Starting this guy up again means I may be throwing out some ideas here & there, so I figured I might start with a basic idea that has huge implications throughout the Bible. The kingdom of God exists here and now, and it’s possible to be a part of it in the here and now.
Jesus had one sentence he repeated over and over again as he traveled around Galilee preaching. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). This was the central aspect of Jesus’ teachings.
People still debate what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God. Part of it seems to be a description of heaven, how life will be once Jesus establishes his reign and sets everything right. The horrible things of this world, its sufferings and injustices, will one day be overturned and this new Kingdom will reverse the natural order of the world. Because it’s something in the future, people get meaning out of Jesus’ words’ about the kingdom by spiritualizing them – they speak of an individual’s heart and how to get by in this world until the kingdom arrives.
But, when we leave an understanding of the kingdom at that, it makes Jesus’ insistence on the kingdom a bit strange. Jesus traveled all over declaring this basic, one-sentence message. The kingdom is present now: Jesus said “it is at hand” (some translators simply say “it has come”) not “it’s coming later on, but you should get ready now!” Life, as we see and experience it right now, is influenced by the present reality of the kingdom.
I’m recognizing more and more that this kingdom is fundamentally different from the order and structure of how the world works. It’s difficult to suddenly accept and enter into the kingdom because it values things that the greater world downplays, ignores, and abuses.
For many, entering into a kingdom way of life requires a drastic change in how to live. For that reason, Jesus said to “Repent and believe the good news!” The kingdom requires its members to change themselves, and the kingdom then stretches out to change the world.
“Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within [or among] you.’” Luke 17:20-21
