Kingdom Prayer: The Gospel of Luke With N.T. WrightIsampula

All along Luke has been telling the story of Jesus as the one through whom the Abrahamic covenant has been fulfilled, with the added layer that this fulfilment is for the whole world. When we see people hoping for and waiting for the return of YHWH and the restoration of Israel, Luke is saying starkly, here it is, in Jesus. And yet, it’s not what many, even the disciples, expected. When the disciples quarrel about who will be the greatest, even right before Jesus’s death, they still haven’t understood the upside-down nature of this Kingdom.

It’s for the whole world, and especially those most cast out by society’s social categories.

This worldwide reach is clearly seen in Jesus's Lordship. Jesus as Lord is Lord in a very different way than the world is used to. He is explicitly anti-Caesar. His Lordship is not won by force and might, but, in a divine reversal, by humility. Likewise, Jesus’s Kingdom is decidedly one of peace. The early church lived out this calling as a counter-cultural strain in a violent world.

What’s astonishing about Jesus’s particular Lordship is how it affects individual persons. Without promoting shallow individualism, God’s vindication doesn’t only work out on the level of nations and world history. The individual humble, poor, meek person is vindicated by God through the lordship of Jesus Christ.

We’re so used to reading salvation in this individualistic sense, so reading the Magnificat that way may be our first inclination. But in its original context, the hope of vindication exists first and foremost for the collective whole of Israel. Through Jesus, we can also hear in the Magnificat a world-changing and world-shaping promise that God will vindicate all individuals who fit this picture of God’s family: the humble, the meek, the outcast.

Because this vindication and lordship is for individual persons, there are individual commands in terms of a new kind of obedience. In Luke, particularly, the commands tend to be about the will to power, wealth, and social standing. All throughout is a not-so-subtle critique of wealth and power, and the way these become idols. Jesus reminds us that human life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, nor in controlling others, nor in social assurance. God is the generous creator. Having faith in that generous creator requires living in a different relationship to what the world deems valuable.

Reflection:

What are some ways you might resist God’s Kingdom way of peace and humility without realising it? Pray for God to showcase His divine reversal in your life.