Getting in Trouble for the Kingdom

Matthew 11:18-19

“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1)

Jesus was up against it, and clearly found it frustrating. John the Baptist had led a life of self-denial, like the holy ascetics in many traditions. Ordinary people had found that hard to take. . . . Now here was Jesus himself, celebrating the kingdom of heaven with all and sundry, throwing parties which spoke of God’s lavish, generous love and forgiveness—and people accused him of being a rebel, a son who wouldn’t behave, a false prophet! The answer, of course, then as now, is that people don’t like the challenge, either of someone who points them to a different sort of life entirely, or of someone who shows that God’s love is breaking into the world in a new way, like a fresh breeze blowing through a garden and shaking old blossom off the trees (132-3).

A. Orendorff

Being agents of God’s kingdom is bound to get us into trouble. While God certainly calls us to different kinds of trouble, in the end, there’s just no avoiding it, after all, “A student is not above his master.” For some, like John, their trouble will be of a somber and prophetic kind—speaking truth to power and showing, by their life and words, both the seriousness of God’s standards as well as the gravity of our repentance. For other, like Jesus, theirs will be of a more scandalous and lavish kind—opening their home and lives to all the wrong people, inviting speculation and even ridicule for the kinds of friends they keep as well as the kind of actions they take. The trouble that God brings into our lives is wide enough for a variety of expressions. The bottom line is this: get ready to be misunderstood and even loathed for doing what’s right.