Just Beneath the Surface

Jesus said, "the kingdom of heaven is near..."

And people listened.

Because the Jews had been beaten down by nation after nation and at the time Jesus spoke those words, they were chafing under the sword of the Roman empire. They were so ready for a deliverer - someone, anyone - to come in and wreak havoc on their persecutors.

Jesus just might be that someone, they thought.

In just a short time, He was talking about the kingdom of heaven again, so they listened intently.

That's when Jesus spelled out what we know as the Beatitudes: a list of attitudes that would typify His kingdom. You will find them spelled out in Matthew 5.

But as they listened, they must have looked at one another in puzzlement and checked their ears to be certain they were hearing correctly.

Jesus said some odd things.

Empires in that day were not much different than those of our day...wealth and power were the keys to one's escalation in the kingdom; but not so this kingdom Jesus was talking about.

He spoke of traits of the kingdom like being poor, mourning, meekness and being hungry and thirsty. I ask you: where's the fun in that?

If some of the folks standing around that day missed what He was saying - perhaps I should not be too quick to judge. You see, I have always looked at the Beatitudes as qualifiers; things you must do if you want to be in the kingdom, but I'm starting to see it differently now.

The Beatitudes cast the vision for God's kingdom. They reveal how different His kingdom is from that of the world. They turn our thinking top-side down.

There are a great number of things that we are encouraged to put on in the Bible. Put on Christ, put on the armour of light, put on the new man, put on the whole armour. In church we sing about putting on the garment of praise...

There are, in turn, some things we cannot put on they must emerge from within. The Fruit of the Spirit is one: love, joy peace, patience - these cannot be put on they must grow from within. In simple terms, attaching apples to a lemon tree will not effectively change what the lemon tree produces.

These Beatitudes are attitudes that aren't intended to be put on, but rather they emerge from inside us as a result of our relationship with Christ.

In Luke 17, Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you!

Looking back at those first four Beatitudes: poverty, mourning, meekness and hunger/thirst. All of these represent either a loss or a lack of something. Poverty is a lack of riches; we mourn our losses; meekness is perceived as a lack of fortitude and we hunger when we are empty.

In those first four Beatitudes, Jesus points our that these reducing factors reveal the kingdom that lurks beneath the surface.

What lurks beneath your surface? When there is loss or things are lacking somewhere, what rises to the surface.

Yesterday, our Sunday School class looked at this. I used the illustration of a grapefruit.

The real value of the fruit is not in the peel but its found inside the peel.

If we add to the peel - put things on the outside, it will not add value to the fruit. It will just make what's inside harder to get to.

My Mom likes to bore a hole in an orange or grapefruit with a knife to form a sort of natural juice-box. This allows the valuable juice inside to flow out.

When we are injured or wounded... it is an opportunity for the kingdom of God inside us to flow out.

Another way of really getting to all that valuable goodness beneath the surface of the grapefruit is to just slice it in two and open it up.

Some Christians do that - they just open themselves up to God and to others. Some open up their hearts, their homes, their wallets, all their resources to God and as His compassion leads - they open them to people.

Such is the kingdom of heaven.