"After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." - Hebrews 1:3
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" - Jesus, Matthew 28:18
Check out this story here from NPR. In it, Julio Diaz gets mugged. Instead of handing over his money and calling the police, he invites his would-be mugger to lunch. He spends time with this guy and hears his story. In this story, there are two kingdoms at work.
One is the kingdom of the air (Ephesians 2:2)- a satanic system strips a young man of resources and dignity. And so he acts out of despair in that system and puts himself in jeopardy to get a little money. There's nothing the prince of the air likes more than despair and isolation. When people feel alone and desperate, the short term gain often takes precedence over the long-term reality.
Then there's the Kingdom of Heaven. A moment of clarity, a moment of recognizing that while this young man has been traumatized by the prince of the air, he is not the prince of the air. He's a human being. And so Julio invites his mugger to dinner and talks to him. And, in that moment of clarity, the Kingdom breaks in to both people's lives. The mugger gives up his knife, the tool of the prince of the air. Who knows what will come of this story? All I know is that the King is on the throne, and the King is at work.
I think it's horrible that stories like this even have to exist. I think it's tragic that systems are in place that perpetuate poverty and minimize hope. I think it's tragic that human brokenness, within systemic brokenness, live out of despair rather than hope. But I think that we have given the prince of the air too much credit. I think we have allowed ourselves to think that the prince of the air has complete control until Jesus returns. Alas, this is not true. The King is on the throne. And the King is higher than the prince. While the prince of the air has power, the King has more. I think what we witness today in a world seemingly bent on destruction is not that the prince of the air is winning. And we assume that people who make poor choices active agents of the kingdom of the air, and we are the kingdom of Heaven out to crush our human opponents.
I want us to consider another perspective. I want us to remember that our struggle is not against flesh, it is against powers and principalities, or systems (Ephesians 6:12). Our struggle goes deeper than "good guys" versus "bad guys." And, it's our struggle. The King is on the throne and has appointed servants to carry out the King's work. That's us. We shouldn't be asking why someone would be so "bad" as to mug somebody. We should be asking why the Church isn't caring for a teenage boy on the streets of New York City. This is our work, this is what grace prepares us for (Ephesians 2:8-10). So when these stories arise, I get reflective and ask "How am I, Christ's ambassador of reconciliation, working to make stories of compassion the norm until stories of poverty don't exist anymore?" Tough calls, to be sure, but worthwhile ones.
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