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Empire building
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July 31, 2025
Several factors have converged early this morning to raise the question in my mind. My first response is, “No, he did not win.” Rome won. Imperialism won, just as it did before Jesus’ time, and afterward. Just as it is winning in the world today.
Jesus did not vanquish anything, and I no longer think “winning” is the word to use with respect to his life and ministry. He said it himself, “In this world, you will have tribulation (John 16:33). Approximately thirty years later, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews said it plainly, “at present we do not see everything subject to him” (Hebrews 2:8). Later in the letter (chapter 11) the writer documented this in moving detail.
harper ident 2024
Waking up this morning to read multiple reports of the advance of imperialism leads me to say, “Jesus is not winning these days either.” If we are looking for a vanquishing of evil, we are looking to Jesus for something he never said he would accomplish.
And yet, right after saying there would be tribulation in this world, he added, “But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The word he gave us was not victory, but overcoming. And it is in this context, the one he himself gave us, that we must engage ourselves unto the Lord in these days. We are not winners. We are overcomers. Jesus made it so in several ways.
First, Jesus gave us an overcoming vision. The vision of the kingdom of heaven, “on earth as it is in heaven.” An inbreaking vision for which we pray every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer. The vision redefines reality, so that we refuse to accept the fallen world’s definitions of “the good life.” Jesus overcame evil by casting a new vision. We embrace it.
Second, Jesus gave us an overcoming vitality. He called it abundant living, and he said it was what he came to give us (John 10:10). He located this life in himself (John 14:6), and said we could experience it by abiding in him (John 15:1-11). Christ is our life (Colossians 3:4) and with the vitality it gives us, we run the race set before us with endurance (Hebrews 12:1).
Third, Jesus gave us an overcoming vigilance. “Keep watch,” he said (Matthew 24:42). This is not passive observation; it’s active resistance. It is resilience–the long-haul pushback we make to evil. In this sense, we do not defend the faith, we declare it. The church is advancing on the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18). Aslan is on the move.
By adopting the overcomer paradigm, we do not stay in the faith because we are winning, and we do not drop out of it because we are losing. We follow Jesus, living and serving in his name because he set the plumb line for Reality. He crafted the lens through which we look to prophetically call out evil, call for repentance, and call forth hope. And he is with us (Immanuel) to give us the will and the means to live this way (Philippians 2:13).
In our time, one of the first things we need to do is abandon a “winning” mentality. It is a fallen-world metric. We must replace it with the overcoming mindset Jesus gives to us through the indwelling Spirit.
The key word we speak as overcomers is the one Jesus used in the Garden of Gethsemane when he faced the tsunami of evil rushing toward him, “Nevertheless.” We are nevertheless people.