The Upside-Down Kingdom

                                     THE UPSIDE-DOWN KINGDOM

Author DONALD B. KRAYBILL

Publisher HERALD PRESS

ISBN 0-8361-9236-2

First published in 1978 this is the twenty-five year anniversary edition put out in 2003 and still available new today.  It has undergone a complete line by line edit by the author, taking into account the latest information and helps that assist in clarifying an already excellent book.  It is written by a Mennonite author, the Anabaptist tradition shines through on every page.  Every Christian leader should read it.  It challenges the general trends of Christianity found in so many churches of today.  The central theme in the ministry of the Lord Jesus was the kingdom of God, but what exactly is it?  This author sets out to show that it is a kingdom unlike any seen in the world.  It comes from above, is an inverted kingdom that is relational, its leadership is ‘flat’ not hierarchical.  Its leaders are like its King.  Humble, meek and lowly, not riding on great and wealthy steeds, but bearing others up, lifting, not being lifted, compassionate and their authority coming from Him Who is their Lord and King.  There is plenty of basic data found in these chapters.  What kind of world was it into which Jesus came preaching the Kingdom?  What were the current thrusts of politics and religion that He had to face?  What were His particular temptations, and were they along the lines of His kingdom ways?  What Kraybill writes sets the scene, brings to life in fresh ways exactly the misconstructions that religion had set up in the world to which He came.  Perhaps what is most surprising in this book is the comparative lack of application to be found in these chapters.  The readers must think for themselves.  They must decide whether they will increasingly live in line with the kingdom of God or continue in the way pursued by the majority of Christendom.   An honest reading, and the necessary reread a first reading will provoke will readily challenge us to stop evading the upside down nature of what Jesus lived and taught.  The kingdom ethics Jesus demonstrated have a powerful relevance and applicability to twenty-first century living.  As this writer explores the sayings of Jesus, the stories, parables and happenings of Jesus’s life there are so many insights, these illumine how we are to be in our church life and in the world.  Jesus challenged the temple ideas, the teaching of Pharisee, scribe, Essene and priest.  Virtually everything He did cuts right across the carefully constructed and mistaken teachings and practices of the multitude of Jew and Gentile alike.  Low is high, lovable enemies, luxurious poverty, impious piety, successful failures and free slaves, these are some of the challenging phrases that introduce some of the chapters in this very helpful book.  I had not come across it before a few months back.  Perhaps because it is too much of a rebuke for much of what passes for the Christian path as set forth, particularly in Nth America.  Read this book and you are sure to take a long look at the implications of Jesus’ message for today.  

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