SAINTS - SHEEP AMONG WOLVES

CHRISTIAN HOPE RESTS ON A MAN WHOSE MESSAGE WAS REJECTED AND WHOSE LOVE WAS SPURNED, WHO WAS CONDEMNED AS A CRIMINAL AND GIVEN A SENTENCE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

 The Kingdom of God is not a power structure - look to the account of the trial in Jerusalem, a scene that brings together two kingdoms in striking opposition. On that climatic day the rulers of the "kingdom of this world" confrunted Jesus and his kingdom face-to-face.
Two kings, Herod and Jesus, personified very different kinds of power:
Herod had legions of Roman soldiers to enforce his will, and history records how he used his power: he stole his brother's wife, locked up all desidenters, beheaded John the Baptist as a party trick.
Jesus too had power, but He used it compassionately, to feed the hungry and heal the sick.
Herod had a gold crown, palaces, guards, and all the visible token of royalty.
For Jesus, the closest thing to a formal coronation, or Messiah's "anointing" occurred in an embarrassing scene when a disreputable woman poured perfume over His head .
He got the title  "King of the Jews" as a criminal sentence.
His "crown", made of thorns, was merely one more source of pain.
And though He could have called on a legion of angels for protection, He declined. Consistently, Jesus refused to use coercitive power.

Despite Jesus's plain example, many of His followers have been unable to resist choosing the way of Herod over that of Jesus.
The Crusaders who pillaged the Near East, the conquistadors who converted the New World at the point of a sword, the Christian explorers in Africa who cooperated with the slave trade - we are still feeling aftershocks from their mistakes.
History shows that when the church uses the tools of the world's kingdom, it becomes as ineffectual, or as tyrannical, as any other power structure. And when the church has intermingled with the state ( the Holy Roman Empire, Cromwell's England, Calvin's Geneve), the appeal of the faith suffers as well. Ironically, our respect in the world declines in proportion to how vigorously we attempt to force others to adopt our point of view.
Sheep among wolves,
a tiny seed in the garden,
yeast in bread dough,
salt in meat.
Jesus' own metaphors of the kingdom describe a kind of "secret force" that works from within. He said nothing of a triumphant church sharing power with the authorities. The kingdom of God appears to work best as a minority movement, in opposition to the kingdom of this world. When it grows beyond that, the kingdom subtly changes in nature (http://philipyancey. com).

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