I have been considering the postmodern reaction toward metanarratives that are used to impose cultural biases. When Jesus began preaching the gospel of the kingdom he faced many competing understandings of life even within Israel. People had so many hurdles to overcome, if they were to understand the kingdom of heaven he preached. The Essennes were so negative about the temple and life under Rome that they "headed for the hills" and a more serious faith. The Pharisees looked for a more tenacious response that was to be lived out in th.e face of the occupying Roman forces. The Hasmoneans blended their Jewish understanding with Greco-Roman Culture like a modern New Ager swimming in the winds of change. We could go on to list even more people groups within the Jewish nation; all of them with a bit different story of what God is at work doing. Each world-view had its own prejudices and misconceptions. Jesus didn't appeal to the Maccabeans, or to one of the prophets or even to Moses as other people did. I believe that Jesus took his hearers way back to the vision of the Garden of Eden and the new man. He subverted the cultural understanding and laid a foundation in his person (the rock) which is eternal and universal. Jesus was there at the beginning. after all, with the Father and the Spirit. He quoted from the Torah but spoke authoritatively from his vision of creation about what it really means to be human as he considered the gosple of the kingdom. Adam and Eve and Jesus walk together to show what our world would look like if we lived in God.
Rather than settle for "the way it is" he fanned the flames of the imagination so that people might begin to envision the kingdom and actually live the words of Jesus. Matt. 5:22-48 get us thinking "what if" we actually began to live as we are meant to live and as the kingdom of God promises? When Jesus talks about anger, lust, sex, marriage and divorce as well as oaths, retaliation and loving our enemies he has in mind the power of the blessing of his beatitudes. When we are at the evangelistic end of our rope (poor in Spirit) then we are on the verge of a spiritual awakening. The blessing of being "poor in Spirit" is the blessing of being restored to a God-conscious, God-initiative and God-compassion.
Jesus offers to walk alongside you if you will work out this stuff as you prayerfull become more aware of the holiness of his presence with us in the Holy Spirit. What if God really came to live in you by his Spirit so that you really began to live in the power of Jesus?
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