Loading...Have you ever visited England? After the North Sea my favorite place to visit is Windsor Castle. The stone fortresses and green grounds, the ornate rugs and elaborate decorations, the suits of armor and swords and gilded furnishings everywhere captivated me when I visited. What I walked away with wasn’t the impression all that fanciness left on me. Instead, I felt that I had just visited someone’s home. I felt “right at home.” Windsor may contain items that look like they belong in a museum but I truly felt as if the Queen herself might just come around the corner at any moment. And, I mean, if she did, would I be invited for…..tea?
If I were to be transferred from Pewee Valley into another kingdom, Windsor would be ok.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul doesn’t describe a kingdom like England or a castle like Windsor. Paul describes Jesus as a mighty monarch and wondrous ruler who rescues subjects from the power of darkness, transfers them to a new kingdom of which Jesus is the creator. He gives his subjects a saintly, shiny, inheritance. The inheritance Jesus gives is redemption, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation and peace. Most mysterious to me is that the strength of Jesus as a ruler is obtainable by all subjects of his kingdom! May you indeed be made strong in the strength of Jesus.
His is a strength gained by his blood shed on the cross.
Naturally a person wouldn’t think that bleeding on a cross would be the source of strength — quite the opposite. That’s the unique power of Christ’s kingdom. Heaven’s political system is dependant upon sacrifice. Upon what are earth’s political systems dependent? The answer is different in different tribes.
Before the Constitutional Monarchy, Windsor withstood many changing political systems. Some rulers were conquered there, others took refuge there. Historically, Windsor served as a barracks and a prison. It’s seen civil war and hosted state visits. Last summer a royal wedding was held there. Today Windsor is the weekend home of Queen Elizabeth. Can you see her walking her corgis along the stone pavers? For sixty-five of her ninety-three years she has reigned over the throne of Windsor, witnessing many political systems come and go around the globe. What makes for a palace and a ruler who can abide?
Every once in awhile I’ll find a pamphlet in a public place with the drawing of a heart and inside the heart is a drawing of a chair. The question in the pamphlet is “Who is seated here?” If you browse for this image you will find an image of a Self-Directed Heart with one list of behaviors and a Christ-Directed Heart with a different list of behaviors. The point of the pamphlet is that there is a goal to make yourself adhere to one of those lists and avoid the other.
When I was a teenager, a friend took me to get a soda so she could save me. (In the eighties it was called a Coke Date). She had the pamphlet with the chair inside the heart and she read it all to me over the Coke-a-cola. Then she asked me if I wanted Jesus to be king of my heart. Boy, did I. I hoped that when I said her prayer Jesus would elbow his way past the Self-Directed List to the Christ-Directed List. I assumed all future decision-making would be super easy if Jesus was in control of me. I also hoped to see lightning flash when Jesus took the chair because there is lightning mentioned in the book of Revelation which describes a whole lot Jesus as beating all the bad guys. Imagine not having to worry at all about behaviors on the Self-Directed list. I said the prayer. Jesus did not elbow his way to the chair of my heart. I did not see lightning. My friend achieved her goal of saving me and I never saw her again.
Let me save you — from thinking a pamphlet will make your life easy or full of lightning. Life just contains lists. Both the Self-Directed List and the Christt-Centered list contain purely human attributes. Human attributes are the reason God became incarnate. And God’s incarnation in Jesus is fulfilled in our reading from Luke 23. Human attributes are the reason Jesus surrenders the throne he is due for the punishment we are due. Not only that, but at his crucifixion Jesus promises a low down dirty criminal a place in Paradise — and we all know exactly which list of behaviors that criminal adhered to. Not only does Jesus surrender his heavenly throne to accept our earthly punishment he brings that stinking criminal with him to the throne of God’s mercy. Shouldn’t Jesus only bring people who adhere to the Christ-Centered list to Paradise?
How big is Paradise? I’ve read centuries of stories of thieves and scoundrels and criminals and other people whose behavior is from the Self-Directed list (or worse, from the Dirty-Low-Down-Cheating-Son-of-Gun list.) In all those stories God forgives Dirty-Low-Down-Cheating-Son-of-Guns!
I’ve met some Dirty-Low-Down-Cheating-Son-of-Guns who tell me about how much God has forgiven them. The reason they quit behaving like Dirty-Low-Down-Cheating-Son-of-Guns is because they experienced forgiveness. They admit there is no reason for the King of the Cross to make a place for them in his home, yet they have learned to make themselves at home in Jesus and in his kingdom of forgiveness.
The nerve of God. Mercy is not pamphlet protocol. If God is not seated in the pilot’s chair of my heart I can only depend upon God’s mercy. Jesus tells the criminal he will be with him in Paradise, the place where God’s mercy rules over all the Self-Directed Sons-of-Guns.
Let’s dig deeper into the furnishings of the human heart. I don’t know anyone who thinks Queen Elizabeth is in control of Great Britain. That’s just not the way the political system there is set up. But does Queen Elizabeth govern? My Nana, to her dying day, regarded herself as a loyal subject of Her Majesty and made me believe that at any moment were I to meet Her Royal Highness I must be clean, well-dressed, well-mannered, and prepared to accept her invitation to tea. See the difference. While Nana was not controlled by Queen Elizabeth, she certainly devoted herself to the British Crown.
I still keep my eye open for lightning. But I do not keep lists or tell myself that Jesus is in control. Jesus is not in control. He is in love.
Love is the reason a person sacrifices their own life for the sake of some else’s salvation. Salvation is the mission of the kingdom to which Jesus transfers those who have been washed in that blood of peace. Sounds gross. But bloodshed is the secret to the strength of King Jesus. Dying on the cross makes Jesus look like the human weakling he is and proves his love like the powerful savior he is.
Salvation is designed for the sake of every heart. But I only believe in chairs. Twenty-four chairs in heaven for the twenty-four elders. The elders sit on those chairs so they can lead others in worshiping the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world in order to fulfill all the plans and promises made to every Dirty-Low-Down-Cheating-Son-of-Gun. The promise of eternal life is fulfilled by the blood shed on the Cross. (Rev 4:10 1 Peter 1:20)
Take a moment to describe the furnishings of your heart. If people bought tickets to visit it would they say it looks like it was a palace or a prison? God makes a home in Jesus so Jesus can makes us a home in heaven. Our transfer from one kingdom to another requires a sacrifice of blood. That blood bestows upon every subject of Christ the King the strength to endure everything with patience, joy, and thanksgiving regardless of the state of the furniture in your heart. Make yourself right at home in God’s heart.
