Kingdom - Member Devotional
I recently watched the latest season of The Good Place. While I love the show, it left me feeling deeply dissatisfied. Without giving too much away, the writer’s best version of heaven looked like our beloved characters spending whatever life comes after death tying up the loose ends of their lives on earth. While it made for a provocative episode, I was entirely uninterested in this version of paradise.
The promise of heaven is that the pains of this life don’t follow us. When I’m fed up with everything this chaotic year threw at us, in moments when it seems like God has forgotten us, this verse often brings me to tears, “[God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). The beauty of Jesus is that the suffering of this life finds resolution in him, and what burdens us now will be lifted when we enter the Kingdom where we will be bound to God for eternity.
What, then, is our response to this? It’s to own our citizenship of God’s kingdom right now and show it off however we can. While we wait for the big move to our eternal home, we’re still paying rent here. Knowing we’ll soon be gone doesn’t mean we leave the house in shambles. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” There are incremental moves toward our ultimate destination that start while we are on earth.
Jesus inaugurated the coming of the kingdom with a ministry amidst the detested and destitute of society, drawing them into something no one else had to offer. There was an immediacy to his presence and a delay to his promise. The call to “Repent, for the kingdom is at hand” was compelling enough for people to drop their entire lives and follow Jesus. What would someone have to say for you to quit your job this moment to follow them around for a couple of years? For me, it was tangibly experiencing the love of people who loved Jesus. The church platitudes I was raised to believe meant nothing until they took the form of a person inviting me into their home, handing me tea while I cried into their sofa. The kingdom offers eternal solace to the hurting right now but, as Christ did for us, we must extend the border of heaven and reach our hands toward the teary-eyed seeking refuge. So let’s keep reaching outward, and show the aching world the kingdom where all of death is wiped away.
Where do you see that things are not right?
What does the gospel speak to those places?
How do you want to display the kingdom with your life?