Conferring a Kingdom

By:

Stan Moody, Ph.D.

June 22, 2008

Luke 22:14-30

We cannot read this 22^nd chapter of Luke without being conflicted over the American Dream of prosperity and success. In fact, as you read this passage of Scripture, you have to say that the American Dream of prosperity and success is as old as human nature itself.

The disciples were consumed not only with the prospect of restoring the former glory to Israel by establishing a throne in Jerusalem; they were consumed with what role each of them would play in that new kingdom: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Before the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, they had been jockeying for position, despite all the teaching that Jesus had given them about the Kingdom of God being within. After the Resurrection; despite the recent memory of their fear and their cowardice; despite the prediction by Jesus that He would be leaving them, they were ready to take up where they had left off – “Who will be the greatest in the Kingdom?”

These disciples had been confronted with their own cowardice and disloyalty. They had been confronted with their own weakness and sin. Yet, jockeying for position becomes an all-encompassing passion. Jockeying for position is as natural a human instinct as is self preservation. In fact, they may well be one in the same. Our instincts tell us that the more powerful we are, the less likely we are to crash and burn.

Israel is an object lesson in what happens to a nation that considers itself to be holier and mightier than others. Once at the pinnacle of world power, the only thing that First Century Israel had left was its religion. The temple in Jerusalem had become a Mecca for worshippers of the One True God from all over the world. Yet, Israel was under the thumb of Rome – powerless and a thorn in their side. Forty years after their execution of the Son of the One True God, physical Israel would be no more and would remain as such until 1948.

Today, with some 500 warheads, Israel is the fourth largest nuclear power in the world. It is the third largest arms manufacturer in the world, behind the US and Russia. And yet, it remains insecure and unfaithful and fearful, pushing into the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea a people who have been dispossessed of their land and their heritage. It has done this with the complicity and financial backing of the government of the United States that claims to be a Christian nation.

Right makes might, and might makes right! That is the theory.

I have tasted a bit of power from time to time and have discovered, much to my astonishment, that even the smallest amount of power corrupts. And yet we seek it at all levels of society. People are convinced that they can “make a difference” by being in positions of power. The disciples were convinced that they could rule and reign with compassion and charity once they were installed as rulers in the new kingdom of Israel.

Jesus makes it clear in the 22^nd chapter of Luke that this is the way of the heathen nations – the Gentiles. “Who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves” (22:27). Jesus turns the instinct of human power and human glory on its head. He who created us becomes our servant – not just to serve but to suffer for refusing to accept power for Himself.

The disciples do not know it yet and will not know it until Pentecost, but they have been consigned to the same destiny as was Jesus – that of suffering servant. This new kingdom concept runs directly contrary to human nature. He who is the least will be the greatest, and he who is the greatest will be the least.

The great tragedy is that from time to time, even the Church of Jesus Christ has bought into this human instinct that given power, it can preside over a righteous world. Like Emperor Constantine, the Religious Right in American has assumed that the spiritual values of Christianity can be enforced by the state. I used to think that these were Christians who were merely misguided. No longer do I think that way. This is a demonic theology that was patently rejected by Jesus during His temptation by Satan in the wilderness. The Devil made it clear to Jesus that he had the power to offer Him the kingdoms of this world if He would simply bow to his authority.

From the very get-go, Satan appeals to Jesus’ human instincts. Now, he is tearing asunder that little band of followers by appealing to their human instincts of power and glory while the Lord of heaven and earth dies alone.

Jesus says to His disciples in Luke 22, “Is any among you the oldest? Serve the youngest. Is any among you the most powerful? Become the weakest. Do you want to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God? The cost is the path of suffering and death – rejection of human power, human glory and self. Do you want a seat at the table? There is a banquet ready for those who persevere to the end.

“You are those who have stood by me in my temptations and trials. I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (22:28-30).

We have cause and effect in this conferring of a kingdom. Because they have stood by Jesus in His temptations, however poorly, the disciples receive a kingdom, just as the Father conferred one on Him. That seems like more of a sentence than it does a reward, does it not? The portal through which they will enter this kingdom is the loneliness of suffering and death and the refusal to make the good things of life their purpose and their god. The thrones for which the disciples longed – perhaps Secretary of State, or Secretary of defense, or Prime Minister – could not be had through either government or religion.

The religious establishment was and is today nothing but an idolatrous addiction to middle-class respectability. In our world, it is a conceit that entered Christianity around the time of the Reformation and gave birth to a belief that God would reward His saints on earth with material goods. Christianity gradually became associated in the minds of believers with economic success. It you didn’t rock the boat and went along with the prevailing cultural and religious norms, you could have a comfortable and affluent life.

This self-congratulatory lust for respectability is a lethal form of idolatry and spiritual laziness that can lead us into a counterfeit Christianity without risk, character or moral imagination. To worship respectably means never to criticize the government, the military, other Christians or even the American Dream of power and money.

The problem is, however, that if the church is unwilling to witness against its own evils, it becomes an advocate for the demonic forces of nationalism, racism and materialism.

Politics is about getting power. Jesus’ message is about changing the nature of power – from hate to love; from death to life. That has been the struggle in my own life and that of many of you, I am sure. Power is power, no matter how incidental or vast it may be. By itself, power is something in which we all share as we make our way through the pecking order of this life. It is the pursuit of power, however, that corrupts us and derails us from pursuit of the Kingdom. That is why Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” We waste our time trying to be God’s instrument in our little fiefdoms. Seek the Kingdom, and our place will be made clear.

How I wish I had gotten that straight decades ago. Instead, like American evangelicals everywhere today, I had focused too much on the loopholes.

A story is told of W.C. Fields when he was dying. He was taken with reading the Bible. An old friend came by and said, “Bill, you don’t believe in God. Why are you reading the Bible?” In typical fashion, Fields said, “Looking for loopholes.”

The Bible can be a dangerous instrument of distortion in the hands of people who are looking for loopholes out of a life of suffering and service. The Bible can be used by people to justify their own prejudices by thinking they are proving that they are right because “God thinks that way, too.” The Bible can be a means of justifying grabbing and holding power. The Bible can be an excuse for not taking a fearless look at ourselves and making necessary adjustments in attitudes and behaviors.

A statement is attributed to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land.” In the hands of those Christians who prefer power and control now rather than the Kingdom of God and its rewards later, the Bible has become a divinely inspired book best suited to the spiritual needs of their neighbors or some third world country.

Jesus turned all that on its head. His teaching and His example showed us how absolutely impossible it is for a human being to achieve the ideal of loving, giving and trusting God. We fall on our faces every time. Jesus gives us a warning about attempts at judging or trying to improve others before you, yourself, are entirely loving, giving and trusting.

You want a seat at the table? Be so loving, giving and trusting that there is absolutely no time left to judge others.

The image of Anita Bryant on the cover of Newsweek magazine is burned into my memory. There she was, kneeling with her husband and children in prayer. Her campaign against homosexuals had the backing of most fundamentalist Christian organizations and celebrities. A few weeks after the cover shot, she announced her divorce. We never seem to learn, do we?

Dale Evans, Roy Rogers’ wife, was a popular Christian lecturer and author at that time and was asked what she thought about homosexuals. Expecting some kind of knee-jerk reaction, like “The Bible says it is an abomination, and it is unnatural,” she surprised everyone by saying, “I’m too busy loving everybody to have time to hate anybody.” The great Christian cover-up today is “hate the sin and love the sinner.” There are very few who can pull that off with any kind of integrity. It you could pull it off, the last thing you would want to do is proclaim it as an example of Christian faith and practice. Those who are so quick to spout that justification for self-righteousness would not know love it they tripped over it.

There is a bottom line to all this talk about the Kingdom of God. The bottom line is that Jesus was clearly in favor of separation of church and state:

1. “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

2. He left an organization of just 11 men under the leadership of the irascible Peter.

3. When He was offered absolute power on earth by the Devil, He turned it down.

4. When He was offered a kingdom on earth by the people, He turned it down. (John 6:15 – Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again into the hills by himself)

5. “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’”

6. Jesus threw over the money changers in the temple because He believed that the temple should be a “House of Prayer” and not be involved in collecting a temple tax from foreigners.

7. He paid His taxes as an obligation to Caesar and distinguished Caesar and God as two distinct and separate realms.

8. Jesus would be against prayer in public schools. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men…But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father…(Matt. 6:5,6).

9. Jesus prayed in public at His baptism, the Last Supper and on the cross.

10. Jesus would be against the oath, “So help me God.” “But I tell you, do not swear at all. Simply let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matt. 5:34, 37).

We come down to the conditions under which the Kingdom of God is conferred to the disciples and why.

Jesus experienced a declining number of followers over the three years of His ministry. There was a time when He was explaining the death that each of us must experience if we are to have eternal life. Jesus’ life must become our own. We are to be united in spirit with Him. In John 6, He explains this in grotesque terms: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink…From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Now, He was down to 11. The condition under which Jesus was to confer a kingdom to the 11 was that they had stood with Him in His temptation. What does that mean?

The temptations of Christ were many. He was despised and rejected, reproached and reviled and was ridiculed by sinners – sinners smug in their knowledge of the law. He spoke in parables and riddles that most could not understand. Through it all, the 11 disciples, guilty by association, stood with Him and suffered in silence when He refused to defend or explain Himself. They stood by even when they did not understand what He was saying. And they did so at the expense of their own livelihood.

Peter’s reply says it all: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Yes, they were weak and defective in their duties. They were slow witted and frustrating. Yet, the Master counts it all as nothing because they persevered without knowledge. They trusted when their own reputations were at risk. “You are those who have stood by me in my trials and temptations.”

The kingdom that Jesus conferred upon them is the same kingdom that He has conferred upon us, weak though we are and defective in faith though we may be. Perseverance to the end is the true test of citizenship in that kingdom. Conferment of a kingdom is the reward for standing by Christ when the whole world scoffs and dares Him to react. Conferment of a kingdom is the reward for standing by Christ when even His church denies His power and glory and tempts Him to return in our time rather than in the Father’s time.

Jesus confers a kingdom on His disciples in order to give them a seat at the banquet table set for a King and His subjects. But there is much more for these 11. Jesus has conferred on them a kingdom so that they may sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

According to His promise, they took their seats on those thrones on the day of Pentecost and are on those thrones to this day, judges of the twelve tribes of Israel, whose tent was enlarged to include the Gentiles – you and me. Notice that in the early church it was always the Apostles to whom matters of dispute were referred for decision. Notice, too, that we as believers search their writings in the New Testament to find what they have taught on doctrine. Their infallible words, written under the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, have settled theological questions down through Christian history.

The thrones are symbolic of their apostolic office. As they have no successors in that office, they will continue to judge to the end of time.

You will remember that Jesus said to Peter, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you find on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 16:19). The apostles, then, have plenary authority to judge the expanded spiritual Israel, to bind us to the spirit of life through Jesus Christ and to release the legalist from the bondage to the Law of Moses.

No greater judgment of the House of Israel has ever been pronounced than that spoken by Peter at Pentecost from his apostolic throne: “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Luke shares with us the effect of this judgment: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to their hearts and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brothers, what shall we do?”

First came the judgment; then came the conviction; finally came the solution: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord God will call.”

That day, what the apostles bound in Jerusalem was bound in heaven – around 3,000 Jews, to be precise. The judging did not stop there, however. Peter pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

Call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and save yourselves from this corrupt generation!

We have come full circle, haven’t we? There are professing Christians today who claim to have called on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins but who not only refuse to save themselves from this corrupt generation but who insist on embracing this corrupt generation in order to avoid the cost of following Christ. They and we stand judged by those who gave up their lives and their fortunes for a place at the table.

It ought to encourage us this morning that there has been a place at the table reserved for every one of us who, even in our worst moments, have continued to stand by Jesus in His temptations and trials.

This kingdom conferred on them and us calls us to a life of sacrifice and service to the exclusion of power and glory for ourselves. And yet, if we but seek that kingdom first, all these other things will be added to us.

Consider how radical such a life must be and count the cost.