Jesus Reoriented

What Did Jesus Do?

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6.33

If you saw the apocalyptic fantasy “2012” you may recall that it ended with the earth's axis being radically shifted so that the South Pole was somewhere around Madison Wisconsin! The story line of the film, if you could call it a storyline, was the increasingly violent atmospheric, climactic, and continental upheavals that brought about the world's “reorientation.” When God sent Jesus into the world it was for the purpose of reorienting the world radically from sin and death to righteousness and life. Unlike the film, Jesus did not seek to bring about the needed radical change by violence.

Hollywood's cinematographers had to depict the tearing down of mountains, the bursting forth of the oceans, the destruction of civilization, the all but total annihilation of humanity, to reorient the world; all Jesus had to do was say “turn around” (repent). But when someone responds to Jesus and turns around, it represents no less a radical and total personal change than that portrayed globally in “2012.”

Jesus came to a world that was oriented towards the goal of pursuing the material. Clothes, food, land, wealth, these were the things people and nations, great and small, sought after to the exclusion of pretty much anything else. “Turn around” Jesus said, “there is a totally different direction to go in, there is something so different, so wonderful, so desperately needed, to seek after—the kingdom of God—and if you would but reorient your lives towards the kingdom you would discover that all that you desire would be given to you.” Of course, turning to God's kingdom so totally transforms people that their desires are transformed.

It has been two millennia since Jesus initiated the reorientation of the world. The reorientation has progressed, not by violent global physical upheavals, but by no less a radical transformation taking place one soul at a time. Yet, if anything, the world is more strongly than ever oriented towards the goals of materialism. Many, we might call them “Accommodating Christians” believe they can have it both ways, that they can embrace the material while at the same time seeking the kingdom of God. But the two are polar opposites, as far apart as east is from west. Others make no pretense of turning around, and remain totally and unashamedly devoted to the material. Yet there are still some who, hearing Jesus' call to “turn around,” yield to the influence of the Holy Spirit and experience the radical reorientation that comes with seeking after the kingdom of God.

And it is these, the reoriented, who are Christ's reorientors, those whom the Spirit employs to invite others to turn around. And so, for now, the reorientation of the world proceeds more or less peacefully. But a day will come, not entirely unlike the violent days of “2012,” when the Lord will return, and earth shaking upheavals will take place, and there will be no more time for turning around. We, no more than the Son, know when that day will be. And so there is a definite urgency to “turn around.” Do we tell all we meet that now is the time to turn around and seek the kingdom? That's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4