The Church as an Embassy

I know it has been a long time since I have written a post. I guess I did better when I had a deadline each week.  Oh well.  I want to continue the discussion we have been having about the Church.  There are many models of the Church that come from the New Testament and other writers throughout Church history.  Some of these include the Church as a hospital for the sick, a lifeboat, a lighthouse, a candle, salt, not to mention things such as the body and bride of Christ.  But, the image that I want to focus on is the idea of the Church as an embassy.  I think this image provides one of the fullest pictures of what the Church is and does.  It also complements the message Jesus so often presented-- that the Kingdom of God has come near.

The main place this image comes from is 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 which reads,

^{17 “}Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ 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. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Paul is saying that we are ministers, or ambassadors, of Christ’s kingdom.  Ambassadors are based out of embassies.  Let us look at some of the things embassies do and represent and then compare that to the role of the Church.

The primary purpose and mission of an embassy is to represent a country in a foreign land.  The church is the primary way that the Kingdom of God comes into the world today.  Certainly the Kingdom is able to come in other ways, but the Church, and more specifically, the people/ambassadors who make up the Church, are the primary way God’s Kingdom comes.  Even while Jesus was on earth, he commissioned and sent others, first the 12 disciples and then 70 others, to advance and spread the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:1-6, 10:1-20) Matthew 28 shares the well-known Great Commission whereby Jesus tells his followers to make disciples and teach others to obey his commandments.

But I want to briefly draw our attention to another example of Jesus giving authority to act as agents of the Kingdom in Matt. 18:15-20.

¹⁵ “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸ Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

¹⁹ “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Many of us know pieces of this chapter, such as: “Where two or more or gathered, Jesus will be in their midst”, or, “If two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”  Sounds familiar right?  We might even be aware of the teaching on how to confront people in the church with sins.  But, somehow verse 18 usually gets ignored, so let us read it again, “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.  Now this verse is confusing and taken out of context, especially in light of Peter receiving the same command and being given the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  It sounds like it might be referring to salvation, even.  We don’t have time here to explore this verse fully or its historical interpretations, but at its most basic and straightforward reading, it at least relates to church discipline.  The implication is that God has given us the task to represent him and “loose” and “bind” in his name, much as like ambassadors are charged to do.

As a side, but important note, Jesus makes it clear that because we are his ambassadors, we will meet resistance and even be hated by some.  (Matt. 10:22, John 15)  There is no guarantee that being a foreign ambassador is going to be easy, and we might be like sheep amongst wolves. (Again, from Matt 10)  So, to reiterate point one, the Church and its ambassadors are foreign agents in a potentially hostile environment.

Second, the Church as an embassy provides instruction, leadership, mission, and discipleship for the ambassadors.  Imagine being an ambassador in a foreign country, but never coming back to the embassy to get instructions or stay connected to the kingdom you represent (before cell phones, of course).  It wouldn’t take very long for you to become disconnected from the culture and goals of your home country.  In the same way, gathering together as a Church each week (or even more often) provides what is necessary to go out in to the world and represent the Kingdom of God.

The passage from Paul in 2 Corinthians also gives us insight into what the mission of the ambassadors is to be.  We are to be ministers of reconciliation.  Jesus is our example and guide in our task.  God was at work reconciling the world to himself in Christ, and thus we are also to be about the task of reconciling the world to God in Christ.  Jesus told his disciples, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matt 5:9) I am reminded of the image Isaiah shares in Chapter 9 when he tells us the vision he sees for the future Kingdom of the Messiah.  He writes that he will be called “Prince of Peace,” and that the “greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.” (Is. 9:6-7)  If this is what the Kingdom of the Messiah looks like, then shouldn’t we, as ambassadors, be promoters of this peace?  The image of the Church as an embassy reminds us that we are not to be passive in the world.  We are to be peacemakers and, more broadly, representatives of the Kingdom of God. 

Regardless of what model of the Church we talk about, salt, light, yeast, hospital, etc., they are all pointing to the reality that the Church is to represent Jesus Christ in the world.  We are to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world today through the power of his Spirit.  These models are ideals and images that we are to strive towards, even if we must admit that at times we are imperfect representatives of the Kingdom. Let us pray that God’s Kingdom continues to come on earth as it is in heaven.

Grace and Peace