Kingdom Space

[HKHaugan]

You’ve heard the expression, “Home is where the heart is.“ Well it means even more when you read John 14:2 where Jesus says, “In my Father’s house (Gk. monai) are many mansions (Gk. menai).” It is far more extensive in meaning than homes and rooms. There is an elegance in the phrase that leaps beyond the limited idea of how we use the words ‘house’ and ‘room.’ The very idea that Jesus is going to prepare a place in His Father’s House means an exceedingly elevated level above a ‘tent’ or ‘flat’ or ‘living room‘ or ‘apartment’ or even a large lavishly adorned house in an exclusive gated waterfront neighborhood.

No wonder Jesus reacted so harshly to the presence of moneychangers and animal vendors in the courts of the Temple (John 2:15). Their minds and hearts had become oblivious and indifferent to the symbol they were desecrating, the physical Temple that was the visual reminder of God’s real presence in a fallen world. They truly had made His Father’s House a ‘den of thieves.’ Thieves are oblivious and indifferent, scheming and lustful, rationalizing and self-justifying, using darkness as their cover and conspiracy as their spirit. Just like Adam and Eve, they had lost their spiritual connection to their Creator, thus their awe and respect for Him and the spiritual reminders of His presence.

But there is one more really significant thing Jesus confronted those offenders with after his bold action. When asked about His authority He replied, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days”…”but the temple He had spoken of was His body (John 2:19,21).” He was declaring that His body was a spiritual body, the final Temple of God (Rev.21:22) thus establishing two eternal truths, Jesus’ faith on the Cross and the bodily resurrection for those who trust Him.

Further this lays the groundwork to make clear that our bodies individually and corporately become temples of worship in Spirit and truth (John 4:24). “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you (1Cor.3:16)?” Just like Jesus was a moving temple in His Galilean mission we too are moving temples of worship, discipleship, ministry and mission.

It seems very early in His mission Jesus was making a declaration of independence from religion and the world to serving a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Spirit, the Kingdom of a heart to heart encounter with God. We are no longer under the authority of the world we see but the Kingdom of the heart and hearts we can’t see, the one we pray to the Father, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven (Matt.6:10).”

The best place to start is in Gen.1:26 where each of us is created in the image and likeness of God. God is three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Three in One, One in Three. He has a multitude of heavenly hosts. He is the ultimate personal, relational and spiritual existence and experience. His nature is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal.5:22,23). So we need to talk about a mansion as an elegant spiritual, personal and interpersonal reality that embraces our individuality. Just as we make a place in our heart for others so God has made a place for us in His heart, His mind and His Spirit. God’s House is His embrace. Our body is our house and it was created to experience His embrace.

When we have a relationship with another person we have taken them into a room in our heart that is a singular place between us and no one else. We may share the influence a person has upon us whatever it may be but it is a room, a mansion if you will. If we can begin to shift our thinking into relationship, each one is a room. When Jesus is upset at the Temple (John 4:13-22) and drives out the cattle and turns over the tables of the moneychangers He is doing and saying far more than just removing business affairs from the Temple.

The Temple was the physical symbol of the presence of God just as the Ark of the Covenant in the Tent of Meeting was to Moses and the Hebrews in their wilderness journeys. Everything in the Temple from its priesthood, its vestments, to its rooms, to its liturgies, all signified God was met within it. The Temple was not just the building but also its surrounding courts and the land upon which it stood. It was the specific holy place, ‘holy’ meaning set apart for God Himself and His gathered family. It was the center for a personal and interpersonal exchange with God. It was a spiritual haven where God’s Word, God’s worship, God’s presence drew the world out of the heart and filled the emptiness with His fullness.

We are each temples. The Body of Christ is a temple and Jesus Himself is the Temple, the eternal Temple. The relationships we have in Jesus are rooms in that Temple. Brothers and sisters in the Spirit are one in Him. Each of us in Christ is unique as He made us. Our temple walls are our uniqueness. They are not ‘stay out, don’t get close’ walls protecting our ego. They are ‘come in’ walls, joined walls, compatible walls that outline our uniqueness in Christ. We see each other clearly, communicate clearly and honestly and work together clearly and honestly. The Holy Trinity, the Three-in-One, is our model. They are completely one yet three distinct persons. In Christ we are all one yet distinct in Him.

We know the God to whom we belong and regardless of response stand on His Word. We are exposed openly to the world and follow the example of that exposure just as Jesus modeled. Just as the Lord Jesus is a ‘what you see is what you get’ Lord, so we are called to have that kind of openness which only comes through faith in Him.

The temple---Jesus, the gathered believers, the individual---the place of embrace where God sets the pace to fill His space with His grace to forgive and replace face to face, sin’s clutching chase canceled on the Cross, where Jesus made His case then rose to be our base, to Him we trace God’s open heart-embrace.

Paul articulately describes our posture in this world, “This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar - to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. Yes, we who are living are always being exposed to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be plainly seen in our mortal lives. We are always facing death, but this means that you know more and more of life (2Cor.4:7-12 J.B.Phillips Translation).”