Perspective: The Ways of the World

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The Ways of the World

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)

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Pray then in this way:

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:9a, 10 (NRSV)

Surely nations were not made for war
Or the broken meant to be ignored
Surely this just can't be what You saw
Let Your Kingdom come
Here in my heart

From "The Power of Your Name" by Lincoln Brewster

In the Gospel of Matthew, at the end of a series of parables, Jesus tells a story that might be less of a parable and more of a revelation of things to come.  He says that, when He, the Son of Man, returns to take His place as the Lord of this world, people of all nations will be gathered before Him.  He will then separate the blessed from the condemned in the same way that a shepherd might separate the sheep in his flock from the goats.¹

Christ will say to those at His right,
Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.²
The blessed will not recall ever seeing Christ in need and helping Him, so He will say to them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."³

Christ will then say to those at His left,
You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.⁴
The accursed will not recall ever seeing Christ in need and neglecting Him, so He will say to them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me."⁵

In Terrence Malick's 2011 film The Tree of Life, Mrs. O'Brian says,
The nuns taught us there are two ways through life: the way of nature and the way of grace.  You have to choose which one you'll follow.  Grace doesn't try to please itself.  Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked.  Accepts insults and injuries.  Nature only wants to please itself.  Get others to please it, too.  Likes to lord it over them.  To have its own way.  It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it, when love is smiling through all things.  They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end.⁶
The "two ways through life" Mrs. O'Brian describes are, I think, the ways of life represented in Jesus' account of the last judgment.

The "way of nature" is the way the accursed followed through life.  This way is sometimes described as "survival of the fittest."  It can be described in more human terms as "looking out for number one."  It is the way of getting ahead by neglecting or even trampling other people.  It is the way of serving oneself at the expense of one's neighbor.  This is the way of the world as it is.  The "way of grace," on the other hand, is the way the blessed followed through life.  It is the way of loving one's neighbor and serving those who are in need.

Every way has a destination.  According to Jesus, the blessed, who follow the way of loving their neighbors, will be invited into "the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world."  The Kingdom of God is the place where God reigns.  It is the place where God's will is done "on earth as it is in heaven."⁷  It is the world as God always intended it to be, a world in which nobody is abandoned to hunger, thirst, sickness, and loneliness, because people care for each other.  According to Jesus, the accursed, who follow the way of serving themselves by ignoring the needy and trampling the weak, will be sentenced to "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."  Their destructive way of life is not a way that will persist when the world is finally set right.

The way of serving oneself at the expense of one's neighbor might be the way of world as it currently is, but it is not the way of the world as it was meant to be, and, by God's grace, it will not be the way of the world as it will be.  Every day, followers of Christ around the world pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God, as He taught.⁸  There is a reason Jesus' announcement of the coming of God's kingdom is accompanied by a call to repentance.⁹  If we want to be part of the world to come, we need to change the way we live in the world today.


Notes:

1. Matthew 25:31-33
2. Matthew 25:34-36 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 25:37-40 (NRSV)
4. Matthew 25:41-43 (NRSV)
5. Matthew 25:44-45 (NRSV)
6. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/quotes/
7. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
8. Matthew 6:9-10
9. Matthew 4:17

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