Hope Now: 27 Days to Peace, Healing, and Justiceਨਮੂਨਾ

The Kingdom of Jesus

Jesus taught, preached and demonstrated the reality of the kingdom by overcoming nature, exorcising demons, healing people from diseases and raising people from the dead. However, the idea of the kingdom of God wasn’t a common expression in everyday language in the time of Jesus. It was only one of the many ways Jews spoke about their hope for a new age – the eschatological age – when the new reign of God would come. In fact, Jesus wouldn’t have told so many stories about the kingdom of God if it were commonly understood and if people knew what he meant when he said, “the kingdom of God is like.”

When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, he wasn’t referring to a place. Rather, he was referring to a relationship.

The key to this kind of relationship is membership in the kingdom and the quality of relationship with the King. We enter the kingdom by becoming obedient servants. How does one know or sense the kingdom has arrived if it is a kingship, a relationship? The kingdom of God isn’t a timeless reality or place; rather, it comes to us through the presence of Jesus and his disciples, as is the case in Luke 10.

We know the kingdom has arrived when we enter a relationship with Jesus the king. Jesus brings the kingdom when he comes to us and we receive him.

This relationship with Jesus the King impacts us and all other relationships. In fact, the whole message of the Bible is focused on God’s relationship with humans and their relationship each other. Kingdom nearness redefines our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and it also redefines our relationship with other people.

These relationships come under the rule of God in our lives. Jesus sums up the basic rule for living, often referred to as the Golden Rule. This rule existed before Jesus taught it. However, it existed in the negative form: “Do not do unto others what you do not want them to do to you" (Matthew 7:12 NIV).

Jesus took this negative principle and turned it into a positive. He indicated a proactive approach. He encouraged his followers to take the initiative to do good.

A closer examination of the kingdom of God according to how Jesus spoke, taught and demonstrated brings a sharper focus to what Jesus understood, meant and communicated about his kingdom.

Question for Reflection:

• How did Jesus talk about the Kingdom during his three-year ministry?