Jesus Shared The Kingdom

What Did Jesus Do?

Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
Mark 10.29-30

The speculative greed of the stock market, which so dramatically affects our economy, is driven by the desire to profit from the buying and selling of shares. It’s little more than the trading of paper that in itself is worthless—the value has to do with how much someone believes it is worth. When confidence is high, people want to buy, prices rise on demand, and profit is gained. When confidence is low, people want to sell, prices drop as a consequence, and profits are lost. Great swings up and down happen regularly, with the result that profits on paper are gained and lost at alarming rates. And far too great an influence is felt on the economy. At least, that’s how I see it.

Swindlers, playing upon the desire of many to get rich easily and painlessly, have been known to sell shares with false claims of security, and lying promises of performance. Lives have been destroyed when the worthlessness of the paper the stocks are printed on is revealed in a market crash. Business and commercial empires rise and fall, creating and sweeping away immense wealth, and no few hopes and dreams as well.

Jesus was anything but a swindler. What the Lord had to offer the world were “shares” in the kingdom of God, and they came with an ironclad promise of both gain and everlasting security. Some no doubt passed on the opportunity because it sounded to them too good to be true. Others, like the rich young man in Mark 10.17-22, were unwilling to invest the great material riches they already had in hand for the chance to secure a future beyond the horizon of this life. Others, like Peter and the rest of the disciples, though many of them had little to begin with, had responded to the invitation of Jesus by risking everything to follow Christ, although in fact it was no risk at all; not that it wouldn’t be difficult, painful, and costly.

It would be all that, and more, Jesus had said as much: with gain would come persecutions. But this was nothing less than Jesus himself would experience, and for those willing to invest all in what Jesus offered, he was prepared to share fully in all that his Father’s kingdom had to offer.

For those who had left homes behind, many a home would make them welcome. If family had been sacrificed for the sake of Christ and the gospel, it would be replaced by countless brothers and sisters and mothers (Though no fathers, there is only one Father in the kingdom!), the family of all God’s children. Those who had parted with lands would share in the expansion of the kingdom of God into all lands. Jesus, shared it all, and promised eternal life as well, something no one else has ever honestly been able to offer, no matter what they may sell shares in. But Jesus did not merely trade in promises, he delivered the goods. The hungry were fed. The blind were made to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk. Many in bondage were set free. The dead were raised. And, perhaps most valuable of all, Jesus shared the truth about his Father, the most precious commodity of the kingdom, freely and fully with all who would receive it.

True, there were, and are, persecutions. But nothing of any real value comes without a cost. And the reality is, our share in the kingdom of God was bought and paid for on the cross. Fully “vested” as we are, eternally secure and possessing imperishable kingdom riches, what are we doing with our “shares?” Are we actively seeking to share, to give to others, all which we have received of the Father’s kingdom? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4