No one desires unity in the Church more than Jesus. If we care about seeing God’s people united in this time, we should be looking to the One who unites us.
Of course there are complicated and difficult practical realities of running after unity and togetherness in the Church. But it is my firm conviction that we will never achieve it if we do not fix our eyes on Jesus and the “good news” that His Kingdom is here, and He is the King. Why does this matter?
It matters because Jesus came not only to save but to give us a new order – the right order – for how we should live. We call this the Kingdom of God. It’s what we pray for when we say, “your kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Check out this great description from the Bible Project:
“Jesus was announcing the promised arrival of Israel’s God to become king of Israel and all nations, but the way that he asserted his rule was surprising to the people around him. When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, the city where David once reigned, he did not use violent force to inaugurate his kingdom. Instead he rode into the city, weeping over its corruption and fate (see Luke 19:41-44) and then he marched into the temple, the throneroom of the God of Israel. There he acted as if he was the true king of Jerusalem, disrupting the sacrificial system and declaring that Israel’s rulers were a bunch of thugs who were leading the people toward destruction.”
“The Christian gospel is the announcement that Jesus is the divine king of the world who lived, died, and was raised to be the ruler we so desperately need. And if a new king is in charge, this means that a new way of life is in order. “
These many thousands of years later, corruption and brokenness still infects our religious systems and just like then, it keeps us from loving one another and experiencing the fullness of God’s love for us. But thanks be to God that just like then, Jesus is here to keep on disrupting the broken systems and declaring over and over, that He is King. Under his leadership, there’s a new way of life.
So let us lean into the fullness of the gospel – not just for salvation but for an entire kingdom way of living which is the hope of unity in the Church today and forever.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Joel
Joel Searby