Following Rabbi Jesus: The Christian’s Forgotten Calling

Following Rabbi Jesus

The Christian’s Forgotten Calling

Phil Needham

Foreword by David P. Gushee

Following Rabbi Jesus

The Christian’s Forgotten Calling

Copyright ©

2018

Phil Needham. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-3607-3

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Manufactured in the U.S.A.

January 29, 2018

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright

2011

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Preface

Overview and Approach for the Reader

Section One: Jesus on Becoming

A New Place to Stand

Chapter 1: Holy Ground

Chapter 2: Fullness of Grace

Chapter 3: Purity of Heart

Chapter 4: The Heart of the Law

Chapter 5: A Different Way to See

Chapter 6: A New Self-Understanding

Chapter 7: Vulnerability

A New Way to Live

Chapter 8: Be Willing to Change

Chapter 9: Embrace Life Fully

Chapter 10: Invest Wisely

Chapter 11: Live Simply

Chapter 12: Forget Greatness

Chapter 13: See Truth, Judge Humbly

Chapter 14: Practice Solitude

Chapter 15: End Well

Section Two: Jesus on Loving

Our Beloveds

Chapter 16: God

Chapter 17: Our Neighbors

Chapter 18: All Manner of Outsiders

Chapter 19: The Shut-Outs

Chapter 20: The Privileged

Chapter 21: Our Enemies

Chapter 22: The World

Chapter 23: Our Families

Chapter 24: Ourselves

The Art of Loving

Chapter 25: Loving Extravagantly

Chapter 26: Loving Intimately

Chapter 27: Loving Un-possessively

Chapter 28: Loving on Ground Level

Chapter 29: Loving with Forgiveness

Chapter 30: Loving with Mercy

Chapter 31: Loving Compassionately

Chapter 32: Loving Courageously

Chapter 33: Loving Confrontationally

Chapter 34: Loving Prayerfully

Section Three: Jesus on Witnessing

The Cultivation of a Life

Chapter 35: Intimacy with Jesus

Chapter 36: Feasting and Fasting

Chapter 37: Trust

Chapter 38: Obedience

Chapter 39: Humility

Chapter 40: Spiritual Power

Chapter 41: Confidence

Chapter 42: Willingness to Fail

Chapter 43: Self-Denial

Chapter 44: Keeping Focus

Chapter 45: Traveling Light

Chapter 46: A Faith Private and Public

The Influence of a Life

Chapter 47: Living

Chapter 48: Belonging

Chapter 49: Telling

Chapter 50: Doing Good

Chapter 51: Miracles

Chapter 52: Empowering Others

Chapter 53: Innocence and Shrewdness

Chapter 54: Working for Justice, Living at Peace

Chapter 55: Living Outside the Circle

Chapter 56: Inverting the Order

Chapter 57: Taking Holy Risks

Chapter 58: Living in the Patience of God

Appendix: The Importance of the Jesus of the Gospels

This book is dedicated to a host of people who have turned my heart and mind to Jesus. Altogether they have done this by loving him, resembling him, following him, obeying him, teaching him, and living him. Because of them I have been compelled to return again and again to the New Testament Gospels to study this Rabbi, the true Founder of the Christian faith, God-in-the-flesh teaching us how to live in this radical kingdom of God he announced, showing us the ropes, surrendering his life to empower us for it, and overcoming death forever to seal it. I dedicate this book to all my Jesus influencers—my parents who were my first Jesus informers, all my family and friends who have loved me by both accepting me and calling me to account, my teachers and mentors who have in their own individual ways helped to mold my heart and life, and above all my wife Keitha, who has given me space to complete this book and grace to bless my life again and again.

Did Christ aim too high? Was he too idealistic? Was his faith in the possibility of the kingdom of God on earth a fanciful dream? Or have people been too slow to believe? Has our lack of faith caused us to be earth bound and prevented us from mounting up with wings as eagles? Have we been unwilling to submit ourselves to the kingdom discipline and consequently failed to receive the kingdom power?

Clarence Jordan, Sermon on the Mount

Foreword

Christianity is about Jesus Christ, but for many centuries Christians have had a remarkable ability to show only passing familiarity with their Lord’s actual ministry and teachings.

It is not too much to call this a pattern, a pattern of evasion. We have evaded Jesus’ teachings and ignored his example while fixating on personal salvation and theological disputes. This pattern of evasion has badly misdirected Christianity, malformed Christians, and harmed our witness in the world.

In Following Rabbi Jesus, Phil Needham takes his readers on a visit to go see Jesus. In a series of thoughtful and unhurried brief essays, Needham brings us into contact with every important aspect and implication of the actual ministry and teaching of Rabbi Jesus.

In Section I, we encounter Jesus on Becoming. Here we sit at Jesus’ feet learning about what it means to be truly human and what kind of character leads to true flourishing. In Section II, Jesus on Loving, we are reminded that Jesus established love of God and neighbor as the heart of true religion. This section is especially valuable in offering much concrete content about what that elusive word love really meant for Jesus. Finally, in Section III, we engage Jesus on Witnessing, which focuses on witness through a certain kind of lifestyle in the world, and then through a certain set of practices in relation to self, others, and God.

Most of Christianity’s historic renewal movements have involved a return to the life and teachings of Jesus. Though Christians are always tempted to stray into cold dogmatism, or worse, the Gospels remain ever ready to teach us about what Jesus himself actually said and did, how he carried himself, treated people, and served God.

Following Rabbi Jesus has the potential to contribute to much-needed Christian renewal in our time. Awash in Gospel texts, always accurate and fair-minded, Following Rabbi Jesus takes us by the hand and moves us into the presence of the God-Man who transformed the world and who calls to us today. Suitable for private, church, or academic use, this book is an essential guide to Christian discipleship.

Rev. Dr. David P. Gushee

Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University

President, Society of Christian Ethics

Pastor, First Baptist Church, Decatur, Georgia

Preface

A few years ago I decided to study Jesus more closely. I am a believer in Jesus. I believe him to be the Son of God in human flesh, the Christ and Savior of the world. I wanted, however, to learn more about Jesus the Palestinian Jew who lived 2,000 years ago and set out at around age thirty to gather disciples and announce the presence of a new reality he called the kingdom of God. Jesus invited people to enter this kingdom, and he made it clear that doing so required a departure from their current lifestyle and the adoption of a radically different way of life. There were other religious teachers around at the time, instructing their students in the their particular take on Jewish practice. None of them taught and modeled what they taught in exactly the way Jesus did. What Jesus claimed was shocking, and the strange way he lived was stunning. Most people didn’t know what to make of him, nor could they finally bring themselves to follow him at the time.

I have a suspicion that today even many who identify themselves as Christians are not interested in coming to terms with the extraordinary teachings of this down-to-earth Jesus, much less actually live by them. Many of us prefer to have discussions about faith than to practice a living faith. As long as we keep talking about our gospel beliefs, we won’t have to pay attention to our gospel living. And the living is what the Jesus of the Gospels seems most interested in. I suspect many Christians have consciously or unconsciously avoided Jesus himself, and in doing so have chosen to become Christians who don’t follow their Leader very well. It’s not surprising; following him goes against the grain of the world of our day, as it did against the world of his day.

Is it easier to follow Jesus today? Certainly not. The way of life he taught is still countercultural, still demanding, still almost impossible. To make him more acceptable, his profile has been softened and his teaching diluted. He has been reconstructed as a God more conveniently handled and more suitable to our tastes. The strong Jesus of dusty Palestine has been overshadowed by the polished Christ of our creeds. The Rabbi Jesus by the Christ of abstract doctrine. The radical ethics of Jesus by the cheap grace of a ritual God.

There is deafening dissonance between this compromised Christian culture and Jesus’ radically different way of living. This is why I set out to ‘learn’ Jesus better and to discover what being his follower really means.

I knew the place I had to begin was the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I decided to read, re-read, and continue to read them. I tried to read with an open mind rather than preset opinions. I paid attention to context and content. I was surprised to see many things I had never really noticed or taken seriously before.

The Gospels are the primary source for and witness to the story of Jesus. Phyllis Tickle makes an interesting comparison of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles to the Torah (the first five books) of the Old Testament. She notes that for Jews the Torah is foundational for the entire Old Testament. Without the Torah the rest of it has no legitimacy and makes no sense. Tickle suggests that the first five books of the New Testament are similarly foundational for the entire Testament. Without them, the rest has no basis. They are the Christian’s ‘Torah,’ and to study the rest of the New Testament—and the Christian faith, for that matter—without beginning there and reading other passages in relation to them is to miss the whole New Testament witness (Phyllis Tickle, The Words of Jesus, 51–54).

The Gospels are four voices, each one adding uniquely to the rich fabric we call the gospel of Jesus and its transformative effect on people. Each of the four Gospels presents different facets, different insights into Jesus. Each facet offers new details, new insight, new mystery, all of them together comprising a whole gospel. Long before beginning this search I had read and studied the Gospels, and done so to my benefit. This time, however, I have tried to look more carefully at Jesus—how he interacted with people, what he said and did, what was important to him, what his priorities were, what his mission was and how he carried it out, and what he expected of those who took the risk of following him. My goal was, and continues to be, to grasp better how I can be his disciple, his imitator.

When I say this I am not ignoring the importance of Jesus as the incarnate (literally, ‘enfleshed’) presence of God. I am not buying into the so-called Enlightenment view of Jesus as a great moral teacher worth emulating, but not the very embodied presence of God in human form, as the apostle Paul claims in Philippians 2:7. I am affirming what the New Testament and the classic Christian creeds claim: that Jesus was as fully human as any of us—and I would add, more human, more truly human, than any of us.

This book is a product of my search, a search which continues for me, as I will never be finished in this life with learning Jesus. It is written as an invitation to other professing Christians and other seekers to look honestly and carefully at the Gospels and ask some hard questions about what their findings mean for them personally. Questions such as: Are there crucial aspects of following Jesus I have skimmed over, or intentionally avoided, or never really known? What is Jesus really calling us to be and do? You will most likely be surprised to discover a Jesus that defies many of the stereotypes of the church and the culture that shape our views and our actions.

In order to discover what following Jesus (being a disciple of Jesus) looks like, we must begin with the man himself, not doctrinal concepts about him. We must look at the story of Jesus, see how he lived, ask why he lived—and discover how he is inviting us to live. What we know about the man Jesus is basically that he gathered a band of disciples around him, taught a new way of life he called the kingdom of God, modeled that way of life before his world, and accepted the consequences. Importantly, he expected his disciples not only to learn this new way of life but also to live it! In other words, Jesus was a rabbi.

There are many names and titles Christians use to refer to Jesus: Christ (Messiah), Lord, King, Savior, Son of God, Good Shepherd, to name only a few. These are scripturally based, apt, and important. When Jesus first emerged to pursue the life that defined his calling and mission, however, he was called Rabbi (literally, our Master or our Teacher). The rabbis of Jesus’ day were mostly learned laymen with no official appointment who acquired students and taught them how to live righteously. The students or disciples were to carry on the teaching of their rabbi and live as he taught and modeled for them to live. In the case of Jesus and his followers, the term ‘disciples’ was most often used in the New Testament to designate all of Jesus’ committed disciples, not just the inner circle of twelve. In our day the term should have the same reference. All followers of Jesus are called to imitate his way of life.

Gregory the Great (ca. 540–604) described Jesus’ mission as our Rabbi in these words: He [has] come in the flesh to the end that he might not only redeem us by his passion [suffering] but also teach us by his conversation, offering himself as an example to his followers (The Book of Pastoral Rule). In other words, as our Rabbi, Jesus is both our teacher and our model or example. Jesus did what rabbis of that day did: he taught and showed his disciples how to live righteously before God and in their communities.

If someone wants to be a disciple of Jesus—which is what being a Christian means, if it means anything!—he must see Jesus as his Rabbi, or he will fail to get the whole point. To call Jesus our Savior, Redeemer, Lord, Incarnate Son of God means little if we are not living the actual life he makes available to us, the way of life he taught his disciples and modeled for them. He called it life in the kingdom of God. He devoted his life to showing us how to live in this kingdom, this new reality, and he laid down his life to empower us to do so.

The great tragedy of settled Christianity is that it largely gambles on the efficacy of Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, while it conveniently ignores the very life his death and resurrection make possible. It is absolutely right for Christians to sing, Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling; it is sadly off the mark to return from the cross disempowered by a mistaken conviction that God has not really begun, or intended to begin, a new and good work in us (Phil 1:6).

This book is written with the conviction that Jesus came to bring us life in all its God-given fullness (Eph 3:19), to invite us into a new reality called the kingdom of God where we come to know that fullness (John 10:10b). It is an invitation for us to meet and embrace Jesus as our Rabbi, to become intimately acquainted with him, and to learn and practice the very different way of living to which he calls those who decide to follow him. It is the same invitation that Jesus extended almost 2,000 years ago to everyone who saw and heard him.

Extended to everyone. You and me, and everyone else. The good news is this: Jesus’ call to be his disciples is the most appallingly open invitation on the planet. There’s a reason why the New Testament records go out of their way to spotlight Jesus welcoming the most sinful, or low-class, or marginalized, or self-righteous people into his kingdom. There’s a reason why around his banquet table are seated somebodies who are willing to confess they are nobodies, and nobodies who now know they are somebodies. They are all qualified to be there by saving grace, ready now to start acting like they belong there, acting like sons and daughters of God, acting like disciples of Jesus.

This is a book for anyone who is seeking to follow Jesus, or who wants to follow Jesus, or who is curious about what that all means. It is not for those who think they have already attained spiritual perfection—that is to say, those who have excluded themselves from the real journey of growth in discipleship. My intention has not been to write a book of New Testament scholarship, although I have not hesitated to consult New Testament scholars when I needed their insight. Rather I have sought to make this more a devotional study. One cannot fully engage the Jesus of the Gospels without worshiping. The work of the Gospel writers is not a collection of cold facts to be analyzed; it is a witness to the story of salvation, a story to be received, entered, and prayed over. This book seeks to open as many doors as possible for entrance into the life of Jesus and living in his kingdom of God.

The four Gospels will help us understand what it means to follow Jesus. Only occasionally will we look at passages from other books of the New Testament. Our concern is not the history of the early church, or doctrines about Christ (Christology), as important as these are to Christian faith. Our concern is to study Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish rabbi who came on the scene in early first-century Palestine and shocked his listeners and students with the announcement of a kingdom that turned on its head many of the current expectations. Today his words continue to startle us, his life to challenge us, and his calling to beckon us.

(Note: The appendix at the end of this book seeks to build a more extended case for the relevance and importance of studying the Jesus of the Gospels. Readers who are interested in exploring the matter further before beginning the study that follows, may want to take the time to read the appendix now.)

Overview and Approach for the Reader

Our study of Jesus will look at many aspects of his life and teaching. We have organized them under three main sections.

The first section will bring together Jesus’ message about who he is inviting us to become. Quite simply, he is inviting us to become who God created us to become: fully and truly human. Contrary to some popular opinions, sin is not an expression of our humanity; it is a violation of our humanity. And holiness is not an achievement by which we transcend our humanity; it is the realization of our humanity. Jesus invites us to become holy by becoming human. This is the calling of every disciple.

The second section will bring together Jesus’ message about who and how he is inviting us to love. Here we meet the radical center of Jesus’ life and mission. It is radical because of how broadly he defines our beloveds and how he calls us to love in such uncommon ways. We will see how Jesus’ way of loving is the heart of our humanity, the most genuine expression of human holiness, and the most all-encompassing requirement of our discipleship. All disciples come under Jesus’ command to love God and neighbor.

The third section will bring together what Jesus teaches us about our witness in the world. We will consider what he says and models about keeping fit spiritually and being prepared wisely for the mission to which he calls us. And we will explore the rich opportunities and ways he gives us to advance his liberating kingdom in the personal and public spaces of our lives. All Jesus’ disciples are called to the Great Commission.

The relevant passages and verses from the Gospels (along with a small number of biblical citations outside the Gospels) are referenced throughout the text. The reader is invited and encouraged to consult them. This book will be helpful if it is read alongside an open Bible. Indeed, the whole point of the book is to help readers take the life, teaching, and example of Jesus seriously. This cannot be done without engaging the Gospel texts directly. Otherwise, the reader is only taking my word for it, and I, like everyone else can only see imperfect reflections in a mirror and know only partially (I Corinthians 13:12). On the other hand, the reader may be interested in catching the flow and direction of the studies by first reading through a chapter of the book without the constant interruption of checking out references. If this is the case, please be sure to go back and then engage the referenced texts, or any other texts that come to mind as relevant to the matter being discussed. What is important is that you, the reader, engage the Gospels—and through them—Jesus our Rabbi, our Teacher.

As a resource for helping the reader to engage each or any of the subjects of the book on a more personal level, a companion Guide for Reflection and Response is available. It can be used for both personal meditation and prayer, and as a stimulus for group discussion and reflection.

Section One

Jesus on Becoming

Finding Holiness in Our Humanity

The study we are pursuing is the study of a man named Jesus. This man, a Jew, was born in a small town in Judea called Bethlehem and grew up in another small town in Galilee called Nazareth. Following in the footsteps of his father Joseph, he became a carpenter. He attended the local synagogue and learned both the sacred Scriptures of the Jews and the teachings of the rabbis.

And then, at around the age of thirty, everything changed. The carpenter left his trade and his home town to become an itinerate preacher and teacher. Following the pattern of Jewish rabbis he gathered disciples, twelve of them, who stayed with him so that he could teach them—and change them. This band of thirteen, at times supplemented by other followers, traveled in Judea, Galilee, Samaria, with a few brief forays into more outlying areas, and finally back to Judea, to the city of Jerusalem, where the carpenter-become-rabbi was killed, leaving it to the band of twelve and others who had become his disciples to carry on his work.

This is the man we are studying. The Christian faith says he was also fully God. But this was a conviction his followers came to gradually, and Jesus was slow to admit it, one of the reasons certainly being it would have exposed him to the charge of blasphemy and precipitated his death before he had concluded his mission. I imagine he also wanted his followers to come to this confession on their own rather than because he forced it on them.

It is extremely important to Christian faith, however, that Jesus was fully human. Saying this takes us beyond simply saying he was a human being and specifically a man. All of us, from time to time—some more frequently than others—exhibit traits and behaviors that show us to be men or women, but not humanity at its best, not fully human. The witness of Scripture is that the human race was created in the divine image (Genesis 1:27), in the very image of God himself. Scripture also tells the story of a human race that has managed to defy this God-given nature. Human beings decided, and still decide, not to be fully human. Christian faith calls such decisions sin. Created as human beings, we are free to be less than fully human, and we often are.

Then Jesus appears on the scene, a person who fully embodies what it means to be fully human. He becomes the teacher and model of it to those who follow him. He invites and empowers them to be like him, to imitate him, to begin to become fully human.

Whatever else we say about Jesus—and there is much more to say—it is crucial that we see and affirm him as the embodiment of full humanity. God the Father has placed him before us so that we can begin to discover who we are and what our lives are about.

This movement toward our true humanity is what many Christians call the pursuit of holiness. A holy life is not a life for a select few who are spiritually superior to the rest of us. If human is what we are, what God created us to be, then for any of us to be holy is for us to be fully human, or moving in that direction toward Jesus our model. Jesus invites us to become like him. This is our calling as his disciples: to follow him and, in doing so, to discover where the human meets the holy, to realize that holiness is full humanity, and from there to come to know our true selves. This is the new place where Jesus invites us to stand and the new way he invites us to travel, on the way to becoming who we are meant to be.

A New Place to Stand

Chapter 1

Holy Ground

Moses is alone at the edge of a desert—rather, he thinks he is alone. He comes to a mountain called Horeb. In front of him he sees a bush in flames that keeps burning without being consumed. He hears a voice calling his name and telling him to remove his sandals. The ground is now holy with God’s presence. Moses soon hears what God has in mind. It has to do with a mission that will change his life—for the rest of his life. God has made a desert place Moses’ holy ground, a life-transforming, holy ground (Exod

3

:

1

–

12

). Joshua has a similar encounter on a Jericho road, where the commander of the Lord’s heavenly force meets him, and Joshua not only removes his sandals but also falls prostrate. He is on holy ground, and his life is changed forever (Josh

5

:

13

–

15

). As is the life of Isaiah, worshiping in the temple when the worship suddenly becomes an overwhelming vision of God’s holiness and a prophetic call that redefined and redirected Isaiah’s future (Isa

6

:

1

–

8

). A desert place, a road, a temple sanctuary—all become holy ground, a place of beginnings, calling, transformation.

For Paul of Tarsus the holy ground is found on a trip to Damascus where a bright light blinds him and he hears the voice of Jesus (Acts

9

:

1

–

20

). After his sight is restored, he tries to understand this holy ground, this new place where he now stands. He eventually finds the perfect name for it: grace (Rom

5

:

2

).

Jesus at twelve stands in the Jerusalem temple teaching elders, baffling them with hints of a new way, perhaps a kingdom of God emerging (Luke

2

:

41

–

48

). At thirty he stands in his hometown synagogue and announces that this new kingdom of God, foretold by the prophet Isaiah, is now fully present, being fulfilled before their very eyes. Its location, however, is quite different from where they expected it to be, its primary beneficiaries not whom they assumed. (Luke

4

:

16

–

21

). Three years later he stands in the court of state government, and when Pilate tries to get him to identify his kingdom, Jesus describes a very strange kingdom not of this world. He is standing at the center of government power, powerless before Pilate, yet sure that behind his weakness is the power that can save the world (John

18

:

33

–

36

).

Wherever Jesus stands is holy ground. His presence confers holiness. His words and actions define it. His life is an invitation to join him on the holy ground of wherever we are. His name for this everywhere-place is the kingdom of God, and it’s here and there; it can be anywhere. Anywhere can be a place of new beginnings. Anywhere can be holy ground, any moment can be holy time. Jesus says to his disciples, Look, I myself will be with you every day . . . (Matt 28:20).

How do we locate this everywhere kingdom? Jesus says it’s here among us (Luke 17:21), hidden like yeast in a loaf (Matt 13:33) or treasure buried in a field (13:44). Sometimes, however, it makes itself known through such miraculous events as healings (Luke 10:9). It may be as difficult as a tiny seed to see, but the kingdom will reach maturity, just as the seed sprouts and grows into a mature plant or tree (Mark 4:30–32).

Jesus says the kingdom of God is valuable far above what any other kingdom or allegiance is worth, like the hidden treasure discovered in the field worth so much the finder sells everything he has to buy the field and claim the prize, or like the pearl of greatest price discovered by a merchant who does the same with his possessions to be able to buy the precious jewel (Matt 13:44–46). The price paid, however, is not what qualifies us to enter the kingdom; it is only the first step in making us suitable. We can’t enter with the baggage of our idolatries; we must give away our presumptions. The apostle Paul has a graphic way of putting it: Flesh and blood can’t inherit the kingdom of heaven. Something that rots can’t inherit something that doesn’t decay (I Cor 15:50). It is the Father himself who qualifies us (Col 1:12–14), and it is through Jesus that we gain entrance (John 14:6). Our job is to seek the kingdom above all else (Luke 12:22–31) and to be ready when the kingdom breaks through (Matt 25:1–13).

The kingdom of God turns the kingdoms of this world on their heads. It sabotages all power-based kingdoms as it is grounded in the grace of God now appearing (John 1:14; Titus 2:11), the love of God now given (John 3:16), and the salvation of God now available to all (John 1:12–13). It is enough to make a person dizzy as it calls him to reassess and reorient his whole life. Jesus confuses a lot of people because he disassembles the systems of our social, religious, and economic order by teaching a kingdom both disarmingly simple and radically counter-cultural. He disorients us because we have come to accept that society, religion, and the economy must operate by self-interest, exploitation, and exclusion; and he offers us instead a kingdom of compassion, justice, and inclusion.

The inclusion of everyone is one of the shocking claims about the kingdom (Matt 24:13; Luke 13:29). If anyone is in an advantageous position for getting in, it’s the poor (Luke 6:20). Why the poor? Maybe because they have so little to hold on to or surrender. Or because they have fewer illusions about themselves, less to prevent them. Or perhaps God has a very special place in his heart for those treated as insignificant or lesser. The Letter of James underlines the strong position of the poor even further: Hasn’t God chosen those who are poor by worldly standards to be rich in terms of faith? Hasn’t God chosen the poor as heirs of the kingdom he has promised to those who love him? (James 2:5).

This brings us to another shocking thing about the kingdom: looking at it from our point of view, it is counter-intuitive(Love your enemies [Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27]); counter-cultural (God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children [Mark 10:14; Matt 19:14; Luke 18:16]); and upside-down (Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant. Whoever wants to be first among you will be the slave of all [Mark 10:43–44; Matt 20:26–27]). It’s not hard to see why Jesus’ announcement of such a kingdom upset the power structures—and still does when not sugar-coated or idealized.

What does Jesus say about how life is lived in this radical kingdom? He speaks of living in the kingdom as a farmer putting his hand to the plow and not looking back (Luke 9:62). Living in the kingdom requires a focused commitment that allows no dabbling. The focus is obviously on Jesus, but how can we locate him? Not surprisingly, given what we have pointed out so far, in the parable of the sheep and the goats (or the judgment of the nations) the message is quite clear. We find him in the least of these: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner—in other words, the vulnerable and marginalized. Importantly, Jesus says that in some decisive way we meet him in them, and that relationship ushers us into eternal life (Matt 25:31–46).

To what extent does this radical kingdom ushered in by Jesus inform and guide the mission of the church today? Unfortunately, we have learned to be realistic and accommodate our Christianity, to lesser and greater extents, to the present world order. Often we are confused about where we draw the line of accommodation. When we read the Gospels and hear what Jesus actually teaches and how he calls us to live, we find ourselves in one dilemma after another. How can we take this kingdom seriously when it goes up against both the present world order within which we must live and the personal compromises we consequently deem to be necessary?

Many Christians have taken one of two very different approaches to the extreme behaviors and radical ethics of the kingdom of God taught by Jesus in the Gospels. The first approach is simply to consign them for life in the hereafter on the assumption they are wonderful but impossible ideals by which to live in the present fallen world. At best, this approach is driven by fear of attempting a perfectionism that hides the truth and inevitably fails. At worst, it reveals a willing laxity of the spirit, a failure to take the teaching of Jesus seriously.

The second approach is indeed to pursue the very perfectionism rejected by the first approach. It is taken by the legalistic Christian who does claim to take all the teachings of Jesus seriously and to be living by them. He is extremely attentive to his behavior, careful not to appear to be un-Christ-like in any way. He is therefore embarrassed or even defeated when someone finds a chink in his armor of righteousness.

A third approach has also been taken. Some agree that the radical lifestyle of the kingdom of God was intended by Jesus for his disciples in this present world. They also, however, approach it in humility, confessing their personal inadequacy, their reliance on the grace of God, and their openness to admitting their failures and learning from them. As far as I can tell, this is the approach to the kingdom of God Jesus invites us to take. He would certainly not preach a righteousness at which he knows his disciples are destined to fail, and yet he never sees their failures as disqualifications for his kingdom or for continuing the journey with their Rabbi-Lord. The apostle Peter fails his Lord time and again, but he is not banned from the kingdom each time. He receives the grace of forgiveness and the empowerment of another chance. The kingdom is always within our grasp, says Jesus. The problem is, we don’t always see it, or risk the grasping of it. The kingdom of God is a place where we stand in persistent faith, even with all our stumbles along the way.

We stand on kingdom-of-God holy ground. As believers in Jesus we’re in a new place, a new place not just co-existing with the old place, but a new place intending to insinuate itself into the old and take it over, kick it out, make it irrelevant (Revelation 11:15). The kingdom of God is among us, around us, within us, and to ignore it is to deny the reality that stares at us in the face of Jesus. The only way to see Jesus for real is to see in him an invitation to receive him, follow him into this new kingdom, and start living the way he shows us.

The presence of the kingdom of God in our midst is