Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
The speaker said Jesus “has inaugurated a kingdom that demands our loyalties” and that loyalty to one kingdom “creates a treason toward the other.” Where do you feel that demand for total loyalty most sharply collides with your assumptions about being a “good citizen,” and what does that collision reveal about what kind of King Jesus is?
Another way to ask: Where does Jesus’ call for total loyalty clash most with what you think it means to be a “good citizen”? What does that clash show you about what kind of King Jesus is?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s teaching, the sharpest collision happens when “good citizenship” expects the same kind of loyalty and methods that Jesus forbids—especially using coercion, violence, or partisan extremes to achieve “good.” That collision reveals Jesus as a King who demands whole-hearted allegiance to His *way* (methods), not just agreement with moral goals.
- The group defines the two kingdoms as both demanding loyalty, and “you can’t… give your loyalty to both… the loyalty to the one creates a treason toward the other.”
- They stress that the kingdoms may share some goals (“children to be safe”), but “definitely their methods are opposites.”
- The speaker defines politics as “goals for a society and methods of getting there,” then concludes, “we got to be loyal to Jesus’ methods.”
- He describes earthly politics as people “going to extremes… caricaturing of the other side… act in so many ungodly ways.”
- Jesus is presented as rejecting civil power: after the feeding of 5,000, when they tried to crown Him, “He got out of there.”