As Jesus went on in the towns of Galilee teaching and preaching the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven he spoke to many who were well educated on the "Son of Man" Messiah and the one who would come before him, John the Baptist like Elijah, who would "Prepare Messiah's Way." But the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, the holy triangle, filled with many devote followers of God chose to ignored John the Baptist's warnings and his identification of Christ as the promised Messiah the coming deliver of Israel.
The big "C" Church in America has somehow followed suit, 2000 years after Christ's first advent, it seems that our Following of Jesus acknowledges His coming more intellectually, than practically. We seem to know a lot about Jesus, His coming, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension and His sending the Holy Spirit to reside inside His Followers empowering them to live a New Life, in mind, in deed and in spirit! A New Life that when lived "In Christ" becomes a sweet smelling aroma to those that are caught up in the destructive ways our world demands we live. One need only to reflect on the majority of the happenings in our world during an evening news segment to see the literal stench of death that looms heavy over billions of lives in our world struggling daily to survive and find some small glimpse of hope.
In America, the land of blessing, many are blinded by our pursuit of the "American Dream" and our acquisition of it, drowning in our own pleasure we intentionally block out the darkest of realities in our own country: in-equality socio-economically, educationally, and divineness between people of different races, religions or classes. Instead of looking at how we are all culpable, we point the finger, we excuse, we demand somebody else change our world; and yet the REAL world changer has already arrived on the scene, Jesus. Yet we in the church, who claim to know Him most, Jesus that is, don't really know Him relationally, we know of Him informationally and this kind of knowning fails to change us from the inside out, thus our world remains desperate and hopeless.
As Jesus spoke to the crowds gathered from the holy triangle, he reminded them that, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it." This still remains true, for those who reject Christ or the notion of God it is understandable that they do not comprehend or care about what Christ is saying, but for us, those who choose to declare Christ as our Savior, we are without excuse. We must be compelled to act!
It is time to SEE the violence that is coming against the kingdom of heaven, which is being established by Christ's Church. It is time to shift our focus and become that Holy Bride of Christ, that does the WORK of building Christ's Kingdom here on this earth, in the hearts, minds and spirits of men. We the Church must acknowledge our own guilt, bring it to the throne of "Grace" and allow God to do a new work in us! We must lead the way to freedom for all the captives that are still not free! We cannot waste our money, time and energy pursuing anything else. Lest we too, like post Christian England, and Europe...Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum bring violence against the very kingdom of heaven, we proclaim we belong too. A house divided, will not stand! So are we the Church, the Body of Christ or are we NOT? Will we hear and respond to Christ's command to love God and man, and act according to Christ's commission to "Go and make disciples of all nations?" Your choice...my choice...will you?