Kingdom Passports (1)

But of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her”;
And the Most High Himself will establish her.   The Lord will count when He registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah   Psalm 87:5-6  NASB

Born there – Football in Italy is a religion (that’s “soccer” for Americans).  The rivalry between teams is so intense that special police precautions are taken before the games begin.  I recently heard that a train carrying fans of the opposing team was stopped one kilometer before the city station so that fans of the rival team could get off and board busses instead of exiting at the station where the city fans were waiting to fight.  In order to attend a match, you must prove that you were born in the city of the team you support.  You must sit only where birthright fans are allowed.  You cannot sit anywhere else in the stands.  If you support a team from Bari, but you were born in Parma, you are prohibited from sitting in the Bari stands.  In fact, the wife of a family we know refused to have her children born in the city where they were living at the time because they would never be able to support the team where the wife was born.  She had her children in Parma, even though at the time she was living in Rome.  You can change your religion.  You can change your job and economic status.  You can change your residence.  But you can’t change where you were born—and that determines everything when it comes to football.

God’s Kingdom is almost the same.  To be a citizen means to be born in His Kingdom.  The psalmist recognizes that your earthly nationality or ethnicity has very little to do with it.  What matters is where you were born—and from God’s perspective, if you are a citizen in His Kingdom then you were born in Zion.  Every heavenly passport reads the same: Place of Birth—Zion.  End of discussion.  Rashi remarked that this verse tells us that all righteous non-Jews will be brought out from the nations and recognized as being born in Zion.

Why does this matter?  It matters because of the misunderstanding that in order to be a member of the Kingdom one must be Jewish, by birth or conversion.  This is not the case.  It doesn’t matter where you were born on this earth.  It doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or Gentile.  Or as Paul noted: rich or poor, slave or free, male or female.  What matters, and the only thing that matters, is “born in Zion.”  Even as early at the tenth century B.C.E., the psalmist made this clear.  Any attempt to limit citizenship with other restrictions is simply human interference.

Of course, heavenly passports aren’t free.  They come with expectations.  Just as citizenship in any nation (kingdom) implies living according to the laws of that nation, so citizenship in God’s Kingdom implies living according to the laws of the Kingdom.  Fortunately, those laws are stipulated clearly by Moses, contemporary interpretations aside.  God’s Kingdom does not have a “open borders” policy.  There are no illegal immigrants in the Kingdom.  Those who belong behave accordingly.  That’s what birthright means.  We may debate exactly how these ancient legal precedents are to be performed today, but there is no debate about the need to follow them.  You may be able to chose which color flag you will wave at the game, but you can’t choose where you will sit.

Topical Index: citizenship, birth, Kingdom, football, Psalm 87:5-6