“The Kingdom of Heaven” starring Orlando Bloom, Eva Green,
Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson and a few more that I can’t remember is one of my
favorite movies. As the title implies it
is loosely referring to the ancient city of Jerusalem. The movie is set during the time of the
Crusades when there was constant warring over who had control of the Holy City
of David. The sad thing is that all the
fighting, battles, blood shed, and lives lost were for control of LAND. It was the ground, the walls, and the literal
location that the city existed upon that was important to the warring
parties. But it was Orlando Bloom’s
character, Balian, who was one of the few who understood that it wasn’t the City,
the walls, or the dirt that was important; rather it was the lives...the souls...the people that lived within the city that were of most importance. In the end Balian surrenders Jerusalem to the invading Muslim army with
the promise of sparing every single life contained within the city walls.
In the movie, the real “Kingdom of Heaven”
was an idea of existence in peace, protecting the lives of those who couldn’t
protect themselves. Loving and caring
for all people no matter their race, creed, orientation, social status, or
economic status. And there were but a
few who actually understood this passion, one of whom being Balian. It’s interesting to me how similar this idea
sounds to the teachings of one Jesus Christ.
If you notice in the Bible, Jesus’ love showed ZERO preference no matter
who he was around. But, when his actions
seemed to show preference, it was usually towards the down and out, the
rejected by Jewish society. Throughout
the Bible we see a prominent theme and that is to love those who are unloved,
to have compassion on the persecuted, to care for the sick and undeserving, to
LOVE ALL especially the least of all.
Jesus’ followers believed that he came to establish a new Kingdom on earth where he would reign as King, “the
New David”, and that this kingdom (“The Kingdom of Heaven”) of which Jesus
talked about so often would last forever here on earth. The problem was that Jesus’ followers assumed
he was here to establish an earthly Kingdom, but ALL earthly Kingdoms have
expiration dates. Rather, Jesus came to
establish an eternal Kingdom one that wasn’t about land, territory, cities,
walls, power, or any of the other highly esteemed values of Kings and nobles.
Jesus’ Kingdom of
Heaven is focused on the
people. Jesus said things like: “the Kingdom of God belongs to [the
children]” Mark 10; “the last shall
be first” Mark 10; “Love your enemies
and pray for them” Matthew 5; “Love
your neighbor (meaning ‘all others’) as yourself” Matthew 19; “Greater love has no one than this, that he
lay down his life for his friends” John 15.
Jesus’ focus was on people; Jesus came for the lives, for the souls, and
for the eternity of God’s creation. On
our own, because of our sin, we were the enemies of God, but God sent Jesus to
die for the sins of HIS enemies. That
has nothing to do with the pleasures and pursuits of the world and everything
to do with LOVE. The Kingdom of Heaven
is about lives, not land; people, not power; eternity, not empires. And because this is what the King is about,
it is what we, his people should be about.