No Earthly Good

Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr

If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this: Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.

C. S. Lewis

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29:4-7

As I’ve been watching recent events unfold, I have thought of these three quotes. But not in the way you might think. I’ve not been thinking that if everyone were a Christian, the world’s problems would be solved (though that would be nice and a good first step toward solving the world’s problems). No. I’ve been thinking that people, by and large, are more interested in life’s big issues than in people.

The religious tradition in which I was raised taught that evangelism (conversion of sinners into Christians) was, is, and evermore shall be the most important goal of any true Christian’s life. Perhaps they were right…or maybe they were just only partly right. Certainly, entry into our Lord’s favor, his grace and mercy, comes only through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross and by our faith in his sacrifice. But we must not forget that even though his death and resurrection were the culminating moments of his time on earth and accomplished his great eternal goal, it was only a single day in his life.

Jesus came to do so much more. He came to change the world. To upset political institutions. To enthrone new kings. To rewrite the laws. To obliterate pagan systems. To eliminate anyone who didn’t think the way he wanted them to think.

Wait. My mistake. That wasn’t him. That was Alexander. Marx. Stalin. Mussolini. Hitler. Khomeini. Hussein.

Jesus was the one who came to show mercy and to love the downcast. The sick. The hurting. The poor. He was a Jew, but he still met the needs of Gentiles. AND, before he ascended into heaven, he told his disciples to go to the entire world and share the message of the Kingdom of Heaven to Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. His mind was on his Father’s will, and his Father’s will was, and is, on each person that Jesus encountered during his life on earth, and on each person we will encounter in this life.

Jesus didn’t come to change political institutions. He came to care about people. To love people. To love his neighbors.

I can’t help but think that if all of us focused on our neighbors instead of ideas, the world would be much better off. We might not agree with the person on either side of our backyard, the other side of the aisle, those of another religion, atheists or theists, or gay or straight or transgender or cisgendered (I don’t even know what that means, to be honest), but we can love them.

Jesus didn’t agree with the actions of the adulterer, but he showed her mercy. He didn’t agree with the theft of the tax collectors, but he asked one to be his disciple. He didn’t want Judas to betray him, but he kept him close and taught and loved him as he did Peter, James, and John. He didn’t approve of the Pharisees and Sadducees, but he prayed for the Father’s mercy to be upon them while he was on the cross.

Jesus’ life was rooted in the work of his Heavenly Father, but it was focused on earthly good.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote this about Jesus:

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Phil 2:4-7)

If we really want to change the world, we might want to consider what Paul wrote. Jesus could have changed the world with a snap of his fingers, but he didn’t. Instead, he set aside his Godly position and became a man living in squalor, dust, sweat, and blood to love the world. But for some reason, we, who CAN’T change the world, often are so caught up in trying to do something we were never empowered to do that we never do what we God wants us to do: to love the people with whom we live and trust that God has everything else under control.

Sadly, however, as I read that passage in Philippians, I wonder if Paul, were he to see us today, would write something a little different to describe what we have become:

Let each of you look only to his own interests, not to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is unlike that in Christ Jesus, you, who are not God, think equality with God is a thing to be grasped, and fill yourselves up, by taking the form of a king or dictator, being born as a man but wanting to be God, you pass judgment on everyone who doesn’t think or behave the way you think they should.

Let that not be written of us. Of you. Of me.