Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

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Thy Kingdom Come! Readings on the Kingdom of God, continued

He agrees with the Jews that the Kingdom is God coming into history and reigning by giving salvation to his people and judgment to his enemies. But Jesus goes far beyond this in providing a grand new interpretation of God’s reign. 9. Jesus startles and stuns his hearers by saying the Kingdom of God which they have all been waiting for is now present (Mark 1.15). The time of the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises has now arrived. He goes even further than this by teaching that the Kingdom is present in his own person and ministry. (Matthew 11.1-15; 12.28; Luke 10.23ff; 17.20ff.) This teaching that the Kingdom of God has arrived or is here is radically new. No Jewish rabbi had ever taught such a thing (Luke 10.23ff). 10. But Jesus, like most of the Jews of his day, also taught that the Kingdom of God was still future, i.e. it was yet to come (e.g. Matthew 6.10; 8.11ff; 25.31-34; Luke 21.31; 22.17ff. Cf. Matthew 5.3-12; Mark 9.47). 11. The solution to this strange teaching is to realize that Jesus’ new perspective on the Kingdom of God contains both elements: the Kingdom is present and future. Jesus taught two comings of the Kingdom. First, the Kingdom came partially in his own person and ministry in history. Second, Jesus taught that there will be a future complete coming of his Kingdom when he returns at the end of human history. 12. Now we can understand what Jesus meant by the “mystery of the Kingdom” (Mark 4.10ff). This strange, new perspective on the Kingdom of God taught that the Old Testament promises could be fulfilled without being consummated. Thus, the mystery of the Kingdom is fulfillment without consummation. The Kingdom of God has come into history in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ without consummation. This mystery has been hidden until now revealed in Christ. 13. In one way or another, all of Jesus’ kingdom parables (“The King dom of God is like. . .”) proclaim and/or explain this mystery. This understanding of the Kingdom is radically new. The first century Palestinian Jews needed to hear this message,