Introduction

Already home to the richest woman on earth, if Western Australia was a separate nation we would be the 3^rd wealthiest place in the world. Yet the most striking growth in the heart of our capital is not its skyscrapers but the increasing number of destitute beggars. Perth is apparently “home” to 6,000 young people living on its streets at any one time. This is not merely humanly appalling but a prophetic challenge that must be answered if the Lord of glory is to abide amongst us. God’s eternal kingdom does not appear in the likeness of worldly prosperity but as an unpolished presence that will in the end crush all rival powers. As wise heirs of this dominion we must submit to the essential nature of its divine power (Dan 2:31-45; 7:13-27)[1]. Only then shall we see “the river of the water of life” running through the middle of the streets of our city (Rev 22:1).

Inverting the image

“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor man.” (James 2:1-7 ESV).

James’ readers failed to grasp that the glory of Jesus was revealed in his taking on human poverty; the status of a servant, humble carpenter and condemned criminal (2 Cor 8:9; Phil 2:6-7)[2]. Their evil discriminating thoughts united them with those who condemned their Saviour and insulted the Master of glory (James 2:4)! The result of such favouritism in Church and culture is the withdrawal of the glorious presence of God (Isa 58:1-8).

Our Church is guilty of great partiality. We grant leaders of large churches celebrity status; when the wealthy and professionals join the (average) church they receive more attention than working class folk. Some sections of the Body of Christ have unapologetically become “influencers” and “kingdom marketeers”. We have confused the power and glory of earthly kingdoms with “the kingdom of our God and of his Christ” (Rev 6:16). James’ cutting rebuke, “these things ought not to be so”, stems from an awareness that all “people…are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:9-10). To favour the powerful and to look down upon the poor man is to “insult his Maker” for it is an inversion of the image of God (Ps 102:17; Prov 17:15). It is to advance the image of the beast![3] Exactly how “the Maker of all…rich and poor” sees all his created children was conveyed to me by a powerful personal experience (Prov 22:2; Acts 17:28)?

I had just had an extraordinarily intense spiritual encounter that combined sheer agony and unutterable joy and was taking a communion service in a nursing home. Most of the residents were severely disabled, wheelchair bound and suffering from dementia. As I gave them communion something amazing happened; looking upon their crippled and wrinkled form they possessed a sheer indescribable beauty and were deeply wonderful. It was the Lord’s Spirit revealing to me how he sees the glory of his image in even the most broken of people.

Until we recognise impartially the beauty and glory of God in one another all our prayers for national revival will prove futile. Division will break out in the midst of any spiritual renewal, exposing us as the covetous and spiritually adulterous people that we truly are (James 4:1ff.). The Lord will not share his glory with idolaters (Isa 42:8). Our only way forward is Jesus.

Seeing the Glory

Jesus commanded the church in Laodicea, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” (Rev 3:18). If we obey him, what will we see?

We will recognise that the reality which Jesus proclaimed “I have given them the glory” (John 17:22) already resides in one another. We will behold our brothers and sisters as God beholds them, “clothed with Christ” (Gal 3:27; Rev 3:18; 19:8). As the physical garments of the earthly High Priest were “for glory and for beauty” how much more splendid is the radiance of Jesus the heavenly High Priest in which we are all now immersed (Ex 28:2; Heb 4:14; 1 Cor 12:13)! To “see” such things is to live in functional unity with other believers. That each and every Christian shares in this astounding glory is beyond words and is the essential nature of the Body of Christ:

“On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.” (1 Cor 12:22-26).  This is certainly true about how we should honour each other as Christians, but what of those who do not yet confess Jesus as Saviour?

As we walk along passing people sleeping on the streets and spying the filthy beggars we are to see the image of God in them through the lens of the death and resurrection of the Lord of glory. The frame within which God the Maker of all sees all humanity is no longer bounded by the glories of the first creation, polluted and under the penalty of sin. All of creation is moving towards the likeness of Christ, in whom old things have passed away and everything has becoming new (2 Cor 5:17; Rev 21:5). This universal transformation is visible through the lens of the love of the cross where human life is perfected in supreme weakness and absolute poverty (2 Cor 12:9; Rom 5:6-8).  Where the cross is obscured by our fascination with the power and praise of this present world we can only judge humanity “according to the flesh” (1 John 2:15-17). Such a judgement is a judgement on Christ and fails to recognise that the new image of humanity in him has embraced weakness as a prism revelation the beauty of God (2 Cor 5:16; Heb 1:3). In Christ we can look upon the weak, poor and sinful of this world through the lens of shame-less eyes. To see the glory of God where it is least humanly visible is to participate in the glory of the cross. In the presence of Jesus no-one, no matter what their state of life, tax collector, poor man, prostitute or leper, needs to live with the penetrating judgment of fallenness (Luke 15:1-2).

Living the Glory

The vocation of the Church is to image Jesus on earth as he is in heaven. To reveal that God’s kingdom will is to transform the shamed and broken of this world and to raise them up into the dignity of the sons of God (Matt 6:10).  Only a mission to the lowly can reflect the full measure of God’s love in the death and resurrection of his Son. This means ministering to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner (Matt 25:35-36; cf. Deut 15:7-8; James 1:27). Without such care faith lies dead (James 2:14-17). “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18 ESV). The generosity of the early church, “And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:45 cf. 4:32-36), imparted a vision of the glory of the eternal city of God in the midst of the fallen metropolis of this world.

The vast wealth of Western Australia cannot prefigure the heavenly Jerusalem. Only the sacrificial love of Christ will transform the streets on which our beggars lie into gold and the doorways in which they sleep into pearls. Mary prophesied of Jesus’ coming; “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53). Such an inversion of the “normal” social order is a revelation of the King in the beauty of his holy power (Isa 33:17; Ps 96:9).

Application

It is time to reverse what has been reversed by men; it is time to abandon all partiality amongst us (Gal 2:6). As surely as Jesus was angry with those who despised the “little ones” of his day (Matt 18:10; Mark 3:5; 10:14), the wrath of God lies over a city which has exchanged Christ’s image of God for other glories (Rom 1:22). T he only remedy for a nation or Church lacking true discernment (John 7:24) is the holy violence of the kingdom of God; the forcefulness of the cross (Luke 16:16).

To see a city move from the sphere of judgement into the sphere of blessing requires building a bridge of grace between the resourced and the needy, between the marketplace and the marginalised, between the naturally esteemed and those who are despised and rejected by men (cf. Isa 53:2-3). To image the likeness of Christ’s supreme sacrifice will mean the offering up of treasures, time and talents so that the compassionate face of Jesus may be revealed to the lowly and nothings of our day (1 Cor 1:26-29). At stake is the truth of who Jesus has revealed the heavenly Father to be.

Extended over the throne of God in heaven is a rainbow proclaiming that his dominion is one of grace and mercy (Rev 4:3; Heb 4:16). For between the throne above and the earth below is to be seen “a Lamb standing, as slain” (Rev 5:6). The slain and standing Lamb is Jesus the crucified and risen servant of mankind; his is the sole image that can turn away God’s severe displeasure from our city. It is an image of indescribable love whose likeness must be revealed through us.