Heirs of the Kingdom
Beloved People of God,
Hearing God speak through space and time and revelation, we are confronted with what we might call “universal reversals.” From the beginning, we’ve shown an uncanny skill at getting things twisted, bent and flipped upside down! Our ability to unlearn what God has taught us is universal. We’re in constant need of being turned back around. Throughout the Bible, we see our universal ability to get ourselves the wrong way up. Surely God made Himself clear in the Torah, and yet we see the Prophets having to repeat His refrain.
Hearing Jesus remind us of our blessedness is exhilarating, but how closely are we listening? He tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” but most of the time we only catch the first and last words. We like blessings. We long for heaven, but we miss Christ’s context, and our universal reversal has us spinning out again (Matthew 5.3).
Jesus made His Messianic call clear when He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4.18). Yet not long after His ascension and His Spirit empowered His people, things started to get twisted. They started out strong (Acts 2.42-47), but then pride got the better of the rich (5.1-11) and tribal partiality began to elevate some over others (6.1-7).
Our habit of universal reversals has us exchanging joy for doubt, God’s wisdom for double-mindedness, and the Lord’s grace for human grift. James witnessed this warping firsthand in the Jerusalem church, when what began as a good, practical ministry—caring for widows—devolved into a twisted partiality. The Judean widows (those who’d always lived locally) were being cared for, while the needs of the diaspora widows (those who had lived most of their lives scattered across the Mediterranean) were being neglected. And within a generation, James finds himself having to repeat the process again. The Christians scattered from Jerusalem (Acts 8.1) were already forgetting what they’d learned. James urges them once more to get off the merry-go-round of universal reversal, remembering that God chooses "those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom” (James 2.5b).
Today, how is God calling you to turn back to His way?
For Christ the King,
Brett