Kingdom Thinking
The path of discipleship involves learning “how we do it here.” involve Marriage, relationships, morality, forgiveness, money—all invol aspects of the wisdom of the world in them, but they also have kingdom wisdom. feeding There are two stories that demonstrate this clearly: one is the fe of the 5,000 (the only miracle recorded in all four gospels) and an the other, the widow’s mite. In John 6 Jesus had asked the disciples to them. gather food for the multitude. This request made no sense to th enough They reasoned it would take many days of wages to pay for eno food to feed 5,000. The gospel of Mark tells us that the people were mainly hungry to They learn about God—they could not find satisfaction elsewhere. T regard to were so eager to learn that they ran to follow Jesus without reg near, where their evening meal would come from. As evening drew n Jesus saw the crowd and told his followers, “You give them something som preparation for to eat.” He knew full well that there was no budget or preparat this, but he wanted to teach them a lesson. In John, we learn the lesson: a picture of two economies. As the d disciples two look around they see a boy’s lunch with five barley loaves and tw fish. They consider it but then, working from their own sense of logic, recognize, “How far will they go among so many?” They were thinking from the world’s wisdom, and Jesus waited to see how they would solve the problem. Even today we have a certain tension about which category we operate in—our own (world) wisdom or God’s wisdom. From the boy’s perspective, he responded without any reasoning at all. He responded, “I have five loaves and two fish!” The lesson to learn here isn’t that there were 5,000 people and only one boy with food. It is, “there were 5,000 people and only one willing to share. Intellectually the boy knows it is small, but he is willing to risk not having it all to himself—he gives it away so that many others will have some.
This is a powerful example of kingdom wisdom for all of us. Jesus’ concern was not for how much food there was, but for teaching. It’s a familiar story, not one that took place in a church service (where we usually think of giving). In the kingdom there is a place where little is much. In this instance, that place was a picnic and the boy’s generous spirit made something possible where non-generous thinking would not have. The purpose of discipleship is to replace the world’s conventional wisdom with kingdom thinking or mindset. In Mark 12:41 Jesus watched a crowd putting money into the temple treasury. The rich people threw in large amounts, but a widow put in two small coins worth only a fraction of a penny. Jesus called to his disciples to watch. “This widow put in more than all the others. They gave from their wealth; but she from everything that she had.” The distinction is that she gave from money she needed, but they from their abundance, their “extra.” When we give like the world we usually trust in what we think we can do, but we instead need to trust in what God can do. Which is greater, our fear or our trust? Our thinking says if we give we will have less. But God says “seek first the kingdom and all else will be added. Make kingdom things a priority. In my own case, my wife and I were setting aside money for an adoption. It was tough going and every cent counted. We were trusting God for supplying a seemingly impossible amount. My piggy bank was being stuffed with everything I could give it. One day I felt God’s prompting to give regularly to support another ministry. The message was clear: “give from what you have…even from that piggy bank to help someone else.” When I hesitated and tried to make sense of it I felt God prompting me, “You want me to give to meet your needs in unknown ways, but you can’t enter into the unknown in order to give also?” The lesson hit home. Someone might ask, “What stands between you and this adoption? “Money” I would reply. But if we understand God’s heart, his answer would be “trust.” The enemy doesn’t want us to give—not because of what will get funded, but because of who we will become. He wants us to think less is less! But if we think like the small boy and the widow, we will find that God’s economy provides for those who trust. In the kingdom, all things are different. It is not a message about a budget. It is rather a message about our heart. Less is much and little is enough. Fear is what immediately comes to us on this issue. But trust pushes out fear. Be a people that are generous because we trust.
Josh Mann is pastor of Middle School Ministries at Salem Alliance Church
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