Eyes to SeeSample

Jesus’s early followers did not expect for a moment that He would die on a cross. They thought He would start a revolution and allow the Jews to triumph over their Roman occupiers. James and John even took Him aside to ask for special places next to Him in the new kingdom. In Mark 10:43-45, Jesus explained that His kingdom was different.

Some people have described Jesus’s kingdom as being backward and upside down: The foolish things shame the wise and the weak confound the strong; the first will be last, and the last will be first (1 Corinthians 1:27; Matthew 20:16). Christ Himself modelled this backward and upside-down life for us, (Philippians 2:5-8).

At the core, Jesus’s life was about sacrifice and service rather than glory and honour, which He calls us to. This means rethinking our idea of success and belief that wealth is the opposite of economic poverty. It means rethinking that the North American way of life is the goal—for us or those living in poverty. Author and theologian Henri Nouwen called the way of Christ “downward mobility.” If we are to be like Jesus, we too must move downward—to serve and sacrifice.

What might having an upside-down and backward life look like in our society? For Dominique of Levis, QC, it looks like La Café Mosaique. Dominique and his wife decided to open a café as a way to serve their neighbours and put faith into action. They asked themselves, “What are the values of the Kingdom of God?” This affected all their business decisions.

Rather than purchasing less expensive products, they ensured all their food and products came from companies that paid fair wages and treated employees with dignity. The Tremblays operated the café as a non-profit, investing in the community rather than making extra for themselves. Rather than relying on the most socially acceptable people to run their café, they decided to put people from the margins at the centre of their business. Café staff and volunteers include people part of a restorative justice program or those referred by psychologists who need healthy connections to a community.

God calls each of us to serve Him differently. These are all upside-down, Kingdom of God choices. It’s not the kind of revolution Jesus’s disciples expected, but as today’s Bible passages show us, it reflects living a life where others are first and we are last.

Living an upside-down life can be expressed in the smallest action and in shaping our businesses, relationships, and homes. When we shine the spotlight on our own lives, are they upside-down and backward, or do they look like the lives of everyone around us? We can begin today to invite God to invert our lives to be like Jesus’s life.

Reflect

In what ways are you living upside-down and backward? What could you do?

What do you fear about living this way? What would the rewards of living this way be?

Pray:

Lord, You certainly do things differently. If I really take your Word seriously, I will live quite differently than the way our culture tells me to live. Help me to learn this upside-down way of seeing and living. Help me to become more like you. Amen