On a recent trip to the White Mountains with friends, we took a trail that led us around the perimeter of Profile Lake, the lake that once held the reflection of the Old Man of the Mountain. The Old Man rock formation has since tumbled off the cliff, but on this crisp fall day, the lake instead perfectly reflected the fall foliage of New Hampshire; red and orange maples, yellow birches, rust and burgundy oaks. The reflection also captured the deep blue of a clear  fall sky. 

The interesting thing about a reflection is that everything mirrored appears upside down. The trees appear upside down, the clouds, upside down; a beautifully exact representation across the surface of the lake, but all upside down. The only way to see things in their correct orientation is to look up. 

  This reminds me of Jesus’s teaching about the Kingdom of God. He was repeatedly describing the upside down nature of the Kingdom where the first are last and the last, first, where the servant is the greatest in the kingdom, where it is better to give than receive, where those who save their life will lose it but those who lose their life for Jesus’s sake will find it, where one prays for one’s enemies and the meek inherit the earth. Such teaching was upside down then – it still is today. 

If I look down and around at the world, what it values, how to get ahead, how it measures success, who are its “winners” and “losers”, I get a particular picture. But the truth is, this picture is upside down, just like the reflection in the lake. Only as I look up, by meditating on what Jesus taught about the nature of His eternal Kingdom, are things in their proper orientation.

The challenge then is to live in an upside down world system, that thinks its orientation is correct, while embracing the values of the King and His kingdom, and to do so with Christlike graciousness. 

What about you? Where have you experienced a divergence between the values of our culture and the values of Christ’s kingdom? Jesus’s sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 was a radical introduction to this clash of worldviews as he presented the right side up view from above. In his ministry over the next years, Jesus would demonstrate what Kingdom values look like. Who did he spend time with? What behaviors did he rebuke? Which did he commend? 

Here is an exercise: write out each of the beatitudes in Matthew 5: 1-12 and then think about today’s culture. What does it look like from the perspective of this world to be meek, merciful, pure in heart, to mourn, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be poor in spirit, to be a peacemaker, to be persecuted for righteousness sake? What do these look like from above? Challenging isn’t it. Have I adopted some of this world’s upside down value system without even realizing it? It is never too late to lift our eyes up and seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.