"How Shall the Kingdom be Won?"

There is much ado these days about various political issues. Each side assuming that they are taking the moral high ground and that, if the other side wins, Armageddon will surely be upon us. As Bono says, "the left mocks the right, the right thinks it's right..." (if you have ever read my blog, you can probably find the rest of this quote). But, all of this jibber-jabbering has got me to thinking. How shall the kingdom of God really be won? In Matthew 4, the devil tempts Jesus prior to Jesus beginning his public ministry. In the final temptation, the devil offers to give Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world. Jesus can be king. He can be in charge. All he has to do is to say “yes” and he can bring peace and justice to all the world. That would be tempting, being king. You can make all the rules. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Let love rule. Do whatever you want. You can create a just and loving world. But, Jesus says “no.” And the devil – he was mad – so he went down to Georgia.
This raises a question. Why did the devil feel the need to tempt Jesus in the first place? And why did Jesus say no? We cannot just read this story and just say Jesus won – yippee. In this story, I believe, we begin to see the beginning of how the kingdom of God is to be won (at least, how it will NOT be won). And that is why the devil tempted Jesus. He knew that if Jesus were faithful to his mission, it would be all over for him.
Those who think that the kingdom of God can be won in Washington, D.C. or Sacramento, California or (enter your state capital here) are buying into the devil's temptation to be king. But, the problem is, if Jesus was not going to be king, than surely no one on this earth is qualified. Therfore, the kingdom of God must be won another way. But, how? As Bono says, "maybe the distance that grace covered on the cross gives us a clue." The kingdom of God is not a political reality; it is a spiritual one. That is not to say that it does not have real world, even political ramificiations. It does. It must. However, it cannot be won through the political process. A holy end can never be won through corrupt means (which, by the way, is why terrorism conducted by people of any religion will never bring about righteous ends). Only when the church follows Jesus' example and models for the word the self-giving, sacrificial love that Jesus modeled on the cross can the kingdom of God be won. More on this later...