Paul's Unconventional Wisdom

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The second focal point of Jesus' message was "the Kingdom of God." The language is not only religious but also political. There were other kingdoms in Jesus' world, including especially the kingdom of Herod and the kingdom of Rome. The Kingdom of God, to echo Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, is what life would be like on earth if God were king and the Herods and Caesars of this world were not. The Kingdom of God is about God's justice standing against the injustice of domination systems.

Jesus' passion was the Kingdom of God--and it led to his execution by the kingdom that ruled his world.

Paul does not often use the phrase "Kingdom of God." Instead, he proclaimed, "Jesus is Lord," a phrase so central to Paul and the early Christian movement that it can be seen as the earliest Christian creed. But it is parallel to "Kingdom of God" and makes essentially the same religious and political contrast to the kingdoms of this world.

The key is the recognition that "Lord" was one of the titles of the Roman emperor. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar isn't. So also "Son of God" and "savior" were among the terms used for the emperor. Much of early Christian language (including Paul's) was a direct challenge to the empire and imperial theology. And the issue wasn't simply freedom of worship, as if Rome would have been fine if she had allowed Christians to worship Christ without persecution. The issue was the lordship of Jesus versus the lordship of empire, the lordship of Christ versus the lordship of Caesar.

In the conflict between Paul's theology and imperial theology, at issue are two very different visions of God, or the sacred. Is the sacred revealed in the power and order and glory and riches of empire? Or is God revealed in one who proclaimed the Kingdom of God, who challenged the imperial vision with an alternative vision, and who was executed by the empire that ruled his world?

Like Jesus, Paul was executed by the Roman Empire. Is this coincidental? I don't believe so. I believe it is because both subverted the conventional wisdom of their day. Both affirmed a political vision grounded in God's justice that said "no" to the domination system of their day.

Thus Paul was like his master even in his death. His own words, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ," became literally true. And for those who take Jesus and Paul seriously today, they invite us to challenge unjust systems of convention and domination in our time.