The Reversal of Reason

“And thus the last shall be first, and the first last.” Matthew 20:16

Last/ First – “Jesus’ concept of the righteousness of God, therefore, is incommensurable with reason.  Man cannot measure it, but he can grasp it.”  So said David Flusser in The Sage from Galilee.  Read his comment carefully.  How you understand what Flusser says will determine whether or not you are truly living in the Kingdom.  What does this mean to us?

First, the Kingdom of God (or of Heaven) has already arrived.  You aren’t waiting for it after you die.  You are either in it now or you are outside.  It is not an arrival destination on the other side of the grave.  It’s a present phenomenon simply waiting for fulfillment.

Second, you are in the Kingdom when you act according to Kingdom values.  When you serve under the reign and rule of the King, you are His citizen.  You don’t have to wait to be initiated into the party.  You don’t have to “join” the club.  You don’t need a membership or have to pay dues.  All you have to do is what the King does.  The evidence of citizenship is not a verbal declaration.  It is loyalty in action (remember the parable of the two sons?).

Third, in the Kingdom, all normal commonsense ethical values are obliterated.  There is nothing normal about the first being last, about full wages for partial work, about forgiveness of massive debt, about denial of natural inclinations or about sacrificing for enemies.  Those actions are insane!  No normal person would do such things.  It doesn’t serve your best interests or the best interests of ordinary civil obedience.  But in God’s Kingdom, the righteous die for the unrighteous, the ones who deserve justice accept injustice, the ones who need mercy give it instead, the beggars become models for true wealth and the ones who give up their peace demonstrate God’s peacemaking.  Kingdom “ethics” are not just another set of ethical principles.  In this Kingdom, ethical behavior goes beyond good and evil.  It is not subject to anything reasonable at all, including our evaluation of what is good and what isn’t good.  God’s ways are not our ways, and in the Kingdom we come face to face with that astounding reality.

So, take a hard look at your life.  Do you operate according to good commonsense?  Are your principles of moral behavior based on “reasonable” expectations?  Do you believe that things should be in their proper order?  If you do, you might want to reconsider.  Where your reason dictates proper action, you may find that God’s view seems entirely unreasonable.  After all, why should anyone pray for an enemy?  Where you act according to proper and acceptable means, you may want to listen a bit more to the voice of Jesus.  His idea of accumulation and success sounds a lot more like self-sacrifice than like retirement income and financial security.  Where you are content to let bygones be bygones, Jesus seems to think that your forgiveness depends on something much more substantial.

If you find yourself in the first position of benefit from your decisions, you may want to read this parable again.  God’s way is last, not even next to last.  How you get there really is up to you.

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