The Kingdom of the Cross

 February 5 2023

Matthew 5:13-16

         When we come to the end of January and the first days of February most of us are pretty much tired of winter. We are tired of the cold and the snow, the driving wind and the gloomy grey skies. What keeps us going through all these days of such gloominess is that every day is just one more day closer to spring. There is even a website solely devoted to this countdown until spring, entitled simply, daysuntilspring.net. If you visit this site, you can see how many days are left until spring arrives down to the very last second. When I am writing this there are fifty-one days until the magical arrival of spring. Now those of us who have lived in Ohio long enough know that just because fifty-one days roll around this does not mean that the weather will instantly be warm and sunny. No, spring comes in gradually, giving us a few warm days to begin with just to keep our hopes alive but then throwing in a few snow storms to also keep us honest. This is just how spring comes, in little moments that continue to gather steam until at last by the end of May we can be relatively certain that winter is indeed over.

         Well, springtime is not the only thing which we are to anticipate because those of us who have prayed the Lord’s Prayer at one time or another, we also anticipate the coming of the kingdom of our Father. I mean, just what are we praying for when we pray, “Your kingdom come.”? Isn’t this much like saying that we just can’t wait for spring to come? Yet I am pretty sure that a lot more people long for spring to come than those who long for their heavenly Father’s kingdom to come. Perhaps the reason for this is that we know what to expect when spring gets here, warm days, sunny skies, blooming flowers and singing birds. But just what are we to expect when this kingdom of our Heavenly Father finally arrives? If we don’t know just what the world will look like when this kingdom is here in all its glory then it’s a no-brainer that we aren’t going to be very excited for it to at last arrive. Perhaps what gives us a clue as to what we will experience when this kingdom gets here is knowing that this petition of the Lord’s Prayer corresponds to the blessing that Jesus promises to us which states, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”. So it’s a pretty safe assumption that this coming kingdom is going to be a place or a time when peace prevails. Whether you and I long for peace to be prevalent like we long for the warmth of spring is something that we only know within our hearts but this is, I believe, what the Lord’s Prayer is expecting us to do.

         Now that we have this idea that the kingdom of our Father is a coming time of peace, we have to wonder just how is this going to come about? The whole assumption behind anticipating that something is going to happen is that it isn’t here yet. Yet it might be that, much like spring, this kingdom is beginning to break through in our world just like those warm days will begin to more and more become the norm. The vision which Matthew associates with this petition is a familiar passage. We have to imagine those followers of Jesus sitting there on the grass high up on a mountainside hearing Jesus directly addressing them, telling them that it was they who, “are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under peoples feet.” We have to wonder just what those early disciples thought when they heard Jesus call them a rather salty bunch. But Jesus was not finished because he went further and again he looked them in the eye and told them,”You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but instead they put that lamp on a stand and it gives light to the whole house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they can see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Upon hearing this those disciples of Jesus had to be scratching their heads at this rather odd description of who they were supposed to be. 

         To be honest, I believe that these sayings take some thinking to reveal their meaning. The first truth that ties the saying about the disciples being the salt of the world with the saying that the disciples are the light of the world is that in both instances something is brought in from the outside and it is brought into the situation in order to make a difference. The pot of stew simmering on the stove will remain rather flat and tasteless right up till some salt is added. The dark room where the legs of the chair and bed wait to wreak havoc on your toes, will remain dark right up until someone throws the light switch on. In both cases, the difference happens because of an intentional decision on someone’s part to change the situation, to make a savory stew or to make a well lit room. Those changes would not have happened on their own no matter how long one might wait.

         Another thought concerning these two scenarios is that when the salt was added and the light switch was thrown, a difference is expected. If you added salt to your stew and you tasted it afterwards and it was just as bland as before you had added the salt I can imagine you would be rather disappointed and confused. If you went and flicked the switch and no light flooded the room, I expect that you would go and try changing the bulb and if that didn’t work you would check out the breakers because when you turn on the light switch you expect a well lit room. Jesus also makes a good point in that when you turn the light on you most certainly would not take the lamp and hide it under the bed; that’s just rather nonsensical. No, when the room is dark you don’t want it to remain dark but instead you want it to be well lit. 

         Now that we have given what Jesus has said a little thought it is time to consider just what does it mean for us to be the salt of the earth? What are the implications for us if we are indeed as Jesus tells us, the very light of the world? Perhaps an earlier version of this saying will help us to figure out what Jesus expects of us. In Mark’s gospel, the ninth chapter, the fiftieth verse we hear Jesus tell us, “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”. Here again we see that peace is what is the focus of these words of Jesus. If peace is what Jesus is speaking about then what Jesus means by calling his disciples and us, the salt of the earth and the light of the world, then there must be a peaceful difference in the way we live. It is quite obvious that our world is a very violent place and, if we take to heart what Jesus is teaching us, then we must figure that it will remain a violent place until a difference is brought into our world from outside of it just as when we add salt to our stew or flick on the light switch. Left to its own devices our world will remain just as it is. This should make us question any notions we might have about our concepts of progress because stew does not progressively get saltier nor does a dark room get continually lighter without some outside intervention.

         Once we have figured out that what Jesus is speaking to us about is the making of peace, that it is us, his followers, who are to be those who bring peace into a violent world, then consider how sobering are the words of Jesus who tells us, “If salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”. Translated into its true meaning what Jesus is saying is that if we are not about the making of peace, if we do not bring peace into our world then we have lost our usefulness, the very purpose that God has for us. If we are not about making peace, if we are just as violent as the rest of the world then what is the point of following Jesus? You see, I say this is a sobering teaching of Jesus because I have witnessed those who have confessed to have placed their faith in Christ who were just as violent, maybe more so, than the people of the world. If we have met Jesus and know the peace he has made with us through the cross and we keep that peace hidden away and instead go about our life hurting and hating others, then we are hiding our light, our peace, under a cover. Jesus clearly states that we cannot be undercover followers of his, this is not fulfilling the purpose of why he has saved us in the first place.

         You see, when we understand just how critical it is that we be about the creation of peace then we had better listen up when Jesus explains just how it is that we are to let the light of our peace shine out into a world filled with the darkness of violence. Jesus teaches us that in order to be the light of the world we must allow our good works to be on display before the world so that we might give glory to our Father who is in heaven. Here again, some thought is required to figure out just what are these good works that we are to be doing, works which will bring glory to God. Perhaps it might be easier to begin with this giving glory to our Heavenly Father because, as we may recall, the reason why we were indebted to God and in need of the forgiveness of this debt is that we had not given God the gratitude and the glory that he rightly deserved. So, God has brought us from a place where we had not given him the glory that he deserved to at last being able to glorify our Heavenly Father as we were supposed to do all along. Yet even so, it is difficult to understand just what does it mean for us to glorify our Heavenly Father. We are helped in our search to know what it means to glorify our Heavenly Father by something Jesus said in his last prayer as found in the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John, the first verse where we hear Jesus cry out, “Father the hour has come, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”. And further in that same chapter, in the fourth verse, Jesus continues saying, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do.”.  So, Jesus through his life, demonstrated that the glorification of our Heavenly Father is a cross-shaped work. In other words, the good works that we are to do before a watching world, are the good works that are witnessed to us at the cross.

         One more thing must also be understood which is just what exactly is meant by this “good”, in those good works which Jesus states that we must be doing. I believe that when Jesus speaks of good works he is in essence speaking about God works. I say this because, if we think about it, God alone is good. This goodness of the works of God focuses on just what works we are to be doing, works that will bring glory to our Heavenly Father. They bring glory to him because they allow the world to witness, in us, the holy otherness of our Heavenly Father. Is it becoming clear why our witness must be cross shaped? Where else has the holy otherworldly goodness of God been made visible to us than there upon the cross in the life and death of Jesus? 

         These good works then are the God works that are made visible in our lives. As we have gone through the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer we have been made aware of just what are these works of God that are to be seen in us. The most obvious is that we are people who forgive the debts of others in the same manner as God has forgiven our debts that stood between us and our communion with God. So, the forgiveness of others is one of the good works of God that we need to be doing. The second work is the actions found in the petition, “Give us this day the adequate substance of bread.” This is a subtle way of stating that God is going to be bringing more and more people to our table as he brings them into newness of life through his Spirit. What is being asked for is that God would take the little we have and make it be enough for all who gather around the table of the righteous. So this work of God is drawing people by his love into a new life with him. This God work becomes our good work when we welcome all of those touched by the love of God to eat with us at the table of the righteous. And then there is the work of Christ which was the fulfillment of the will of the Father to unite all things in him both in heaven and on earth. Christ is our peace, the one who has united us all. As God in Christ has done this work we too join in this work by doing this will of God, seeking unity above all else. This means that we seek reconciliation not retaliation when dealing with others that we are angry with. This means that we enter into our relationships seriously seeking to maintain those relationships above everything else. This means that we must be people who have integrity, a unity between what we say and what we get done so that we reflect the very faithfulness of God.

         What is difficult for us to grasp is just how these works that God calls us to do can be thought of as being cross-shaped. Perhaps what would help us is to look at that One there upon the cross. Go ahead, use your imagination? Can you see him there upon the tree? With his one hand he is reaching out with the hand of forgiveness, seeking reconciliation not retribution against his enemies. Those who came against him he sought to make his friends, just as Paul points out to us in the fifth chapter of Romans, the tenth verse, where he says that, “…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”. Then with his other hand he reaches out to draw near those who were far from God just as he promised he would do, as found in the twelfth chapter of John, the thirty-second verse, “…when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” And these two arms extend forth from the body of Christ, the one who allowed himself to be broken so that, “…he might create in himself one new man…making peace, reconciling us to God in one body through the cross…”, as we hear in the second chapter of Ephesians. This he did because he had prayed to our Heavenly Father, “Yet not my will but yours be done.” Here at the cross the world witnessed the works of God in the good works of Jesus. Here upon the cross, our Heavenly Father was most certainly glorified. Here at the cross the world saw One who through his actions refuted violence and instead, created peace. As Jesus was questioned by Pontus Pilate, just before he carried his cross to Calvary, Jesus answered him saying, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting so that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this world.” Here Jesus is saying that his kingdom is not of this world because his is a kingdom that does not do the works of violence. No, his kingdom is a kingdom of peace, a kingdom from outside of our world that must be brought into our world from the realm of heaven. This is what we witness when we see Jesus upon the cross, a peace that comes through reaching out to enemies working to transform them into friends through a lavish display of grace. Jesus, taking upon himself our judgment and in exchange giving us mercy, drawing the world to his bleeding side through his love. In Jesus,  we witnessed how God did not despise being wounded in order to remain faithful to his bride, his own people, who had betrayed him with their unfaithfulness.

         Are we beginning to understand, just a little, how it is that the kingdom of our Heavenly Father comes into our world? This kingdom of peace comes into our world when we mirror the good works of God, those works which he has done for us. The kingdom comes when we forgive the debts of those who are indebted to us, and we do so with lavish grace. The kingdom comes when we welcome others as Jesus first welcomed us to come and sit and eat at the table of the righteous. The kingdom comes when we do the will of God seeking unity at all cost even if that cost means that we are persecuted for righteousness sake. We should gladly suffer for the sake of peace because it is worth it, after all, Christ found us worthy to do whatever it took to be at peace with us. So, may we be those through whom God makes his kingdom come and may our Heavenly Father be glorified, now and forever. Amen!