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Love in the Time of…Coronavirus
reflections
on suffering and the kingdom of God
by
Troy Cady
In
Acts 1:3, we read that after Jesus rose from the dead he spoke with his
disciples about “the kingdom of God.” This was not a new topic for them.
Indeed, from the very beginning of Jesus’ time with them, it was this very
subject that was the primary theme of his teaching.
So,
we would expect that, by the end of spending about three years in the company
of Jesus, the disciples would have grasped what Jesus was trying to say about
the kingdom of God. But this was not the case—not even after his death and
resurrection.
The suggestion
that the disciples still did not understand the nature of the kingdom of God is
evidenced by the question they asked Jesus in Acts 1 just before his ascension:
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6)
Notice
that the disciples had misunderstood Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God
so grossly that they did not even know how to form a proper question about it.
They may as well have asked him what the color blue tastes like.
This
misunderstanding astounds us even more in light of the fact that they had had
the benefit of hearing Jesus put it all together for them after his
resurrection. Throughout the Gospels, we can trace just what it was they didn’t
understand about Jesus: their consistent stumbling block was the fact that the
Messiah would suffer and die.
Jesus’
suffering and death contradicted everything they had previously thought about
the Chosen One, the anticipated Messiah who would reconstitute them as a great
nation once again. But his suffering was the very thing he warned them about during his ministry and it is what he explained to them carefully after he
had risen from the dead.
Perhaps
the disciples thought that, now that Jesus had conquered death, they could put
behind them his teaching on suffering and death. Hearing their question about
the restoration of Israel, that seems to be the case: now they could get on
with establishing the kingdom as they had always understood it.
How Jesus clears up their misunderstanding
in Acts 1
So that we do not miss it, however, the author of this
text (Luke) presents Jesus’ teaching in a way that contravenes the disciples’
understanding. This is apparent both by the content of what Jesus says and the
very structure of the conversation Jesus has with them.
The
conversation has just three simple parts to it: Jesus speaks (part 1), the
disciples speak (part 2), and Jesus speaks again (part 3). In part 1, Jesus
tells them to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit and in part 3 he tells them
again about the Holy Spirit (specifically, that the Spirit will give them power
to be his witnesses at home and abroad). In between these two parts, the
disciples ask their question about the kingdom of God.
The
interchange is a little humorous in that it reminds me of the game show Jeopardy
where the contestants are given the answer and then try to provide the
corresponding question. It is either laughable or just plain pathetic that none
of them have a clue as to just what the important question really is.
In
verse 3 we are told Jesus was teaching them about the kingdom of God and then
in verses 4 and 5, he gives them the answer by
teaching them about the Holy Spirit.
But
in verse 6 they reply with a question that shows they are still thinking in
terms of the old paradigm. So, Jesus gives them the answer again in verses 7
and 8, which suggests to us that the kingdom of God and the empowering work of
the Holy Spirit within them go hand-in-hand.
The Holy Spirit as the key to life’s most
difficult tests
This text reminds me of certain teachers I had in high
school and college who explained at the beginning of the semester that we would
have two big tests during the term for which the teacher would give us all the
answers ahead of time. All we needed to do was listen carefully for the answers
(the key, if you will) to the tests.
The
Holy Spirit, one could say, is the key to endurance when we face the tests of
life and the key to understanding rightly the nature of the kingdom of God. The
disciples want to know when the kingdom will be restored, so Jesus points them
to the work of the Holy Spirit, who enables them to be Jesus’ witnesses.
The
Holy Spirit, then, ties together all that Jesus had taught them by word and
deed about the kingdom of God as he had embodied it in his life, death, and resurrection. The Holy Spirit will be the one through whom they experience
the kingdom of God.
How we still don’t “get it” today
This teaching, as basic as it sounds, hardly makes
sense to us today, in fact. I say this because all too often I hear Christians talking
about the kingdom of God in terms that betray its very nature. More precisely, whenever we hear Christians
say that we are “building” God’s kingdom or working to “extend” God’s kingdom,
we can be sure we have completely misunderstood Jesus’ teaching about it.
To be
sure, we come by this misunderstanding honestly, since in Acts 1 (and other
texts) it is apparent the disciples had construed of the kingdom of God in the
same way. They were under the delusion that the kingdom of God was something we
would usher in once we got beyond this present life—as if the kingdom of God
would suddenly appear on the other side of a series of tragic, if surprising,
events that turn out all right in the end.
This
was the very idea Jesus sought to correct in his teaching before his crucifixion
and it is what he taught them about after his resurrection: that the kingdom of
God is not something we experience on the other side of suffering. It is a
reality that abides in the midst of suffering. It is here now, available to us
if we will just receive it by faith. The kingdom of God does not deliver us
from suffering; it sees us through suffering, giving us the capacity to endure
suffering as Jesus did—for the joy set before him.
That
is why, when Jesus was teaching his disciples about the kingdom of God in Acts
1, he also needed to teach them about the Holy Spirit—for it is only by the
power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to endure in the face of suffering.
What the kingdom of God does not do for us
God’s interest is not to provide an escape for us from
suffering. God’s work is to make available to us the charism of the Spirit
through whom we receive a kingdom that can never be shaken—because it is a
kingdom that is within our hearts. No amount of suffering or pain can take away
that kingdom. It cannot be destroyed.
Jesus
had already taught about this and Luke recorded as such in his Gospel account
of the life of Jesus: “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the
kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come
with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it
is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)
I
find it fascinating that the text in Acts 1 corresponds to this text in Luke 17
in some rather important aspects. Notice that the disciples in Acts 1 ask
essentially the same kind of question as the Pharisees in Luke 17. And notice
that after Jesus ascends in Acts 1, the disciples are portrayed as a group “looking
intently up into the sky” as if the kingdom they were seeking would now come
about simply with their “careful observation,” (Luke 17) looking for the
kingdom of God “out there” somewhere. Meanwhile, Jesus had been teaching them all
along that the kingdom of God would be within them by the power of the Holy
Spirit.
To
help them live into this reality, two people dressed in white appear as the
disciples are looking up into the sky. And the two people say to them that they
don’t need to keep looking because Jesus will come again in the same way he
left. (Acts 1:11)
It is
as if the two people were telling them, “Stop looking for the kingdom of God to
come suddenly from ‘out there somewhere.’ Stop looking to the sky for the
kingdom of God and start living in it right where you are in the present time.”
The rest
of the book of Acts, then, explains in detail how the disciples learn to live
into the present reality of the kingdom of God (which is right in our midst) as
they are plunged under (baptized in) the influence of the Holy Spirit and then
go forth in the Spirit’s power to proclaim Jesus’ lordship in the face of
incredible suffering and sacrifice.
How the life of a disciple of Jesus recapitulates
the life of Jesus himself
It is important for us to notice that the kingdom experience
of Jesus’ disciples is not somehow distinct from the kingdom that Jesus embodied
in himself. On the contrary: Jesus’ very life, teachings, death and
resurrection provide us with the kingdom pattern after which a Christian’s life
is to be conformed. In other words, if Jesus (our Master) did not escape
suffering and pain (even as the kingdom of God was embodied in his very person),
then we shall not escape pain either.
This
sounds like depressing news, but the good news of Jesus is that the same Spirit
that gave him the power to endure suffering (for the sake of love and for the
joy set before him) will give us the power to do the same.
Our
response to the presence of the kingdom of God here and now, then, is not to
stand around looking into the sky for our own personal deus ex machina. The
appropriate response (that shows we really understand what the kingdom of God
is all about) is to be about the good and gracious work to which we have been
called here and now, suffering and pain notwithstanding.
Love in the time of…coronavirus
As it is the Easter season, I was struck today by the
way in which this ancient text from Acts 1 speaks to our current situation in which
most of the world is trying to come to grips with the incredible pain and
suffering that has been caused by the spread of the coronavirus disease.
Here
in the United States, where so many people are dealing with the deleterious effects
of isolation and the physically harmful effects of the disease itself, it is as
if we are all asking when “life as it should be” will be restored. But this is
essentially the same question the disciples were asking in Acts 1: “When will
life give us a break, already?! When will a sense of normalcy be restored and
the suffering come to an end?”
It is
significant that Jesus did not entertain that question when the disciples asked
it. So, my guess is that no clear answers from heaven will be forthcoming when
we ask it, too. Instead, he will respond by reminding us of the kingdom of God
that is already available to us in the midst of our suffering and pain. This
kingdom is made present to us by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit who is
the witness testifying to our hearts that Jesus conquered death itself, let alone
the pain and suffering that operate as precursors to death.
As if
to compensate for our propensity to miss the point of the Gospel, the Spirit
comes alongside us (from within us), even as we are looking outside us for some
kind of magical change in the world, and says: “Why are you just standing there
waiting? Don’t you know you’re not going to be delivered that way? Don’t you
know that, if you want to follow Jesus, you’re going to face the same
difficulty he faced? But, take heart! Because you will never be alone in it.
And I will give you the strength to endure. Your job is not just to wait for a
better day. Your calling is to participate in the eternal kind of life right
here and right now—and to share that life…that love…that hope and grace…as much
as you possibly can…with everyone you meet, everywhere you are. The kingdom is
restored, but not in the way you think. The kingdom is restored…within. This is
a kingdom that can never be shaken, even when it is most severely tested.”
………………….
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