The Kingdom of God Belongs to the Poor

Presidents may not see our neighbors, but the King does.

One of the most significant differences between my neighborhood and the rest of Indianapolis is subtle and easy to miss if you’re not paying attention.

Throughout our city, you can drive through almost any neighborhood and find street medians and front yards populated with blue and red signs giving witness to favored political candidates.

But not in Haughville. Here, you will find no such political posturing. The political activists have not placed these signs in our shared spaces, nor have residents put them in their front yards. If such signs judged political concern, one might conclude that my neighbors are little concerned at all.

It’s not that my neighbors don’t vote. They do.
It’s not that they aren’t active in their community. They are.

But many of my neighbors know the honest truth: regardless of who sits in that palace on Pennsylvania Avenue, Haughville will be forgotten.

Indeed, for over a century, this community has been neglected and despised no matter who has sat in the Oval Office and irrespective of who has called Haughville home. Democrat or Republican, the Eastern European immigrants who once called Haughville home were forgotten by a society that considered them second-class. Red or Blue, the African American population of Haughville had their homes taken away, businesses destroyed, and communities dispersed. Biden or Trump, the Latino, Asian, Haitian, and African immigrants who are now calling our neighborhood home, have not received the support they’ve needed.

If my hope and trust were in presidential candidates, then my allegiance would be to an unjust political order that capitalizes on power at the expense of the poor and oppressed.

But my heart is given to a King who has come to testify to a Kingdom that is not of this world. And his Kingdom, so unlike this empire, belongs to the poor and oppressed.

King Jesus testified to this reality in what many scholars have since called the “Nazareth Manifesto”:

 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

Many Western Christians like to spiritualize these words such that they have little reference to the literal, economically poor and oppressed. But Jesus’ own words left us little doubt:

Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good
news is proclaimed to the poor.  Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. (Luke 7:22-23)

We cannot but conclude with Abraham Kuyper that in Jesus’ ministry, “the main feature that stands out is that he purposely, by preference and by virtue of his anointment and calling, turns in the first place to the poor and seeks the subjects for his kingdom mainly among them.”^[1] The Kingdom of God will be proclaimed throughout the whole world, but it will be principally received by the poor and oppressed.

This must be the case, for this Kingdom was created for such as these. Indeed, the King of this Kingdom has actively taken sides “against those who were powerful and living in luxury, and for the suffering and oppressed.”^[2]

Since the days of the Church Fathers, theologians have witnessed to Christ’s preferential option for the poor. St. Basil the Great testified somewhere,

I know many who fast, pray, sigh, and demonstrate every manner of piety, so long as it costs them nothing, yet would not part with a penny to help those in distress. The Kingdom of Heaven does not receive such people.^[3]

Basil knew that our ties to material goods and economic wealth in this life were meaningless. To show ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we must live in solidarity with the poor.

If you want storehouses, you have them in the stomachs of the poor. Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. The things deposited there are not devoured by moths, nor are they spoiled by corruption, nor do thieves break in and steal them. The hungry are perishing, the naked are freezing to death, the debtors are unable to breathe, and will you put off showing mercy until tomorrow? You do not know what tomorrow will bring.^[4]

John Calvin approved the example of St. Basil and the early church. Calvin likewise understood that the Kingdom of God belongs to the poor. This requires the churches to regard all they have as possessions of the oppressed.

You will frequently find both in the decrees of synods and in ancient writers that all that the church possesses, either in lands or in money, is the patrimony of the poor... and if in bad faith they suppress or waste them, they shall be guilty of blood.^[5]

This is why, agreeing with Basil, Calvin could say:

If we believe heaven is our country, it is better to transmit our possessions thither than to keep them here where upon our sudden migration they would be lost to us. But how should we transmit them? Surely by providing for the needs of the poor.^[6]

The testimony of the Scriptures and our ancestors in the faith bear witness: The Kingdom of God belongs to the poor and the oppressed. Presidents may not see my neighbors, but the King does.

And my neighbors need to know that his Kingdom is coming into the world for them.

In the coming months and years, dozens of books will be written to sensationalize narratives about the people of God. Hundreds of thousands of copies will be sold as the publishing machines shape your heart into their own image. Some of these authors will blame the Church for this or that sin, convincing you that Christians and the Church of God are a failure. Others will try to radicalize you with nationalistic, triumphalist ideals that spiritualize Christ’s commands for a political agenda.

The Kingdom of God is not of this world, and it belongs to the poor. Do not feed your soul with that which would steal your heart from what King Jesus has come into this world to do.

In the days ahead, countless hundreds of essays, blogs, and podcasts will be posted analyzing this election and Christian complicity in this or that sin. Many will use half-truths and falsehoods to build their platform. Others will make enemies out of your brothers and sisters. Even more will distract your attention away from your neighbor next door to keep your heart burdened with guilt, anxiety, and shame.

The Kingdom of God is not of this world, and it belongs to the poor. Do not let your heart be troubled. Hold fast to Jesus and follow him as he leads you to his people on the margins.

There will be conferences. Oh, there will be conferences. They’ll tell you that this or that conference is the place to be if you want to be a part of some new thing God is doing. They’ll try to convince you that their conference is for a righteous few who will stand against the tide of corruption and idolatry in the church. Speakers getting paid thousands of dollars will stand up on stage, rehearsing their most popular sermons, to get you excited but for a moment. Only to return home to a place where nothing has changed.

The Kingdom of God is not of this world, and it belongs to the poor. Will you get caught up in building platforms that make little change? Or will you give what you can to line the pockets of your diaconate so that your congregation can make a difference to your poor neighbors next door?

In the next four years, you will have the opportunity to participate in dozens of member meetings and church budget deliberations to set the ministry vision for your congregation. Will you use your voice to advocate for the poor and oppressed in your community? Will you compel your brothers and sisters not to build large buildings and impressive programs but to sacrifice what we have to bear witness to a Kingdom that cannot be shaken?

The Kingdom of God is not of this world, and it belongs to the poor. You can make a difference simply by going to church and using your voice to advocate for the least of these. Will you?

Herman Bavinck once said,

Jesus was anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit to bring good tidings to the afflicted, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and to comfort those who mourn (Isa. 61:1-2). He makes the blind to see, the lame to walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor (Matt. 11:5). The word of God which comes to in Christ is a word of liberation and restoration for the whole man, for his understanding and his will, for his body and his soul.

Thus he concluded,

If then we stand in this grace, in this freedom with which Christ has made us free, we are to show our Christian faith first of all in the faithful performance of our earthly calling.^[7]

Jesus said,

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:34-36, 40)

When presidents and politicians show us who they are, we should believe them. Throughout this country’s history, they have most often shown themselves to have little regard for Haughville and the thousands of communities like mine.

But the King – the King has shown us who he is, and we should believe him! He is a King, righteous and good, whose Kingdom is not for the rich and powerful but for the weak and oppressed.

Presidents may not see our poor neighbors. But the King does.

Who will you give witness to?

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^[1] Abrham Kuyper, Christ and the Needy, 661. https://www.marketsandmorality.com/index.php/mandm/article/viewFile/74/70

^[2] Abraham Kuyper, The Problem of Poverty, 62.

^[3] St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice, 46.

^[4] Basil, Social Justice, 68.

^[5] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.4.6.

^[6] Calvin, Institutes, 3.18.6.

^[7] Herman Bavinck, Common Grace, 60-61. https://bavinckinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Herman-Bavinck-Common-Grace.pdf