John Caputo talks about the “Logic of the Kingdom” as being a sort of  “Logic of the Impossible” in his book, The Weakness of God.  I Love this idea.

Take forgiveness for example. Say for instance that you have a bank loan in which you finally make the last payment–you’re now free and clear. What does the bank say about all of this? They would tend to say that your loan is “forgiven.” This bank talk is quite hilarious. The bank hasn’t “forgiven” anything, they got paid back in full, with interest. To the bank, this kind of forgiveness makes sense, it’s perfectly logical. It’s what you may call worldly or economic forgiveness, forgiveness as an equal exchange.

The classical way of thinking about forgiveness is strikingly similar to this economic/worldly model. There are certain criteria or conditions that you must meet in order to be forgiven. For instance, you have to say you’re sorry, make amends, promise not to do that terrible thing ever again and offer to do penance. Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll be forgiven. According to Caputo, “after you’ve done all of that, it’s like paying your mortgage…you deserve forgiveness!”

Now, if we think about forgiveness as a gift, things begin to change. Perhaps the person who needs to be forgiven is not someone who has met all the conditions, but someone who hasn’t? So the logic of the impossible says that forgiveness is really forgiveness when you run up against something that is impossible to forgive. This is what Jesus calls us to do–to do the impossible, to forgive the unforgivable and love the unlovable. This is the upside down, impossible logic of The Kingdom.

Assuredly, this type of logic is very different from the cold, heartless logic that we know, where nothing is for free and you get back in kind everything you do wrong. The logic of the Kingdom confounds this world. Every time we adhere to this Heavenly model, a disruption occurs. Every time we forgive or refuse to hate or lay down our swords and love our enemies, Heaven literally breaks through and disrupts our world. This phenomenon is truly miraculous.

Looking at things this way helps me to understand what forgiveness, hope and love really look like. Forgiveness is not really forgiveness if I’m paying you back, hope really begins to look like hope when things are looking hopeless, and love is at it’s best when I love someone who does not love me. It’s the same issue that St. Paul deals with when he talks about Hoping against Hope. Paul is saying that we really need hope when things are looking their worst, when things are in fact looking, impossible.

Tags:JesusJohn CaputoRomansSt- Paultheology of the impossibleWeak Theology