Chris Parker
Continuing with the Kingdom Culture series, Pastor Chris taught that the culture of the kingdom is not about divine retribution but is instead about the manifestation of the kingdom on earth as in heaven. Divine retribution (or retribution theology) is the idea that people receive from God, whether good or bad, what they deserve. While we might reject this as being inconsistent with the character of God we see revealed in Jesus, we often hear and sometimes think that tragedies (such as natural disasters, illnesses, car accidents, etc.) are in some way a judgement for sin. Basically, if you're asking the question, "What did I do to deserve this?" you are assuming a theology of retribution. This is not only a common way of thinking in our day, but it also permeated the Jewish worldview of Jesus' day. Jesus' disciples encounter a man who was born blind and ask, "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:3). Jesus rejects the retributive theology that assumes someone is at fault and says, "Neither." This is basically what the book of Job is about.
The book of Job opens with Job losing his health, wealth and family. While we as the readers know that Satan is the one behind Job's tragedies, Job and his friends are unaware and spend most of the book reflecting on the reason for Job's plight. We thus have three perspectives/theologies on God throughout the book: Satan (the accuser) who views God as a control freak, the friends of Job who view God as one who engages in retributive justice, and Job who claims that God is not just because he is unjustly suffering. While all three perspectives are to be rejected, God says that Job spoke what is true (42:7). Job is right with what he said not because his theology was right but because he was honest with God about how he felt. The invitation for us is to have the same sort of honesty with God as Job and to reject a theology of retribution that claims that people receive bad events in their lives from God because they deserve it. Instead, we are to manifest the kingdom without any evaluation on whether or not brokenness/suffering is deserved. The people of God are called to implement the kingdom of God wherever and whenever it is absent.
