The Kingdom on Earth
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from [a]joy over it he goes and sells everything that he has, and buys that field. Matthew 13:44 NASB
Hidden in a field – Stop reading this parable as if it were about some ethereal spiritual realm far removed from our world! It might be hard to do that after all the religious training we’ve had about heaven. According to our traditions, heaven is that “other” place, the after-life (Have you considered how odd that expression really is? How can there be an after life if we don’t actually die? Doesn’t the word itself imply a contradiction, or maybe it just means that there is an after life for the soul even if the body is dead. But what would that mean? Oh, better ask Pythagoras, who invented the idea of the eternal soul).
What I want to concentrate on today is the enormous difference between the Christian religious view of the Kingdom and the world versus the Jewish religious view of the Kingdom and the world. Soloveitchik makes note of this:
“Our world formula (in contradistinction to the Christian ethic) does not reject the naturalistic system of morality, despite the fact that it has been the lodestar of most agnostics. Judaism accepted the here-and-now order of things and events, and sanctioned the creative efforts of man to shape his own destiny and conditions of physical existence and to promote this material welfare. It did not divorce the ethical motif from the human being’s utilitarian nature.”[1]
Let’s break this down. Soloveitchik is saying that Judaism is a religion anchored in this world. It recognizes the essential role of the yetzer ha’ra, that is, not an evil influence but rather the built-in human desire to shape the world in a way that meets our needs. In other words, while Christianity places its ultimate emphasis on another realm, that is, the heavenly abode, Judaism seeks the Kingdom here! “Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” is not an appeal to leave but a desire to stay and finish the reconstruction work God wants done. In that regard, the yetzer ha’ra is the driving force behind tikkun ‘olam, the restoration of the world. Wanting a better world is a good thing. In fact, it’s so basic that Soloveitchik can write, “It is honorable and moral to serve others while I desire my own good and happiness.”
Imagine what this means. You don’t have to strip yourself of your “selfish” desires for a better lot in life in order to serve God. In fact, those desires, involving His use, are exactly what He designed into you. It’s okay to think of yourself. “Love your neighbor as yourself” requires you to know what you want for yourself. Just make sure your neighbor gets that too. The Christian focus on another world often left us feeling as if our own desires were nothing but temptations toward evil. They had to be purged so we could accomplish the pure work of God, that is, completely other-directed self-denial. Judaism says, “No!” That isn’t God’s way. God’s way is to take those desires and bend them so that they serve you and others, according to His purposes. “Selfish” only means excluding the benefits you want from everyone else. The biblical view is that you are inevitably interconnected. Your efforts must be focused on the whole interconnected community. Make life better—for all. That includes you. That’s the Kingdom on earth.
Topical Index: Kingdom, selfish, heaven, yetzer ha’ra, Matthew 13:44
[1] Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Family Redeemed: Essays on Family Relationships (KTAV Publishing House, 2000), p. 133.
I admit that I am one of those Christians who can rightly be assigned to that group called (in King James’ Scripture) “a peculiar people” (1Peter 2:9 KJV); but I don’t believe Scripture wants any of us—whether “Christian” or “Jew”—to focus on “another world”, but rather to focus on living in this world, that has been essentially been usurped by an illegitimate agent who acquired legal standing by deception. No, our desires for personal good and fulfillment are not to be sublimated into some “acceptable” frame of perception so as to conditionally justify them. We are rather called to realize that this creation’s order has been brought under the influence of both supernatural and natural deception so as to prevent us from “walking in the light”; moreover, those who in Christ have been freed from this deception are now to live as those who are called out of this darkness and into the “marvelous light” that shines forth in the truth and love of the Sovereign Lord of all creation (and that order).
As I see it, the problem with the way you presented the issue here today, Skip, is that you appear to have have overlooked the sin-fallen and culturally-conditioned minds and hearts of people who are (deceptively) inclined to call good “evil”, and evil “good”. In short, to be able (empowered) to live with an actual desire for a whole and interconnected community apart from our sin-fallen and culturally conditioned hearts and minds that have been brought under the influence of the powers (stoicheia) we must first be brought under the power and authority of another order… that of God’s Kingdom… through the power of the Holy Spirit. That only comes through the death of our identity with the first “Adam” and our incorporation into the resurrection life of Christ—the second “Adam”.
Thanks Skip, I think you have nailed it again.