Right when your success is just starting to gain momentum is a ridiculous strategy. But it often seems to be a preferred strategy of the Kingdom of God.
Right when Jesus’ ministry started to outshine John’s, as his baptism numbers started to eclipse “the Baptist” himself, what did Jesus do? He left Judea—with Jerusalem, the big city as its center point—to head back to Galilee—a mostly rural, small town province. As even some of Jesus’ own disciples would later tell him, if you really want to be successful, you leave Galilee and go show off in Judea.
Not the other way around, Jesus. Come on! Moving to a smaller market is counterintuitive and counterproductive to success.
In our celebrity-driven church culture today, this would also be unheard of. When the curve starts going up and to the right is the exact moment to write a book or start a podcast or pump more advertising dollars into your YouTube channel. It’s not the time to cancel your TikTok devotional series or kick a divisive bully with big bucks out of your church.
Nope. When success starts knocking, it’s time to get busy being more successful.
But apparently the Kingdom of God operates on a different business model.
The Kingdom of God is not anti-success, but it does measure success differently. The Kingdom of God is not anti-publicity, but it is not driven by larger target markets. The Kingdom of God is not anti-winning, but it seems to favor looking like a loser as a primary means of winning in the end.
Just consider the cross, for example.
