Ambassadors of Jesus
“We are called to apprentice under Jesus, for one, in order to pick up his character, his natural responses, his agendas and hopes, and his mission. It is in how accurately we reflect our king that we succeed as his ambassadors. ”
I like a good legal drama.
Whether it’s a classic like A Few Good Men or a TV series like Suits, there’s something about a professional standing in to represent someone else.
Have you ever had to represent someone or something before? Whether you were a salesperson projecting the values of a company, sitting on a board to carry the agendas of a particular group, or standing in for someone else at a meeting, representing someone or something else’s character, hopes, advocacies, and agendas is an interesting spot to be in.
I remember heading off to elementary school and hearing from my dad: “Son, remember. You represent God and the Bathauer family.” That, of course, always helped me to straighten up a bit.
As disciples and apprentices of Jesus, we are called to be his representatives. Talk about a sobering reality. We are meant to convey and display his character, hopes, passions, and agendas into the world. Picking up on the political language around Jesus’ Kingdom, Paul uses the word ‘ambassadors’, a title used for an envoy sent from a head of state to represent the person and message of their king and country:
“He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
2 Corinthians 5:19b-20 (NIV)
We Are All Ambassadors
Before we dive deeper into being Christ’s ambassadors, let’s reflect on the reality we live in.
We are all ambassadors of something or someone.
Every minute of every day, we live as reflections and representations of some type of kingdom, some type of king. When we pause and reflect, it isn’t too difficult to become aware of what kingdom we represent. Whatever has your attention has your heart, and whatever has your heart has your representation. Take stock of what fires up your emotions—this will tell you what agendas and passions you align with. Take stock of how you naturally respond—this will show you what models shape you. Take stock of what you feel the need to defend, proclaim, or convince—this will show you who, or what, you are advocating for. What kingdom, what king, are you representing?
Not quite sure? Here are some options for the gravitational pulls that seek to shape us into their image.
You may find yourself representing the Kingdom of the Left or the Right. The partisan-charged news cycle is a never-ending IV pouring into your mindstream. Your values, passions, and thought-life swirl around the moral and intellectual superiority of your side, and the evil of theirs. If, in your view, half the population of your country is hopelessly lost and unworthy of a conversation, you may be, unaware, a stellar ambassador of these kingdoms.
You may be representing the Kingdom of Consuming. You could care less about politics, but the clothes you wear, the accessories you carry, and the car you drive represent a well-formed market in your heart. You get to be a billboard for your favorite companies and products, literally being a brand ambassador to the desires of comfort, quality, and ease. How you spend your money and what your browsing history is filled with has a way of revealing what kingdom you represent.
“I’m no slave to any power or principality,” you may say. If so, you may be representing the Kingdom of the Self. This kingdom is a vast plain of towers built to the heavens, built up to make a name for ourselves. This kingdom is far more common and devious than it is given the credit for. While we may think we only represent ourselves, we are deeply shaped by various voices, efforts, provisions, and ecosystems built up by others. For good or for ill, “just being ourselves” is simply revealing the voices and perspectives we’ve chosen to guide us.
Let’s go for one more, there is also the temptation to identify as ambassadors to Christian names other than Jesus like those Paul challenged in 1 Corinthians 3:4-7. This may be the names of pastors, Christian influencers, teachers, thinkers, or even the names of a particular church. While the gathered and scattered ambassadors of Jesus’ kingdom make up his global church, and the local church is the deeply beautiful local expression of it, it is important even to discern whether we are representing first our church or our Lord. If we do not do this nuanced work to ask who really is king, our churches can become the same religious institutions Jesus spent much of his time challenging.
The Good News
Now, this is sharp language, but these are just a few of the powers and principalities we are called to be at war with. Instead of taking these gravitational pulls captive at the thought level, we all too easily find ourselves representing these kingdoms at our identity level. We may be living, unaware, as ambassadors representing the exact kingdoms that are at war with Jesus’ kingdom.
But there’s good news. “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life” Romans 5:10 (NIV)!
God does not leave us to the devices of the powers and principalities of evil. Instead, God reconciles us to himself through Christ and then gives us the ministry of reconciliation. As disciples of Jesus, we get to live as reconciled reconcilers. This is what being an ambassador of the Kingdom of God is all about.
Ambassadors of the True King
So, despite our failures and our inevitable servitude to other kingdoms, we have been saved and given this new title: “Christ’s Ambassadors”, “Representatives of Messiah Jesus.” Just like all else in the Christian life, this new reality that ‘is’, is then lived into. We are called to apprentice under Jesus, for one, in order to pick up his character, his natural responses, his agendas and hopes, and his mission. It is in how accurately we reflect our king that we succeed as his ambassadors.
Let’s get practical. What does this look like to live as Christ’s ambassador, to represent Jesus’ kingdom? It looks like…
advocating on behalf of those overlooked.
slowing down to be interrupted by those easily buried in a crowd.
seeking the freedom of those imprisoned by the chains of sin.
filling your table with neighbors, foreigners, and the marginalized
giving sight and clarity to those who are blinded by the darkened lenses of our world.
proclaiming the good news of God’s jubilee year.
challenging the assumptions and authorities that are not subject to God.
providing abundance to those shaped by scarcity.
learning from children how to have faith.
loving your enemies as your natural reaction.
laying down your life so that God may raise it up.
As we do these things and live this way, we not only represent our king. We, like ambassadors, stand as beacons and beachheads of the kingdom itself wherever we are. We saturate the world with the way of the kingdom, bringing color and vibrancy and sharpness to what is a grey and incoherent world. Our representation of the kingdom actually reveals and expands his reign here on earth as it is in heaven. Each act of representation is an act of reconciliation…reconciling the broken and rebellious world back to the family and embrace of its loving Father.
So, let us have the words of my dad echo in our ears. Let us remember that we are called to be representatives of our God and our family. Even as we bump our heads and find ourselves representing other kingdoms, the very work of reconciliation happening IN us as we apprentice under Jesus as his disciples means our life shows the world the beautiful, true, loving King who has saved us and sent us.
