The Kingdom of God Isn’t Found in a Book
Time it is for you to look past a pile of old books, hmm?
More than any other topic, Jesus told stories about the kingdom of God. It’s a phrase that our modern ears stumble over. We don’t tend to talk of kingdoms in our modern world, at least not in the U.S. We overthrew a King when our nation began, so the word can have a negative connotation. What in the world was Jesus talking about here? Or was it even of this world?
Theologian Dallas Willard defines kingdom of God as the range of God’s effective will, where what God wants done gets done. Jesus makes it clear that one can’t pinpoint the kingdom of God on a map—Luke 17:21—or discover its secrets in a book. We find the kingdom as we follow Jesus day-by-day. Pastor Eugene Petersen referred to it as “a long obedience in the same direction”.
When Jesus talked about the Kingdom, he tended to do it in the context of stories called parables, and used metaphors to describe what the Kingdom was like. I think our modern stories (e.g., books, movies) can also reveal the Kingdom of God. We just need eyes that see and ears that hear. For example, one of my favorite scenes in The Last Jedi (Star Wars Episode VIII) is an exchange between Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his former master Yoda.
When The Force Awakens (Star Wars Episode VII) began, Luke hadn’t been seen or heard from in years. The whole plot centered around the Resistance (the good guys) going to great lengths to find a map to Luke’s location. Meanwhile a young girl named Rey experienced an "awakening" and discovered she had great deal of raw potential with the Force. With the help of her friend Finn, she fought a wounded Kylo Ren to a draw. At the end of Episode VII, Rey follows the map to seek Luke out to ask him to train her further in the ways of the Force.
The Force Awakens ends where The Last Jedi begins, with Rey presenting Luke with his old lightsaber. To her surprise, Luke tosses the lightsaber over his shoulder and walks away. He refuses to help Rey at first. Later, he reluctantly agrees to give her a few lessons—but only to show her why it’s time for the Jedi Order to end. As the plot unfolds, Rey discovers that Luke has cut himself off from the Force, and learns more about why—his failure with Ben Solo. When it becomes clear Luke will not leave the island to help the Resistance, Rey departs Ahch-To to confront Kylo Ren on her own, and try to turn him back to the light. This leaves Luke alone to contemplate things. As he prepares to destroy the Jedi Temple he has an encounter with his old mentor Yoda.
The Force Awakens ends where The Last Jedi begins, with Rey presenting Luke with his old lightsaber. To her surprise, Luke tosses the lightsaber over his shoulder and walks away. He refuses to help Rey at first. Later, he reluctantly agrees to give her a few lessons—but only to show her why it’s time for the Jedi Order to end. As the plot unfolds, Rey discovers that Luke has cut himself off from the Force, and learns more about why—his failure with Ben Solo. When it becomes clear Luke will not leave the island to help the Resistance, Rey departs Ahch-To to confront Kylo Ren on her own, and try to turn him back to the light. This leaves Luke alone to contemplate things. As he prepares to destroy the Jedi Temple he has an encounter with his old mentor Yoda.
Luke Skywalker: [Yoda appears as a ghost] Master Yoda.
Yoda: Young Skywalker.
Luke Skywalker: I'm ending all of this. The tree, the texts, the Jedi. I'm going to burn it all down.
Yoda: [Yoda summons lightning to burn down the tree and the Jedi texts. He laughs] Ah, Skywalker. Missed you, have I.
Luke Skywalker: So, it is time for the Jedi Order to end.
Yoda: Time it is for you to look past a pile of old books, hmm?
Luke Skywalker: The sacred Jedi texts?
Yoda: Oh, read them, have you? Page-turners they were not. Yes, yes, yes. Wisdom they held, but that library contained nothing that the girl Rey does not already possess. Skywalker, still looking to the horizon. Never here, now, hmm? The need in front of your nose.
Luke Skywalker: I was weak. Unwise.
Yoda: Lost Ben Solo you did. Lose Rey we must not.
Luke Skywalker: I can't be what she needs me to be.
Yoda: Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.
From the moment I first heard these words in the theater, they have been speaking to me. And as I’ve pondered what they were trying to say, I think I’ve discerned three nuggets of Kingdom-wisdom. (Like any good story, there is probably more than what I’ve identified; feel free to mine deeper on your own.)
Jesus said that the Kingdom spreads slowly but steadily: like yeast in bread that gradually spreads over the whole loaf, or a tiny seed that eventually grows into a huge bush, or a tiny spark that could ignite an entire forest. Kingdom-wisdom must be intentionally searched out—and then it must be savored, and allowed to soak in. In other words, it takes time to learn to walk in the way of Jesus. In that spirit I will break the article into a series of three posts, so we have time to ponder each nugget of wisdom, before moving to the next.
For my first nugget of Kingdom-wisdom, let’s focus on the first few lines of dialogue above. Luke is flummoxed about what to do with Rey. In essence, the Force found Rey, and then Rey sought out Luke. She appears on Ahch-To hoping Luke will train her the ways of the Force. She has raw ability but she needs a teacher to refine her skill—much like Luke did years ago. Luke can clearly sense that Rey has great potential in the Force; but that is precisely what worries him. The last student he took on with such raw power and potential in the Force was his nephew Ben Solo—and Ben ended up betraying him. Worse yet, Luke either didn’t see it coming or maybe he chose to ignore the "red flags" he saw because he had enough hubris to think he could “handle it”. As he says to Rey at one point: “It didn’t scare me enough then—it does now.”
Luke thinks if he destroys the Jedi Temple and the sacred texts he can put an end to his concerns. That’s when Master Yoda—who mentored Luke in earlier Star Wars films—appears as a Force Ghost, and the following conversation ensues.
Luke thinks if he destroys the Jedi Temple and the sacred texts he can put an end to his concerns. That’s when Master Yoda—who mentored Luke in earlier Star Wars films—appears as a Force Ghost, and the following conversation ensues.
To Luke’s surprise, Master Yoda doesn’t try to stop him from burning down the Jedi Temple, and the tree where the Sacred Jedi Texts are stored. Quite the contrary, he summons lightning to expedite the destruction! Yoda reminds Luke that while the sacred texts certainly contained wisdom, what Rey needs—and also what Luke needs—right now isn’t found in any book. When Luke questions Yoda about letting the texts burn, I love his response: “Oh, read them, have you? Page turners they were not.”
I think there’s Kingdom-wisdom in this reply. Our Bible is a sacred text inspired by God that contains pearls of great wisdom. The Bible tells the Story of God's people; we "mine its treasures" to learn about God. However, anyone who has spent time reading the Bible knows there are sections of the Bible that aren’t exactly “page-turners”. Certain sections of Scripture don’t make for inspiring storytelling. That’s because they were never intended to. As author Benjamin Corey says it, all scripture isn’t in “red letters”. [1] That is to say, contrary to how we’ve sometimes come to view it, every word of the Bible wasn’t spoken by Jesus. We find a variety of different authors and genres of literature in the Bible and we need to understand the original context of what we read as we seek to interpret it and apply Scripture to real-life situations in our world today. Words actually spoken by Jesus in the Gospels may need be given higher priority than other portions of Scripture.
The true wisdom of the kingdom of God is not discovered in a sacred text containing many words, it’s discovered in a relationship with the living Word of God.
The true wisdom of the kingdom of God is not discovered in a sacred text containing many words, it's discovered in a relationship with the living Word of God. As Corey puts it, “the Bible isn’t the fourth person of the Trinity”—i.e., the Bible isn’t God. While we don’t go so far as Master Yoda, and burn our Sacred Text (which we later find out he actually didn’t do either!) this scene does remind us that if every Bible ever made burned, we would still have the Word of God. Christians have a living, breathing relationship with the Word of God (the Greek word John uses is logos) in the flesh as revealed in Jesus—see Jesus: A God Who Was Human. We interpret the words of Scripture through the lens of Jesus not the other way around.
Next: The Kingdom of God is "In Front of Our Nose"
Next: The Kingdom of God is "In Front of Our Nose"
[1] See Chapter 3 of Corey’s book, Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith (2017; Harper Collins), to learn more about these ideas.
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