a Kingdom. Jesus said it was “within us.” And even in the hard times we can experience that Kingdom for the King Himself resides there. We can experience His peace, joy and love in the measure that we allow Him to control and influence our lives. And we can do this while we await that larger Kingdom that is to come, when our King returns and sets it up on earth and brings everything under His just rule.

But in the meantime we need to remember that we are children of God and joint heirs of the King, a real King who rules a real Kingdom. And that’s no small thing.

Until next week,

Sylvia