What This Country Needs

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. --Matthew 6:33

It took me a long time to ask the obvious question:  why should I seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness?  Why can’t I just do whatever I want?  Does my obedience make God feel good such that He will subsequently look after me?  Does my obedience make God love me, or love me more?  Could it be something else?  Is it possible that God knows my true need better than I do? 

God does not tell you to seek righteousness so He can love you.  He tells you to seek righteousness because He loves you. 

Righteousness is sometimes defined as the state of moral perfection required to enter heaven.  That is somewhat of a circular definition.  To be righteous, or upright before God, is to enter heaven.  The Hebrew word at the root of it all is sedeq.  This usually gets translated in the Septuagint as dikaiosynē (so I am told).  According to the New Dictionary of Theology (Wright, Ferguson, and Packer), “It thus denotes not so much the abstract idea of justice or virtue, as right standing and consequent right behaviour, within a community.”

Jesus said, “For God so loved the world …” – why not stop there?  The Lord could have just said, “We’ll call it good, and everybody is all right.”  That’s not the way it works.  Man is destroyed for the lack of righteousness -- not by God -- by the lack.  Both the libertine and the legalist miss the point Christ is making -- in His words, in His death and the shedding of His blood.  

One of Jesus’ parables is about a wedding feast to which many were invited.  The invited guests refused the invitation, so the king sent out his servants to gather in the poor, the strangers, and the homeless that the abundance might not go to waste and that the marriage would be joyously celebrated.  Since these people were not necessarily properly clothed, the king even provided for that.  He probably gave them the opportunity to bathe, and he gave them new, clean wedding garments to wear.  So the king is walking around, enjoying the great feast, making sure everybody is having a great time.  But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.  And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. (Matthew 22:11-12) 

By this parable to which the covenant of marriage is central, Jesus shows us the covenant side of righteousness.  To be part of the covenant community is both a gift and an obligation.  If we would accept the offer of life, we must also accept the appropriate garment, of righteousness.  To enter into the covenantal relationship we must put off our old clothes and “put on Christ”. 

The deepest need of the creature is the Creator, and, possibly, because He created us, the Creator – no, I am too fearful to say He needs us; He loves us more than we can comprehend.  That is enough.  He wants the best for us which can only be ours if we can be upright before Him.  But we are broken, weak, marred vessels, wandering beggars along the roads.  He calls us who are covered in grime and the filthy rags of our unrighteousness.  He says, Come in and we will clean you up, and robe you in righteousness that you may enter.   For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We do not need better marketing, more gadgetry, faster connections, more hybrids, more tolerance for wickedness, more celebrations of decadence – not even more money, more jobs, and better politicians.  Our deepest need is for righteousness.  Ease, comfort, convenience, pleasure – these things are sought and when they are obtained, we quickly find they are not enough. 

Yet if we would simply hunger and thirst for righteousness, we would be freely, abundantly, and everlastingly filled. 

Some Words Are More Equal Than Others

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels – Mark 8:38

What struck me about this is the position to which the Lord elevates what He says, His words. Don’t be ashamed of Me but also don’t be ashamed of what I say. It does not matter if what He says is a little challenging, a little convicting, even a little embarrassing at times. Sure I love Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Prince of Peace. As much as I embrace Him, I have to embrace all that He says.

I don’t think I ever stumbled over the Person of Jesus. I could always accept Him as the Son of God. Cool. Where I ran into problems was when He started talking about the poor being blessed and the rich having a hard time getting into heaven. I have trouble with Him telling me to turn the other cheek, take an insult and go on, go the extra mile for those who would oppress and humiliate me. I have trouble with seeking the kingdom and thinking I won’t have to worry about anything else. I don’t always want to hear that I have to forgive if I expect to be forgiven.

When Jesus began to talk about the necessity of eating His flesh and drinking His blood it so shocked and offended many of His followers that they left Him. Even His chosen disciples were confused by it. In fact, they were probably ashamed of what He was saying. He sounded like a mad man. They must have wondered how they were going to build a messianic kingdom with a Messiah who said such outrageous things. The crowds were falling away; it would cut in the offerings. Things might get tight.

Jesus equates His words with Himself. There is no question that we must believe in Christ, but He makes it clear that we must also believe what He says. It just makes sense in a way. If the Son of God is talking to you it would probably be a good idea to pay attention. Actions may speak louder than words for the average person, but God’s words are powerful and creative in themselves. They possess the power of illumination allowing us to discover reality as it really is.

When we hear the words of Jesus, we begin to understand Him, but we also begin to understand ourselves and the world we inhabit. Most of the time, we tend to focus on where we fall short in relation to what Jesus says. Conviction is good. It helps get us on the right track. But the words of Christ are not merely admonitions or clever proverbs to encourage us to behave better. Like the creative words of God in the beginning, the words of Christ are creative in us. Once we hear the words of the Lord, we are changed, and it is a change into newness. We became new creatures, as Paul says, sloughing off the old and being transformed into His image of us.

How can we continue to worry when we hear Jesus say, “Consider the lilies …”? How can we doubt when He says that all things are possible to him who believes? How can we continue to live in bondage when we hear Him say that we are free, indeed?

Not every time that I read the Bible do I hear Jesus speak. Sometimes I’m just reading and thinking and there’s not much happening. Maybe something is being sown or watered, I don’t know. But there are occasions where the words take on a life of their own, and I would hear them no more clearly if the Lord spoke to me in an audible voice. Reading and studying is good and beneficial no matter what else happens. If God spoke with such clarity every time we opened the book, we might become like the Israelites, “…[L]et not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19). There is such a thing as too much light all at once. He knows us and knows how much we can handle, and He speaks accordingly. All He asks is that we not be ashamed of the words we hear.