6 Sept 2014 - king me

We are invited once again to become fools for Jesus. We see that the Corinthians are inflated with pride. They have become satisfied and grown rich in the wrong ways. It isn't just that they have a preference for one preacher over another. There is nothing wrong with that. They are taking pride in themselves because of whom they choose. They think, look at how great my preferences are.  They even let that pride create division with those who chose something else.

We don't succumb to this when we embrace the foolishness of the kingdom.  We embrace this foolishness when we remember that we have nothing we do not receive. Boasting as if we have not received, as if we have earned, lays the foundations for strife and division.

The Corinthians become kings without Paul. They believe they earn that kingship. Paul does has a path for them to become kings. Yet it is a path that first appears to be foolish. What kind of throne requires that one first experience weakness, disrepute, hunger, and thirst, rough treatment, homelessness, and toil? Isn't the whole point of being king the power to be free from ridicule, persecution, and slander? And then after enduring all, Paul still says that we earn nothing and that all is a gift. It is just too much.

Yet this is precisely the kingship of Jesus. He offers to share it with us. And we are right to recoil, right to count the cost. That means we are taking him seriously. He is calling us to be so willing to seek first the kingdom of God that we appear to be fools from an earthly perspective. The world has no way to distinguish between the times when we must abstain and times when we may indulge. The world could understand it if we always chose one way or the other. But as it is, kingdom criteria is not so rigid and legalistic.

“Have you not read what David did

when he and those who were with him were hungry?

How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,

which only the priests could lawfully eat,

ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”

He isn't calling us toward self-hatred. He isn't calling us to willfully inflict as much hunger and thirst on ourselves as we can. Instead, he tells us to put earthly needs in their proper perspective. Hence, as the they walk through fields, the disciples are allowed to pick grain and enjoy it. Jesus sticks up for them. He defends their right to be satiated. They are on mission and they need fuel for that mission. Since these gifts are being put in the service of the true king they are not a problem.

“The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

Foolishness, it seems, is all a matter of perspective about priority. Let's make sure that Jesus is our number one priority. Let us strive to become kings in the way that Paul does rather than the way the Corinthians do. He says that he will become a king along with the Corinthians when they become kings. But that will happen when they become kings for real and not just in their own estimation. Paul wants this for them because the LORD wants it for them.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him,

he hears their cry and saves them.

The LORD keeps all who love him,

but all the wicked he will destroy.