twenty-three

I’m working through "The Secret Message of Jesus" right now (review
forthcoming!) and all this talk about the Kingdom of God has gotten me
going. I decided, after reading a bit at the coffee shop this evening,
to spend some time researching the phrase "kingdom of God" and
specifically the word "kingdom" a bit more.

While I’m not done with my little study this evening, I decided I’d write out some of my thoughts and observations. I’ve been working through a lot of the definitions I find for the kingdom of God in my Bible software, searching through Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, looking up word references throughout the Bible, specifically focusing on the New Testament and Jesus’ use of the phrase.

Most of the results point to the common interpretation of the kingdom of God: Jesus’ reign on earth, his leadership, lordship over the earth and the fulfillment of the peace He brought. Thoughts of the "coming King" and "on earth as it is in Heaven" immediately come to my mind when I look at the kingdom of God from this perspective. And this gives me a lot of hope. Hope for the brighter days, when "Christ shall come, with shouts of acclamation" and we’ll be able to see Him fully and know the true life He brings. The FUTURE interpretation of the kingdom of God.

But what does that give us for the present? What I really set out to study were Christ’s (and Paul’s) references to the kingdom of God in their "now" and therefore in our "now." Instances like Matthew 4:17, where Jesus says "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near (or is at hand),” are less frequently discussed in a context where the nearness meant at the coming of Pentecost or at Christ’s death. Maybe I’m missing a few things here, because I haven’t had enough time to dive in deep. Or maybe that’s why some people believe that who talk about the kingdom of God in a present sense are often seen as distorting Scripture.

I notice Jesus describing the kingdom of God (heaven) in both the present and the future tense. He describes what the kingdom will be like, but also makes mention of how the kingdom is coming near or actually describes how the kingdom "is like a mustard seed." These subtleties in tense are important, I believe, because they allow the kingdom of God to be both a close-coming event and a hopeful prospect for the end.

By no means is this my end of thought, just the beginning of a rant. I figure that looking at how Jesus talks about the kingdom of God begins by placing it in the when and where. A lot of people only want to bank on a coming kingdom, beyond death, at the end of the world. But maybe in these present tense statements, these inklings of a close-coming kingdom and connection with God in a brand new way (Pentecost anyone?), Jesus was telling us that the kingdom starts now.