Week 5 Upside Down Kingdom Small Group

Prayer

Invite a volunteer to open the small group with a word of prayer

Check-In

How are you today?

Did you have any joys or setbacks in implementing the Action Step from last week?

Scripture for This Week

We will invite two different voices to read this from start to finish. Having two different voices will help us connect differently to the passage and reading it through twice allows us an opportunity to get a sense of some of the nuances of the passage.

Luke 23:39–42 NRSV

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

The mindset that the criminals had on the cross was one that many still have today: “I am unworthy, I have done too many bad things, salvation isn’t really offered for people like me, is it?” The criminals had come to a point of acceptance at this point that their deeds had gone too far and perhaps they were just getting what they deserved. Even in one of his last moments Jesus has this transformative moment with the criminals where, in a strange twist of event, he says that even people like them will be in heaven, and will have a place in the Kingdom of heaven.

The shift in the passage is from a righteousness (or works) based salvation to a relationship based salvation.

When you hear those two phrases what comes to mind? What do they mean to you?

I imagine these criminals getting to the gates of the kingdom of heaven, and just saying something like “I know I have done far too many bad things to be here, but I know him” and pointing to Jesus. Throughout the whole gospel Luke is highlighting how the kingdom of God is big enough to include even the outcasts and this is perhaps the most clear example of that. Lukes gospel makes clear note to emphasize the stories of those that are on the margins, and also in relationship with Jesus. Regardless of what our stories look like or what our past consists of, we too are offered relationship with Jesus.

When do you think you became a Christian? If you have been part of a church your whole life, when did you most question your faith?

This is the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth, but in many ways it serves as an appropriate bookend to the first part of Jesus’ ministry.

Invite someone to read

Luke 4:17–21 (NRSV)

17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Authorities Ranked Jesus with The Robbers, Jesus Ranked the Robbers With Himself. Jesus dies amongst the outcast in true upside down format. Jesus starts his ministry by proclaiming good news to the captive and ends his ministry doing the same thing.

Why do you think it was significant that criminals were offered salvation?

In considering the legal system at the time it is important to note that Herod and Pilot have BOTH said that Jesus is innocent. There will be some people who think they are not worthy others that think they are a good person but the fact is that we have all sinned and fallen short. In short everyone is in need of grace.

On the cross what the thief is doing can best be called confession. He is confessing that he has fallen short and that it is not by his merit that he would ever be welcomed into the kingdom of God. Quite an upside down understanding of salvation. So often we think religion or church is all about realizing that we are wrong and that we are messed up. The Upside Down part of this is that we confess that Jesus is so so so innocent. That the lamb of God does not deserve the sins of the world but yet is so good that he might take them on. He was the sinless dying with sinners, the innocent sharing the fate of the guilty, the pure Lamb of God taking on himself the sin of the world. It calls Christians to confess the great work of the innocent Jesus.

For you, is faith more about believing the right things, or doing the right things?

The epitome of the Upside Down Kingdom is the cross. The cross is an instrument of death being used to create Paradise. On the cross we see an innocent person that suffers. Yet still that suffering that produces freedom for many people. Through all of it we have king ranked among criminals.

The cross is perhaps the ultimate symbol of an upside down kingdom; a symbol of death became an instrument that gives life. How does the cross change how you understand the kingdom of God?

There is a sense in which the Upside Down Kingdom is about relationship now. It is not about when we die. It isn't even about some other distant time in our life when we will have more energy or time the kingdom is for now. The kingdom of God is defined by relationship not by God's judgement, or rules, or rights, or codes

Action Step

Block some time out this week to think about what being in a relationship with Christ means to YOU? If you haven’t already, consider trusting Jesus and beginning a relationship with him.