A nice observation by Clarence Jordan about the way in which Jesus’ choice of the twelve actually demonstrated the working of the kingdom at the same time as he was preparing the twelve to proclaim the kingdom.
Jordan points out that if you put a tax-collector (publican) and a zealot at close quarters you need more than a theory, you need a life changing force.
Christians have diminished this witness by affirming the theory of the Gospel and that we’re all one people in the kingdom of God, but dividing and separating ourselves into smaller and smaller kingdom-lets because that’s easier than living with the tension of unity in our differences.
… [Jesus]So on the morning of the resurrection, God put life in the present tense, not in the future. He gave us not a promise, but a presence. Not a hope for the future, but power for the present. Not so much the assurance that we shall live someday, but that he is risen today. Jesus’ resurrection is not to convince the incredulous, nor to reassure the fearful, but to enkindle the believers. The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a Spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church. We are the evidence of the resurrection. Look at what he has done to us and is doing through us.
110″
Clarence Jordan, The Inconvenient Gospel, Plough Publishing House, 2022, pgs. 74-76.
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