This
then leads to the postulate that Jesus’ presence literally reverses the effects
of the Fall. Through Jesus the current social disorder is turned on its head
and therefore morphs into social order in a manner similar to what could’ve
been expected had the fall of humanity never occurred. In the eschatological
long-view, this is also the way it will be in the end when the Kingdom arrives
in full or end times eschatology is fully realized. So as Jesus Christ does, so
too should his believers do likewise. Not because the believer will be the one
to commence or to usher in the Kingdom but rather through the believer(s),
changes initiated by Jesus Christ on the Cross can begin to take affect through
the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer (Kuzmic 18). This teaching of the
equalizing of the social order is even found in Jesus’ verbal teachings which
we will learn of later.
To
understand the profound love of God and His willingness to reach the lost we
must comprehend and appreciate is the ministry of Jesus early on and where
Jesus comes from in terms of the onset of His ministry. He came from Galilee
which is pretty much a backwater of little significance even in Israel let
alone the Roman Empire (Batey 4). He is the son of a carpenter (Joseph) who is
of the lower social class in terms of economic status. It is stated by Jesus
himself concerning his social status and lack of earthly prosperity that…
Luke 9:58 ~ “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air
have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus’
ministry is primarily to the downtrodden and the forgotten of society (Batey
2). Jesus literally lives out the ministry that He teaches. As Paul later says,
He became the weak for the weak to save as many as possible.
1 Corinthians 9:22 ~
“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all
people so that by all possible means I might save some.”
We
can see from his ministry that he has a heart of God because He is God. Even a precursory glance at
the Gospels or a perusal of the New Testament show Jesus and his ministry were
largely directed to the social and economic periphery: the sick, the crippled,
the poor, the prostitutes and those that were ostracized in society like tax
collectors. He primarily (but not exclusively) reached these people by becoming
like these people. He was God but He
humbled Himself taking on the form (μορφὴν) of not only
a man but He took in (“ἐν”, Greek) the heart or likeness of a servant (Philippians
2:7-8) (Nestle et al 518-519)
Misplace Loyalties and Greed
Other
things we should note in Jesus’ ministry is a call for deeds reflecting genuine
justice and mercy (heart change) such as the ones in Matthew 23:23:
“Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have
neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.
These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
We
see something similar in Luke 11:42-43
“Woe to you Pharisees,
because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden
herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced
the latter without leaving the former undone. “Woe to you Pharisees, because
you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in
the marketplaces.”
It
is in these types of passages that we see Jesus being exceptionally hard on
those that were religious but had a callousness of heart towards the poor and
did things without love (Batey 17). He literally condemned piety that was
without concern. A religiosity without mercy or grace was antithetical to what
Jesus was teaching and living out in His ministry. This attitude was clearly
not in the Spirit of Christ nor Kingdom mentality.
James 2:13 ~ “…because
judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy
triumphs over judgment."
Jesus
was making it clear that to be in the Kingdom with Him was to not only have
faith in the sovereignty of a compassionate God but to also be a reflection his
sovereignty as compassionate vessels of His will within the very unjust social
order they were to stand in contrast to. It is the axiomatic “faith without
works is dead” from James 2 (Batey 18). The idea of believers as a vessel of
God’s will is of course is mentioned by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:7:
“But we have this
treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and
not from us…”
On
the other hand, cold-hearted procuring of possessions and wealth while others
suffer and misery abounded was evil (not to mention a lack of spiritual fruit)
because is disregarded kind-heartedness and benevolence which should’ve been
and obvious by-product of a Christian. Jesus taught just the opposite in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus specifically
told people to seek the Kingdom of God first and everything else you needed
would be given to you for doing so (Matthew 6:33). So by callously accumulating
wealth not only would people be driven by evil in their greed, they would be
unfaithful in their practices too, by failing to trust God to do what He
promised to a believer for the obedience of seeking the Kingdom (Batey 17). We
need only look at Judas Iscariot to see the antithesis of Kingdom or Christian
values in terms of misdirected intentions. He sold the Son of God into the
hands of the authorities for 30 pieces of silver.
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