The Upside Down Kingdom
Do you ever look at the world and it just seems off? We seek and strive, chasing happiness that always
seems just out of reach? It’s almost as if the things we’ve been told are the “keys to happiness”—money, success, love, freedom—aren’t making us happy at all.
And we’re not alone with that feeling. According to two researchers at Princeton University, most Americans are not happy. Economist Alan B. Krueger and psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman conducted a study1 in which they discovered that the link between income and happiness is largely an illusion. Although wealthier Americans report general satisfaction with their overall lives, closer analysis shows that they are not much happier in moment-to-moment experiences. Successful people’s reports of happiness turn out to be exaggerated in comparison with the reality of their day-to-day lives.
Countless studies on happiness have yielded similar results. Many Americans have spent their entire lives striving after goals that they believed would bring them happiness, only to realize that success isn’t enough. For many people in our country and our community, something is still missing.
Studies like these are powerful reminders that sometimes we get it wrong. Sometimes the thing that we want or need isn’t what we need at all. Sometimes the object on which we pin our hopes and depend on for security is the most fragile foundation in the world. Sometimes strength and prosperity look entirely different from what we ever could have imagined.
Of course, we aren’t the first people to get a few things backwards. Two thousand years ago, a nation was ripe for a revolution. Political tensions simmered as the Jewish people lived under an oppressive regime. They were looking for the long-foretold Messiah to deliver them. They yearned for the Redeemer that God had promised to come and set them free. They imagined a strong leader with military prowess who could overcome their oppressors and restore Israel to its former glory.
Finally their Redeemer came, and His name was Jesus. But He was not the man they were expecting. At first He seemed promising. The people saw His miracles, heard His parables and loved His message. When He pronounced, “The Kingdom is near!” they sensed the potential for great change. It was finally happening! The crowds were electric with hope.
And yet nothing changed. At least nothing they could see. Brutal tyrants were still in charge. The wicked continued to flourish and the righteous were trodden down. Even worse, Jesus never rose to power. Instead, He was crucified on a cross, executed and humiliated like a common criminal. Judging by His life and His death, all evidence pointed to the reality that the dream was over and the kingdom was dead. It seemed clear that Jesus was not the One.
For three days, that is what Jesus’ followers thought. For three days after His death, they despaired. By every indication, God had forgotten His people, and they had no reason to hope. But that’s the funny thing about this world we live in—sometimes it can surprise us. Sometimes things aren’t what they seem. Sometimes a dead end is really just the beginning.
Three days after His death, Jesus rose from the grave. He overcame death and inaugurated a kingdom that is still at work today. Everything Jesus foretold is now coming true, even when, like his early followers, we can’t see it yet.
Jesus’ resurrection marked the beginning of an upside-down kingdom in which nothing is what it seems. In this upside-down Kingdom of God, the weak are strong, the poor are rich, and love is more powerful than hate. In this upside-down kingdom, the secret to happiness isn’t money, success, or even health, but something much deeper, richer, and unshakeable. And in this upside-down kingdom, we have to re-examine everything we thought we knew. Mark Wilcock says it like this:
In the life of God’s people it will be seen first of all a remarkable reversal of values. The people of God will prize what the world calls pitiable, and suspect what the world thinks desirable.
If you suspect that there is more to life than the one you’ve been living, or if you’ve ever been curious about what makes Jesus so different from other religious leaders, join us at Southlake Baptist Church. Beginning Sunday, February 12, we’ll kick off a 9-week series on the book of Mark. We will be exploring the nature of this Upside-Down Kingdom of God and what it can mean for someone like you.
1 “Link Between Income and Happiness is Mainly an Illusion,” Eric Quinones, News at Princeton, June 29, 2006, http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S15/15/09S18/index.xml?section=topstories
Comments for this post have been disabled
