We are in the midst of a revolution. Societal structures are being overturned and a new order of government is taking over. Old symbols of tyranny are being toppled. The way we live in relationship with one another is being redefined. Our understandings of what constitutes justice and peace are being reshaped. Language itself is being transformed. Logic and rationality are being turned upside down so that not just what we think but how we think are being radically transformed.
This is what happens in revolution because a revolution is the overturning of one culture and the creation of another.
With all that is going on in our country at the present time, I’m sure that reading that first paragraph brings to mind the vivid images we are seeing in the media today. ANTIFA has taken over a section of the city of Seattle, Washington, in a way eerily similar to Bane’s revolution in The Dark Knight Rises. Minneapolis looks like a war zone. Chicago’s government is in disarray, fighting with one another over police preparedness for looting in the city. Cries for defunding the police echo throughout major metropolitan areas. Black Lives Matters have white people kneeling before them to ask forgiveness (which is never granted) and pledge their fealty.
Yes, all of this is revolutionary, and, by definition, our country will change. How much it will change and in what direction, I can’t tell. Revolutions can be successful by overturning everything, or they can create counter-revolutions that will squash the uprising and insist on the old ways. Whichever way it goes, the old is destroyed in some way and transformed into something new. That is inevitable in revolution.
The type of revolution that is happening in our culture right now demands instant change through the threat of violence. There is no patience. It must all happen now. The end result of these types of revolutions is usually the exchange of one tyrant for another. The victim–perceived victim or real victim–now has the power and will use it to make his previous abusive overlord pay; whether that is a person or a system. Everything has changed. Nothing has changed.
Jesus came to start a revolution that will continue until he comes again. He came to overturn an old cultural system established in the fall that gave Satan a place of rule in the created order. Jesus came to topple the old culture and its principalities and powers; to change, not just what we think, but how we think. He came to give us a new language, to give us a new understanding of justice and peace, and to teach us new ways of relating to one another at every level of society.
This revolution doesn’t look quite like the revolutions with which we are familiar. He describes his kingdom revolution as being like a mustard seed, the least of all seeds, being planted in the soil, and growing to full maturity over a very long time. His kingdom revolution is like a small bit of leaven introduced into an enormous lump of dough that works unseen but thoroughly until the entire lump of dough is leavened. His revolution throughout history has been counterintuitive to Adamic human reasoning as it works quietly and imperceptibly yet persistently and thoroughly. His revolution begins by his dead body being hidden like a seed or a little leaven in the earth. It continues in the church through the mysterious and, at times, imperceptible movements of the Spirit. But like the seed and the leaven, the revolution is always going on; growing, permeating, transforming. Everything is changing. Everything will be changed.
Unlike other revolutions, this revolution is not exchanging one tyrant for another. The reign of Christ Jesus liberates us from oppressive tyranny, freeing us to live as we were created to live.
However, this is a revolution. Everything will be changed. This world is under the lordship of Jesus Christ and he will make it what he intends it to be. All of those who resist the revolution will be put down and exiled from his kingdom, which encompasses the entire world.
As citizens of the kingdom, we Christians share in the mission of his kingdom. We are revolutionaries. Our mission is to disciple the nations because Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth. (Mt 28.18-20) Everything must change, and we, in the power of the Spirit, must be the agents of change.
But as citizens of the kingdom, we share the nature of the kingdom as well. The way we do revolution will not look like revolution to the world around us. We are seeds and leaven, inconspicuously planted in the soil, or inserted into the lump of dough. We engage in small beginnings and slow graces. We faithfully worship week-by-week, hidden away from the maddening crowds on the outside, praying, hearing the Word of God read and taught, and eating and drinking at the Lord’s Table. We are unmarried who are simply going about our daily lives faithfully, doing the next right thing. We are the husband and fathers who are loving, protecting, providing for, teaching, and leading our families day-by-day in quiet faithfulness. We are wives and mothers who are joyfully submitting to our husbands, caring for children, and being good stewards of our homes day-by-day in hidden faithfulness. We are employees doing our jobs as unto the Lord. We are employers who seek to our society in general and our employees in particular by providing services. We are those persecuted and killed for the sake of Christ of whom no one hears. Hidden. Quiet. Imperceptible.
We may not look like much to the world, but their revolutions have come and gone. Their kingdoms have risen and fallen. Their overlords have been toppled and died. The kingdom of God remains. Furthermore, despite their best efforts to squash it, their revolutions have, in some mysterious way, always served the purpose of our revolution. We win. We will keep on winning. Our revolution will not fail.
