Can Heavenly Pilgrims be earthly citizens?

TROWEL & SWORD

Rev. Bill Berends

An important part of our Reformed tradition is our Kingdom theology. We believe that Christ reigns over all of life, and that he calls us to work in his Kingdom. While we understand that the consummation of God’s Kingdom is still to come, we believe that we must let Christ rule every facet of our lives today.

We participate in extending his Kingdom by proclaiming the good news that Jesus reigns. There are some, however, who look at things differently, stressing either the “already” or the “not yet” of the Kingdom at the expense of the other. We are not so likely to have much in common with the first since those who identify the Kingdom purely with the “good” happens in the present world tend to belong to the liberal camp. But among fellow evangelicals we often meet those who question our own Kingdom emphasis, who argue that as strangers and pilgrims in this world we are not to become involved in social and cultural issues and other “worldly affairs.”

How should we live as pilgrims and strangers in this world? How can we be in the world but not of the world (Jn. 17:11, 16)? How do we function as the salt and light of this world (Mt. 5:13-16) while our citizenship lies elsewhere? Perhaps surprisingly, the Old Testament can help us here, since the OT saints are described as people who “admitted they were aliens and strangers on earth” (Heb. 11:13). A quick glance will show they included people who made a real difference to world history: Noah, Abraham, Moses and David, to name just a few. They are said to have “conquered kingdoms, administered justice … routed foreign armies” (v. 33f.). Yet the list of saints also includes people who, on the surface of things, made no difference to the course of history as they were maligned, tortured, mistreated and persecuted by the world (v. 35f). Of course we know they really did make a difference, because it was their testimony that was used of God to encourage others to acknowledge Jesus as their King. It was their testimony that led to the end of social evils like the gladiatorial games. It was also their testimony that gave the Greek word for witness (marturia) the special meaning it has today: martyr.

It may be countered that the OT cannot really helps us because it represents a different situation, where Israel was a nation in the promised land of Canaan. But in reading the OT it soon becomes clear that this promised land is pointing to something better, since few of its promised blessings were ever fully realised on this earth. More importantly for our purpose, Israel’s history had several phases where God’s people lived as aliens and strangers in a foreign land, first in Egypt, and later in Babylon. It is with respect to the exile in Babylon that Jeremiah gives us a helpful guide as to how we may live as strangers, and yet be true to the vision that ultimately it is not worldly powers but God who rules the earth:

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Jeremiah 29:4-7

The same chapter (v. 9) shows us that Israel’s exile is to last seventy years, which amounts to the familiar “three score and ten” years that we can expect to live on earth (Ps. 90:10). In other words, the passage gives us insight into how to live a life-time as an exile.

A close look at the passage reveals that it echoes much of God’s command to mankind when he first created Adam. We are to marry and increase in number. A common theme in the more world-denying sects and churches is the encouragement to celibacy and abstinence. While it is true that Paul appears to do likewise in 1 Cor. 7, we must not overlook the fact that Paul writes in the context of what he identifies as “the present crisis” (v. 26). In emergency circumstances, such as persecutions, wars or famines, it may well be advisable to postpone or set aside some features of regular life, like getting married and having children. But that is by way of exception. The call to celibacy is not the norm, but something given only to a select few (Mt. 19:12). In normal circumstances most of God’s people are expected to marry and have children (see 1 Tim. 5:14). This creation ordinance was never withdrawn or abrogated.

Together with the command to multiply, the mandate to work God’s creation (Gen. 2:15) also continues to stand. People were to carry on their economic life, building, planting, production and consumption. Social life also receives a mention, with God’s people seeking the shalom and welfare of the city – this despite the fact that Babylon was not the city where God had chosen to dwell. To the Jews it would always remain a foreign city, so that those who feared God would never fully identify it as their home. Yet God-fearing people were to participate in the life of this city, praying for its welfare, because as the city prospered, so they would prosper.

Several stories in the OT throw some interesting light on what it meant for the Jews to participate in the life of Babylon. There are Daniel and his three friends, working for the king, first as advisors, then as administrators and provincial rulers. Without doubt these men worked and prayed for the prosperity of the city. Nehemiah was another who was in the employ of the Persian king, though by his time the seat of power had shifted to Susa. Nehemiah was the king’s cup-bearer, but became his special envoy to Jerusalem. In the same city Mordecai proved himself a faithful citizen when he revealed an assassination attempt on the king and saved the king’s life. His adopted niece became the king’s consort and in time Mordecai became the empire’s second in command as the bearer of the king’s seal. Yet it is clear that Mordecai and Esther retained their Jewish identity, and as exiles they became the target of Haman’s plot against the Jews.

These stories also show that with the worship of God may come trials and persecutions, especially where God’s people oppose social evils and ungodly demands. At times their faith is severely tested. Pressure is applied for them to conform to pagan customs and to give their first loyalties to king and country. This God’s people cannot do, and thus the Jews remained strangers under a succession of worldly powers, right up to NT times (see Acts 2:5; 15:21). These scattered Jews became known as the Diaspora, and it is they that Peter has in mind when he addresses Christians as “elect strangers,” scattered in a Christian dispersion (1 Pet. 1:1). The Diaspora Jews are held up as types for the Christian pilgrim, aliens and strangers without a worldly home. Peter’s advice to them is very similar to that of Jeremiah to the exiles at Babylon.

After addressing his Christian readers as exiles Peter points out that heaven is their real home, that is where their inheritance is kept. They are the people of God’s Kingdom, or in OT language:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
(1 Peter 2:9)

Peter’s readers are identified as a “chosen people”, a “holy nation”, a “people belonging to God” because they represent the new Israel, ruled by David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They are “royal” because they are the children of the great King, and will one day rule with Christ. They are called a “priesthood”, because they must serve and intercede for the world at large. And as prophets they are to “declare” the glorious salvation of Jesus Christ.

There are some interesting echoes of Jeremiah’s instructions to the exiles in Peter’s letter to the strangers and aliens who follow Christ. They, too, are to seek the prosperity of the people among whom they live. They are to “live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Pet. 2:12). They are told: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right” (1 Pet. 2:13-14). Besides the king and his governors, this submission includes the obedience to slave masters, and the submissiveness of wives to unbelieving husbands (2:13 - 3:6).

There is no reason why the “good works” spoken of in this context should be limited to the area of morality. They embrace all manner of service, including the duties of slaves and wives. In the first century these slaves would have served as teachers (pedagogues), administrators, farm hands, and all manner of artisans. Whatever their specialty, slaves are to do these tasks in a way that will win the admiration of unbelievers, to the praise of God. The same counts for the works of free people, and the advice is therefore equally applicable to us today. Teachers, office workers, cleaners, farmers, technicians, home carers and all other workers, whether employers or employees, must do their work diligently and well, so that it will bring prosperity to society and glory to God.

Peter also points out that in their works Christians will not always receive the praise of unbelievers, no matter how excellent their labour. Christians may be accused of doing wrong (2:12), and suffer unjustly as a result (2:19; 3:14). Here we can think of the student who refuses to participate in cheating, the worker who will not join his fellows in an unwarranted strike, the mother who refuses to abort her less than perfect foetus, the scientist who upholds creationism, or the politician who takes an unpopular moral stand. Here Peter’s counsel is that “those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (4:19).

There is a lot more that can be said on the subject in question, but from both Jeremiah and Peter we learn that there is no inconsistency between our status as strangers and pilgrims on earth and taking our tasks as members of society seriously. We are called to be model citizens on earth, precisely because we are citizens in the Kingdom of God. It is by doing what is right on earth that we bring glory to our King in heaven.

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