Pentecost 51 Inside Out, Upside Down, Right Side Up

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 51 Inside Out, Upside Down, Right Side Up

Jesus turned the world inside out, upside down and right side up. He turned the world inside out to show its spiritual emptiness thus shifting the focus to Himself in order to place God on top and the world on the bottom. For this He was condemned by the world to die on the Cross. As we have already established the world is secular society, human community without God. Personal and shared sin was the substance of all secular society, all its institutions, its structures, its leadership and its people (actually, it still is). Here is where His innocence was offered to answer for our guilt, His goodness offered as a substitute for our sin and His perfection offered in place of our imperfections.

Another aspect of His taking our place is the heartless leadership of institutions in Jesus’ time, the state, religion and communities, rallying and conspiring out of fear to preserve their power at His expense. Religious and political leaders held Jesus to be a threat to them personally not because He exercised their kind of power but because He led spiritually from His heart to the hearts of others. Authority at every level had been compromised by the spirit of fear and still is today.

You can tell Jesus touched the heart of Pontius Pilate. Pilate was reluctant to condemn Jesus. You can tell that because Pilate initially responded that he could find no fault in Jesus. But his fear overrode his recognition of Jesus’ innocence and he unwillingly turned him over to be crucified. Even the high priest Caiaphas said it was better that Jesus die than the nation suffer. This is so common in any institution’s leadership where those in charge are constantly looking over their shoulder to preserve their position, power and status. If something goes wrong in a corporate structure it is usually the one with the least power or in fear of the loss of their job that suffers. And too, management is always being rearranged out of fear to find the combination that preserves the institution. This is as true of an institutional church as any other structure. It really is a heart matter isn’t it?

This is the message of the Cross: Jesus gave His life for our fearful hearts. He offered His perfect heart as the only possible sacrifice that could save our hearts. “It is unusual for anyone to die for a godly person. Maybe someone would be willing to die for a good person. But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The blood of Christ has made us right with God. So we are even more sure that Jesus will save us from God's anger (Rom.5:8-9 NIRV).”

The Cross showed the world (secular society) has no heart and never will. Institutions and structures from nations to churches have no hearts. Only God and people have hearts and if the people in institutions come to know Christ and His heart personally then and only then can institutions be reconciled to God and work properly. Jesus turned the world inside out (exposed the devil, sin and evil), upside down (pride, power, status, as ultimately meaningless) and right side up (Jesus as Savior and Lord and the Holy Spirit as life through the Word).

“God made him who had no sin to be sin[ for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2Cor.5:21 NIV).”

Stay tuned…….