Faith is…
A different way of seeing.
A different way of being.
And it sees different things that without faith we wouldn’t see.
Lastly, what it sees makes a difference and how we act.
On April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee the night before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last speech known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
His final words that night were these…
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.
“And I don’t mind.
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
“And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!”
King saw something. By faith he saw what he called the “mountaintop.” He saw “the glory of the coming of the Lord!” He saw the same future the Apostle John saw, the future day (The Day of the Lord) when Jesus returns to set up the perfect place, the sublime society, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-2). But this vision isn’t exclusive to John or MLK. I mean, everyone that’s born again can see the same thing, the kingdom we entered at our new birth (John 3:3-5), which is the same kingdom that will be consummated when Jesus returns.
What MLK saw gave him courage to face death and infused him with confidence that all he’d fought for would someday come to fruition. The perfect and peaceful kingdom will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). The place where the lion is no threat to the lamb and humans of every race and culture will forge their weapons into gardening tools for cultivation of the New-Eden Garden. Martin Luther King saw King Jesus on his rightful throne ruling his fully righteous and just society, and he leaned into it. What he saw gave him permission to leave this earth because he knew by faith that his work was not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe saw it too. She was the one who first penned, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” It’s called The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Howe was a fearless American activist till the day she died at ninety-one. She peered into the future glory of the coming of the Lord and we’ve been singing her song ever since.
I don’t know if either King or Howe had any sort of ecstatic experiences, complete with holographic videos of the Day of the Lord playing before them. Maybe. One thing for sure, in spite of the brokenness of their culture they both believed what the Bible said about the future. By faith they saw that bright day when Jesus’ rule will be unopposed and fully enacted.
God’s image that every person has possessed all along, will no longer be obscured by layers of selfishness and pride. We’ll not only “see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2), but we’ll perceive one another as mature reflections of his image.
In his brilliant book, Beauty Will Save the World, Brian Zahnd suggests a thought experiment. He asks us to imagine we’ve entered a time machine and travelled back to Montgomery, Alabama in 1850 to tell them:
We’ve seen the future and the institution of chattel slavery of Africans is doomed. We’ve been to the 21st century and we don’t enslave people in America anymore. We fought a war, a tall slender man with a funny beard becomes president and proclaims the emancipation of all peoples. Slavery has no future.
About a hundred years later a black preacher marches in the streets with thousands of blacks, whites, and all manner of colors to make the point that we’re all one race, the human race. Not only that, 50 years after that, a black American is actually elected president––twice!
Therefore, we recommend that you slavers lay down your whips and ankle chains and stop all this wickedness now! We know where the future is headed, and your way of treating black folk has no place in it. We call you to anticipate and bless the future now. Put another way, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
Remember, it’s 1850 in the South. As Zahnd says, preach that message and “you would be lucky to make it out alive! … But perhaps some would believe that you are from the future and respond to your prophetic message by rethinking their lives, freeing their slaves, and helping them to recover the inherent dignity that belongs to their humanity.”
From Job to Moses to David to the prophets to the apostles. They all saw the consummate kingdom and told us what they saw. And those of us who believe their message and see what they saw are in the process of weaning ourselves from this present world system and aligning our lives with the new world that’s coming. We’re not waiting passively for it to come, but working toward its arrival. We anticipate the age to come by living it now!
We work toward the abolishment of things here that we know will be abolished there. We labor for the maintenance or restoration of things now that we see will be maintained or restored in the future.
We are a “preview” of what is to come. Though not necessarily “prophets” in the official sense, we see something and are therefore, in some sense, “seers.” Together we form a prophetic community, because we live in such a way as to reflect what our eyes have seen, i.e., the glory of the coming of the Lord, and the splendor of that kingdom that arrives with him from the sky (Revelation 21:2).
We have a prophetic assignment to tell the world what we’ve seen, and invite them into the kingdom of the King now. We are confident that our lives mean something and our message is true, because we’ve seen it!
Have your eyes seen the glory?
Does it show?
barney wiget 