We can’t talk about the Kingdom of God without talking about the cross.
The cross was not a detour. Instead, the way of the cross is the way of the Kingdom.
The cross isn’t where God failed and had to improvise. It’s where God reigned supreme, despite our ignorance and violence.
This is one of the great paradoxes (and there are many) of Christian faith. Namely, the throne of the world’s true King was not made of gold, but of wood. Christ embraced His reign not in a palace, but upon a hill called Golgotha, outside the city walls.
How often we forget that when Jesus called people to follow Him, He didn’t hand them a set of beliefs to memorize. Instead, He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”
This is the way of the Kingdom.
As difficult as it is to understand, the Kingdom of God is about self-giving, nonviolent love.
It is about mercy that disarms.
It is about a forgiveness that is offered — without any conditions.
It is about enemy love that makes no earthly sense.
And it is about a refusal to meet violence with violence.
Recall that Jesus didn’t storm Jerusalem with an army of homicidal warriors armed with carnal weapons. Instead, He wept over the city, which was ultimately overthrown for its rejection of nonviolent love.
Jesus didn’t destroy His enemies through homicidal violence. He defeated them through nonviolent love and died while praying for them.
And it is this model that He invited us to follow.
The early church understood this. The lives of many early Christians were marked by the same humility and courage that defined Jesus. They didn’t seek power over others but sought to serve “the least of these.” And they didn’t fight to preserve their lives but rather laid them down in nonviolent love.
Somewhere along the way, we lost touch with this. (Specifically, around the time of Constantine… but more on that later.) Today, we’ve made the cross a symbol of salvation but have forgotten that it was actually a way of life. We built creeds to profess, but not crosses to carry.
But there’s good news as the invitation still stands.
Even today, in our confused 21st century, the Kingdom of God still comes, not through coercion or conquest, but through cruciform love.
When we view the way of the Kingdom through the way of the cross, it reorients everything and literally reshapes how we think about discipleship, power, and what it means to “win” in this world.
We know we are entering the Kingdom when we stop asking, “How do I get ahead of others?” and start asking, “Who can I serve?”
So too, we know the Kingdom of God has come near to us when we stop praying for God to destroy our enemies and instead start learning how to bless them.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit… the meek… the peacemakers.” These are the virtues of the Kingdom that lead us to live cross-shaped lives.
So, if we claim to follow Jesus, we must follow Him into the darkest places, even into the depths of self-giving, nonviolent love of our gravest enemies.
Because in the Kingdom, the way up is down — and the path to glory runs straight through Golgotha.
If we truly want to see heaven on earth, we’ll find it not by grasping for political power, but by daily picking up our cross with a heart of service and walking in the way of our glorious King.
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