POWERLESS POLITICS
The Church as the kingdom of the poor (part 3)

"You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage." (Matthew 20:24, The Message)

Jesus is not just turning things on their heads economically and socially: He's also inaugurating a new political order which would turn the existing power structures upside down. But not in the way anyone expected...

This revolutionary Jesus was not the much awaited heavy-weight Messiah who would violently lob out the bully-boy Romans. He was a suffering servant whose 'weapons' were a towel and basin (John 13:4-5). He was with the marginalised outcast; His gang has few la-di-dah types in it (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

In Jesus' counter-culture there's no climbing the greasy pole: leadership is about serving (Luke 22:24-29). Those who think they're at the front of the queue are in for a nasty shock (Matthew 19:30). The have-nots are the true haves (Matthew 5:3,5).

Jesus and the early disciples challenged the political status quo. Jesus had a go at rulers, describing them as hypocrites (Matthew 23:23,25). Power-mongers who, desperate for good press, couldn't give two hoots about God (John 12:43). Contrast Peter, before the political heavyweights of his day, speaking boldly of his need to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

Jesus acknowledged that His followers aren't lawless anarchists (Matthew 22:15-21), but He also made it clear that His followers would run up against the powers-that-be (Matthew 10:17-18). Persecution was part of the deal for Jesus people (Matthew 5:11-12).

In the end, the offensive Cross, (1 Corinthians 1:22-25, Galatians 5:11) where natural desires die, brings spiritual power to the powerless. It introduces an alternative to the worldly rat race: the heavenly commonwealth is able to exist (Philippians 3:20) without the unfair sloped playing field of the old corrupt system.

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