When Jesus traveled throughout Judea, wherever he went he talked about the kingdom of God1. In fact, it was his main message, and the message he committed to his followers—the good news about the kingdom of God. Nowadays if you were to ask 100 people what the main message of the church is, I doubt that even one in a hundred would say anything about the kingdom of God. You might hear that Jesus took our sins upon himself to save us from God’s wrath. Or you might hear that Jesus died and rose again so that those who believe in him can also rise to be with him when he returns. Or you might hear that Jesus died so that when we die our souls go to heaven. All of these might be true and might sound like good news, but they are not very much like what Jesus taught and urged his followers to teach.
Even the phrase “kingdom of God” conjures up associations that would have been utterly foreign to Jesus’ contemporaries. We no longer refer to nations as “kingdoms,” and in fact few nations still have a king2. Those that do often constrain the king’s power in various ways. For those of us who grew up with European folk tales, kings often have crowns and wear rich robes of red cloth and ermine. In Jesus’ day, Judea had a king, Herod, who was a vassal of the emperor in Rome. Yet kings in Jesus’ day still had virtually unlimited power and immense wealth relative to their subjects. What the Bible calls kings, we might well call warlords today. They used power to accrue wealth and more power so they could live in luxury, often with little regard for the welfare of their subjects.
Even though Jesus taught a lot about the kingdom of God, he never precisely defined it. Instead, he spoke about it in parables, brief comparisons or metaphors that emphasized some aspect of God’s kingdom. He also made clear that he regarded God as his own father and like a father to all his followers. He taught them to address God as Father3 and expect the same kind of loving care that children commonly expect from a father4. Again and again, Jesus emphasized God’s loving care for his children, especially to the outcasts who had no power or position in society. His closest disciples were poor, untaught fishermen from Galilee, a backwater region of a backwater province. He numbered prostitutes, tax collectors (popularly regarded as collaborators with the Romans), and political activists (hostile to Roman rule) among his followers. He talked to women and entrusted his message to them.
While careful to follow the Law of Moses, he had no qualms about breaking from the traditions of the elders, openly defying synagogue rulers5, teachers of the Law, and Pharisees when their interpretations of Scripture harmed people or kept people from entering God’s kingdom. He railed against hypocrisy6, those in power who put on a show of righteous piety but were actually just as self-serving, greedy, and envious as everyone else. Jesus preferred dealing with people who were honest about their sin rather than with those who tried to cover it up and deny it. He had compassion on those who were oppressed, but had harsh words for their oppressors. If the kingdom of God is anything like Jesus, then it is a place where everyone is respected and valued as a human being, where mercy and grace are freely available to all, but where hypocrisy and lies are not tolerated.
Jesus taught about a kingdom that is not a place with borders to be defended or laws to be enforced. It is rather a way of living, a way of being in the world.
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Luke 17:20-21 NIV
Those who enter God’s kingdom, learn to exhibit God’s character. They don’t kowtow to the rich and famous, nor do they snub the poor and ordinary. They treat everyone with respect and speak the truth in love from a place of openness and vulnerability. They don’t seek to manipulate or coerce anyone. They make room for the agency of others because they focus there efforts at control on themselves. Their passion is to emulate Jesus in every way, even to the point of laying down their lives if necessary. It is a kingdom of patience, love, integrity, and mercy. Who wouldn’t want to live in such a kingdom?
- Matthew’s gospel almost always has “kingdom of heaven” rather than “kingdom of God.” In fact, no other New Testament writer uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven.” Parallel passages between Matthew and the other two synoptic gospels, Mark and Luke, show that “kingdom of heaven” has the same meaning as “kingdom of God.” ↩︎
- According to Wikipedia, 43 nations still have a king, of which 15 are British commonwealths that regard Charles III as their king. Only 12 have a king with virtually unlimited political power. ↩︎
- Matthew 6:9. ↩︎
- Matthew 7:9-11. ↩︎
- See for example, Luke 13:10-17, where Jesus directly contradicts a synagogue ruler after healing a woman on the Sabbath. ↩︎
- See especially Matthew 23 and the parallel passage in Luke 11:37-54. I especially like the detail in Luke where an expert in the Law objects to Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees, and Jesus immediately turns his criticism on the experts in the Law too. ↩︎