The pattern of Christ on the cross means that the world’s glorification of power, might and status has been exposed, diminished, and ultimately defeated. It is on the cross that Jesus wins through losing, triumphs through defeat, achieves power through weakness, and comes to wealth via giving it all away. Jesus Christ turns the values of the world upside down. This so contradicts the practice of the culture that it creates an alternate culture, an alternate reality, and an alternate kingdom…a counterculture among those who have been transformed by it.
Jesus asked, “What shall we say that the kingdom of God is like, and what parable shall we use to describe it?” The message of Christ is profoundly translatable. It stimulates our thinking about what His kingdom looks like today and how we are to live and love within it. In the next four posts, we will explore this thinking, as we look into the manifesto of the kingdom as found in the sermon He proclaimed to His followers on the mountainside. We will briefly unpack the ethics, language and mission of the kingdom.