Howdy! One of the lesser -known realities of
American history is that the Emancipation Proclamation,
the end of the Civil War, and the lived experience
of freedom of those who had been enslaved did
not happen at the same moment. The Emancipation
Proclamation was issued on January 1st, 1863
by President Abraham Lincoln, changing the legal
status of more than 3 .5 million enslaved African
Americans in the Confederate states from enslaved
to free. On paper, slavery was abolished. Legally,
chains were broken. The Civil War itself enacted
after the Confederate states attempted to secede
from the Union over the asserted rights of states
to hold slaves effectively ended in the spring
of 1865, two years later. Freedom had already
been enacted. The system that upheld slavery
had collapsed. And yet, in many places, enslaved
people were still working the fields, still taking
orders, still living as if nothing had changed.
Not because freedom wasn't real, but because
the message hadn't reached them yet. It wasn't
until months later on what we now call Juneteenth
that Union soldiers arrived in Texas and announced
what had already been true. You are free. The
independence that had happened for others on
July 4th, 1776 had finally happened for those
who had been slaves. And that announcement mattered.
Because freedom that is real but unknown cannot
be lived. Freedom that is declared but unheard
cannot be embodied. Until the news arrives, people
continue to live as if the old order still holds.
That doesn't mean the Emancipation Proclamation
failed. It means the good news had to be carried,
spoken, and received. And even then... Learning
to live as free people took time. Habits of fear,
submission, and survival don't dissolve overnight.
It required trust and reimagining what life could
be. Identity doesn't change at the speed of legislation.
And even then, many of those who had been freed
were still struggling with a life that had not
been embodied with land, with funding. with a
way to make a life for themselves outside of
slavery, becoming sharecroppers because there
was nothing else for them. The distinction matters
because declaring something also requires a life
that makes it real. Even years later, seeing
how many would still treat those with darker
skin as being lesser people, revealed that the
Declaration still struggled in the hearts of
many. But you see, this type of distinction matters
when we talk about the Gospel as well. Because
the comparison is so similar. The Gospel is not
simply that something has happened. It is that
something is happening and must now be announced,
received, and lived into. And this whole timeline
helps us to understand how Jesus announced the
kingdom of heaven, even before the cross, even
before the resurrection, even before the climactic
moment. Just as the Emancipation Proclamation
had happened, even before the war had ended,
and the war had ended even before it had truly
been felt throughout. Even so, we look at what
it was for the Kingdom of Heaven to be proclaimed
before the cross and even after the cross that
we are still looking to embody and live out what
it means in our lives of faith. You see, even
before the cross, before the resurrection, before
the climactic moment, Jesus walks the outskirts
of those who had usually been rejected. He proclaims
the kingdom. He heals. He calls people to follow.
He teaches people how to live under a reign that
has already drawn near, because freedom has come.
And now people had to learn how to live like
it was true, even before the final battle on
the cross had been fought. You see, we today
often jump straight to the crucifixion and resurrection,
not just as the center of the Gospel, which it
is, but as if they are the only thing that matters.
But Jesus traveling the countryside is saying
the kingdom of God has come near as he spends
time with them taking all of the brokenness he
came across including their prejudices and their
mistaken assumptions about God and the world
and writing the wrongs that others avoided and
that's before the cross So how can Jesus say
that time is fulfilled? How can he say the kingdom
of God has come upon you? has come to you, is
among you, present. Zacchaeus hears Jesus say,
today salvation has come to this house, not someday,
not later, today. People didn't yet understand
that Jesus would die and rise again. So when
they experienced the kingdom throughout his ministry,
what did it mean to them? It meant restoration.
It meant forgiveness. It meant healing. It meant
belonging. and the Kingdom things God always
had in mind, even in the Old Testament. But He
had to send His Son to finally get the reality
across, to finally make it real, to finally restore
the world fully. Too often we take the Gospel,
which in Scripture is a story you walk into,
and reduce it to a transaction you mentally agree
with. Say the prayer to God, affirm the facts
about Jesus, secure the afterlife of heaven by
the power of the Spirit. You have the verbal
receipt just in case God asks for proof of purchase
when you get to the pearly gates. See, that version
of Christianity, though, treats the cross and
resurrection like a warranty card instead of
the culmination of a lived kingdom. But in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, no one is invited to believe
an idea. They are invited to follow a person.
Belief is assumed as they follow, not a separate
action. Allegiance to Christ is the point. Before
anyone understands the cross, Jesus is announcing
the Kingdom of God has come near. That is not
shorthand for, I will die later. It is a claim
that God's reign is becoming visible, tangible,
embodied at that moment. Salvation is already
happening. Every part of the brokenness of the
world is being restored in Christ. Healing is
kingdom. Forgiveness is kingdom. Table fellowship
is kingdom. Casting out demons is kingdom. Calling
fishermen is kingdom. The cross is not detached
from all of that. It is the moment where the
brokenness of the world finally collides with
the faithfulness of God. God himself suffers
for our sinful rejection, our sinful ways, our
sinful humanity, and the resurrection is God
restoring. what the world tried to destroy. Just
like God had restored the brokenness of the world
through Jesus throughout His earthly ministry,
He then restores the brokenness of crucifying
the Son of God by bringing Him back to life and
restoring Him to His eternal body. But remove
the ministry from that and keep only the final
mechanism of the cross and resurrection? and
the cross becomes an abstract idea. No wonder
people who don't grow up in church ask, why would
God choose such a strange, brutal plan for salvation?
Because they don't know the context in which
everything had happened. Jesus does not make
a beeline for Jerusalem running from these places
like He's checking items off of a crucifixion
to -do list. He walks the long way around. He
spends time in places that no one expects anything
to happen. Galilee, Decapolis, villages, fishing
boats, roads and homes and fields. This is not
wasted time just biding that time until he gets
to Jerusalem. This is all revelation. The kingdom
is not unveiled first. at the altar of the cross.
Matthew begins the story in Zebulun and Naphtali,
borderlands, compromised places, Galilee of the
nations. By the time Jesus reaches Jerusalem,
people already know what kind of king He is.
They've seen it. They've known it. He restores
everyone and everything. Jesus reveals God's
heart for those outside religious expectations.
He prevents the Messiah from being claimed only
by cultural or spiritual elites, as if only the
Jews will be the ones to know Him and to trust
Him. He shows the kingdom as something that finds
people, not something that people have to somehow
qualify for, which is much of what even those
within the Jewish community were struggling with
as well. You see, the light does not wait for
people to have the right categories in their
life. It meets them where they already are. If
you were a Jew and you were waiting for the Messiah
to come and restore the nation of Israel, then
all you needed to know was whether Jesus met
the category of being the Messiah. Granted, Jesus
was revealing the kingdom to be more than what
they expected from the Messiah, but He still
had a starting point with them, which is so much
of why Jesus started the ministry there among
them. But what if you were a Gentile? Being the
Messiah didn't mean anything to them. So then
how do you show salvation to people who are not
expecting the messianic king, not only going
to the places up in the north that have been
conquered and overwhelmed by Assyria and so many
others, but were such a medley, a melding pot
of those from different cultures and different
religious and philosophical backgrounds? You
see, there were any number of things that Jesus
was doing to reveal salvation as God truly intended
it for all people. He was healing not just those
who were able to pay for the doctors, but also
those who were treated by society as if they
somehow deserved what they had. As if their sins
caused them to be blind, deaf, lame, or leprous.
As if they had no reason to deserve healing whatsoever.
He was showing them that following God's law
was not about what the teachers kept adding But
by seeking God in spirit and truth by hearing
his word and trusting in his promises He was
forgiving people not because they were able to
abide by the expectations of the priests But
because they turned to God by faith through Jesus
He was welcoming people to eat with him not because
they were clean enough or worthy enough but because
they were loved by God as we all are. He was
casting out demons, demonstrating that God had
not given up on us and left us to the evils of
this world. He was calling fishermen and tax
collectors and ultra -partisan zealots to follow
him, even them. Not because they were smart enough
or rich enough for the rabbis, but merely because
he could. And then he trained them. He took the
things that people already had or knew how to
do and reoriented them toward what God always
intended. And while he used miraculous means
to show that all of this was truly from God,
he has been calling us to do the same ourselves
in every capacity we can for everyone. This is
what God had always intended. even before Christ
was on the earth, but Christ Jesus himself showed
it truly in his ministry throughout his life.
Many of us learned the gospel as a moment of
accepting Jesus, not as a movement where we follow
Jesus. And isn't that the tragedy of it? To accept
the gospel as just a single moment of acceptance?
A prayer, a belief. a future destination. But
Matthew doesn't start the story at the cross
because, well frankly, none of the gospel writers
do. He starts it on the road there. The road
in Galilee, quoting Isaiah. If we want to understand
what the ministry that led up to the cross truly
means, if we want to understand what the cross
truly means, then we have to walk that road that
leads there. But you see, this is where people
get nervous, especially Protestants, especially
Lutherans. James says he will show his faith
by his works, not because works save, but because
faith is not just an idea that you say. Faith
is a life that is lived. The kingdom is a gift
before any tasks are involved. We belong before
we become anything. We are declared forgiven
before we are formed into forgiving. We are not
saved by the lives we live, but the lives we
live, the fruits of the Spirit, reveal whether
grace has truly taken hold. The crucifixion in
Jerusalem only makes sense if you've walked the
road of restoring those who know they are broken,
bringing hope to the hopeless, bringing forgiveness
to the ones who feel they can never be forgiven.
The cross is not a shortcut formula to heaven.
It is the faithful culmination of a kingdom lived
all the way through. Maybe we should start asking,
how often do Christians try to get people to
accept Jesus, not knowing if they actually understand
what that means, forgetting to show them the
fullness of the kingdom that Christ gives? forgetting
to see the world the way God wants us to change
it. There's a man in American history named Robert
Smalls, born into slavery in South Carolina.
For years he worked on the water. He learned
the routes, he memorized the checkpoints, the
secret signals and whistles, the rhythms of the
harbor that allowed you to pass without being
shocked. And one night, he chose to escape. But
he didn't just run. He navigated. He took a Confederate
ship, wore the captain's hat, gave the correct
signals, passed every checkpoint, and sailed
straight into freedom. He trusted that as soon
as he could get to the north, he would be free.
But he didn't go alone. He brought his family.
He brought others. Freedom was never meant to
be private. But here's the part... that really
stands out. When Smalls reached freedom, he didn't
just call himself a freedman and then stop working
on other people's farms. It was more than that.
His life didn't just change location. His life
changed status. He changed. He became a leader,
a public servant, a legislator. He worked to
change the world around him. But more than that,
He conquered the world that had enslaved him,
not with anger, but with love and forgiveness.
He bought the house where he had once been enslaved,
gave it to his mother, but also allowed his former
owner's widow to stay there in her old age. That's
not just an escape. That's life transformation.
It's not vengeance. That's redemption. redeeming
the old and making it new. Robert Smalls didn't
earn freedom by behaving well. He lived differently
because he was free. And that's the kingdom.
Power no longer used to dominate. Memory not
being erased but being healed. Justice without
cruelty. Mercy without naivete. Jesus doesn't
say, here's the spiritual formula for how to
escape earth. He says the kingdom has come near.
And that's the difference between leaving the
darkness and living in the light. As Isaiah says,
the people walking in darkness have seen a great
light. Jesus doesn't begin by telling people
how to earn the kingdom. He begins by giving
it. And once the kingdom is given, everything
changes. You see, faith is not actually words.
Faith is life. God restores the world not by
demanding our improvement first, not by expecting
us to understand everything or have it all figured
out, but by arriving and calling people to turn
toward Him. as He is already breaking through.
You see, the repentance that we are meant to
have with salvation, it's not a hoop that we
jump through before God loves us. It is a response
to the presence of God. And then it responds
by bringing God's presence, God's life to others
as well. It is not that God only brings us His
grace once He has seen enough repentance inside
of us. It is the Word of God saying that we are
loved and forgiven, the grace of God being given
to us first, that brings us to truly repent.
Because grace that focuses on just getting ourselves
somewhere safe, get out of hell free, card. That's
not kingdom grace. Kingdom grace embraces everything
and multiplies to everyone. We don't love so
that God will accept us. We love because we already
belong. We don't serve in order to become part
of the kingdom. We serve because the kingdom
has already come near. The light doesn't wait
for us to understand it. It finds us where we
are and teaches us how to live as free people.
That's why we need to see the kingdom, not just
hear the idea of it. Because that's truly how
the kingdom comes. Before. With. and after the
crucifixion. Thanks be to God.