My whole life, I assumed that the gospel, or good news (Greek: evangelion) was that Jesus died for my sins, and was raised after three days. I remember having a hard time grasping how that was good news and what exactly that good news meant for my life. Here's the thing: Jesus dying on the cross and raising again isn't the gospel. Every time I hear someone preach that the good news of Jesus is that he died for my sins, I want to scream, "NO IT ISN'T!" In Mark 1, Jesus himself states very clearly the definition of the good news.
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The Kingdom of God has come near (some translations read: "is here"). Turn around and believe the good news!
Let's think about this logically (which I know is a stretch for a lot of Christians) for a minute. How much sense would it make for Jesus, while he's still alive on earth, to proclaim that he died and rose again? How much sense does it make for Jesus to send out his followers to proclaim that he died and rose again, when he was as alive as they were. It wouldn't make a lick of sense. If I walked up to you on the street and said, "I have some good news for you, I died." you would think I was insane.
So how was God's Kingdom coming to earth considered good news for the people of first-century Palestine? The first thing is to realize the political significance of this statement. Palestine was under the rule of Rome and Caesar. Rome was a brutal and oppressive empire. So for the oppressed people of Palestine to hear this grand pronouncement from Jesus meant that if God's Kingdom is here, then that means that he's actually in charge and Caesar isn't. Good news indeed. This still holds true for us. God's Kingdom is a place where his will is done. If God is the King, then all other empires (including the American empire) are invalid. It means that we don't have to rely on any empire to provide for us, because we can provide for each other. It means that empires hold no sway over us anymore. It means that they could kill us, and still never win a victory over this Kingdom. Why? Because this Kingdom is, first of all, internal. Our outward actions are all based on an inward Kingdom of love and peace. Nothing, including a sword or AK-47, can touch it. In the words of Ben Harper, "You can kill the revolutionary, but the revolution you can never bury."
The cross is the logical end to this type of thinking and lifestyle. The last thing a powerful empire wants to hear is that they are, in fact, powerless. The cross is where the Empire says, "We finally got you, you can't stand up to us." The Resurrection is where Jesus says, "Is that all you've got?"
That's good news. This empire in which I live ultimately has no sway over me. They can't defeat me with violence, they can't defeat me with money. They can't win, because this Kingdom in which I reside has love at it's foundation; and we all know that, in the end, love always wins.
0 comments:
Post a Comment