The Kingdom of God is a threat. Consequently, as long as we are living in the world, conflict will come, and the world can be a very dark place. The crucifixion of Jesus who loved those he encountered perfectly, is the ultimate proof of that. The conflict can touch any of us today and has done so most painfully for many Christians who are faced with death for their profession of faith in countries who see their faith as a threat to the social order.

Sin is never far from us. My cheerful visit to the 1776 New England inn with its tasty food and book-lined room with a fireplace included a reminder of our evil world structure as well. The town grew due to trade with the West Indies and was thus part of the triangle that brought rum and returned to Africa in a cycle that brought slaves to the new world. At the time of the revolutionary war an important naval battle took place on the river. Slavery and war… certainly anti-images of the Kingdom.

The opposition to Jesus came from religious leaders who believed a Messiah would come, who believed in the timing of Daniel’s prophecy, and who knew the prophecies of healing. Why were they so blinded they could not recognize Jesus as the one they looked for?

In Matthew 23 he tells them they are blind and offers the following critiques:

• they don’t practice what they teach

• they burden you with religious demands and don’t help

• they do everything for show

• they love the attention and respect of society

• they get bogged down in details and lack of proportion

• they ignore justice, mercy and faith

• they are full of greed and self indulgence

• they look upright, but inside have hypocrisy and lawlessness

• they assume they would not have done evil things of past history

Perhaps the summary statement is that they will not go into the Kingdom of Heaven and keep others out as well. The prophets also criticize the religious leaders, the shepherds set up to care for the people who don’t follow God or ask what he wants of them. (Jer 10:21)

• they are blind to danger and love to lie around, sleeping and dreaming (Is. 56:10)

• they are greedy, all intent on personal gain (Is. 56:11)

• they are pleased with having parties (Is. 56:12)

• they encourage those doing evil instead of turning them from sin (Jer 23:14)

• they tell lies in God’s name (Jer. 23:25)

• they feed themselves instead of their flocks (Eze. 34:2)

• they have not taken care of the weak, tended the sick, or bound up broken bones (Eze. 34: 4)

Thinking they are doing what is right, they are actually trapped in self-centered thinking and actions. Unfortunately, I can recognize myself in the Pharisees. I find it easy to become lazy and self-indulgent, and I find it easy to like attention and respect regardless of what the inner reality is like. I don’t like to think about spiritual dangers, nor do I like to turn people from sin. As I look back on my life I can see ways that God allowed difficult personal situations in my life for my good, to change me and shake me out of my Pharisaical thinking and actions. And given this, I can be grateful for the humbling and painful process.

The conflict between how things are and how they should be is particularly strongly highlighted in the Old Testament prophets. Jesus, as a prophet himself, references many of their images in what he says. I find it easier to understand the prophets if I bring them into a modern context and recognize that all ages have intellectuals and what today we may lump together as “the media”. The prophets, as we are told, may truly be bringing a message from God or they may be speaking false things on their own, and today, too, we have to exercise discernment with the many voices in our public arenas.

The message of the prophets often seems so dark that it is hard for us as Christians to tolerate reading them. Much more comfortable to return to the familiar Psalms or Epistles where we are certain to find some spiritual comfort. But their dark message is a reality. I lived for over 15 years in a war in Guatemala, and the darkness and despair and depression that surfaces in their messages resonates with me. The condemnation of false religious or secular leaders, the promise of judgment on the arrogant wealthy or abusive oppressors resonates with me. The images of death and destruction are not pleasant, but they are a reflection of “the real world.”

I went recently to see an exhibit of photographs taken by a young Japanese man the day after the atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki. These disturbing images could easily be matched by quotations from the prophets. So also the ongoing litany of human rights abuses in the world, massacres, the horrors of holocausts not just under Hitler but under a multiplicity of power-mad men. It is only our unwillingness to face the reality of the world we live in that keeps us from reading God’s word to us through the prophets.

It is easier for me to grasp the different personalities and tones of each prophet by trying to compare them to a contemporary whose work bears the same flavor. While imperfect, the connection helps me read them as having relevance to me and my world today:

Isaiah – Statesman or esteemed television commentator

Jeremiah – Political dissident from a country with a particularly repressive regime

Lamentations – Poetry by the same political dissident commemorating a tragic event

Ezekial – A filmmaker with a wide range of documentaries

Daniel – A diplomat in the center of the greatest world power

Hosea – A psychologist with a painful personal life

Joel – An environmental scientist examining ecological catastrophes

Amos – The editor of a newspaper

Obadiah – An international correspondent for the newspaper

Jonah – A novelist using a travel story to develop the character

Micah – A university professor with a series of lecture

Nahum – A television correspondent

Habakkuk – A philosopher examining “God and the problem of evil”

Zephaniah – A nuclear scientist describing potential consequences of using weapons

Haggai – A motivational speaker or strategic planner

Zechariah – An artist who paints abstract representations of spiritual themes

Malachi – An evangelist

Jesus did not repudiate the depressing images of the prophets. He focuses on them from time to time in his arguments with the Pharisees, descriptions of the end times, or with various allusions. His conflict with the religious leaders is precisely the same as the recurrent one in the prophets: they have turned God’s law, meant to help man live happily in community, into something cold, legalistic and judgmental. Instead of loving and caring about people, they are too busy taking pride in their superior religious knowledge. And underneath, their most real and significant concern is their own selfish interest and advancement. Consequently they are willing to compromise their ethics, particularly for monetary gain.

That Jesus sees them in this negative light and draws the parallels with the message of the prophets, contributed to the conflict. They not only judged him as a blasphemer for taking the attributes of God, they disliked him for the conviction of sin he brought. The outcome was, of course, the painful and terrible crucifixion.

This image of torture, now transformed into a symbol of comfort, reminds us that Jesus does not ever turn away from the painful reality. No journalist, detective, or artist can ever find something awful in life to focus on that Jesus does not only fully understand, but can redeem. I’m convinced that we Christians need to get out of our comfort zone where we complacently turn trivial problems into great spiritual battles, and get ourselves out into a real world where there are plenty of real battles to be fought on a daily basis. We need to read the prophets and toughen up our spiritual tolerance for pain.