When people get down to the business of deciding what to do, a divide tends to reveal itself. This is the divide between the realist and the idealist. The hard-headed realist is ready to do what’s necessary for the sake of his friends and family. He will choose the pragmatic option. He hold to the dictum, “the ends justify the means.” The idealist appeals to high-minded principles. It would seem that Christians are idealists because Christians desire to see real justice and real mercy in the world around us. Are we really just fighting for our ideals though? Are we pursuing a false Utopia?
I would argue that idealism and realism come together in Christ. Christ exemplified the ideal kingdom, that is, the kingdom of perfect righteousness that people long for and at the same time he lived in the harsh realism of this world. Christ was real. He walked and ate and drank. Christ showed the world that the kingdom of righteousness was something that was real and that it was something that was exemplified in his very real life. Christian idealism is historical, which means that it is not based on an idea but on a person. As Christians, we are fighting for the justice and mercy of that kingdom.
As people, however, we all live in really messed up situations. Is High-minded idealism really the right option for these situations? How do we combine our idealism with realism so that it is actually successful? Once again, Christ is the one who shows us how to cross this impasse. We cross it through our willingness to suffer. Through suffering, Christ showed the world that somebody could live according to their ideals. Now Christ was not living according to ideals but to the words of his Father in heaven. In particular, Christ suffered through his patience. He was constant in his patience toward his disciples, who had not fully grasped their calling to live for the sake of the kingdom of God.
Christians are realists in so far as they are patient with their brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as all their neighbors, as these fail in living according to the love and mercy of the kingdom. Christians are idealists, not in that they serve an idea, but in that they serve a person who exemplified the virtues fo the kingdom of God. This does not mean there are no hard choices. It does mean that we are willing to suffer for making the better choice.