What Was the Message of Jesus

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What Was the Message of Jesus?

What Was the Message of Jesus?

by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts

Copyright 2011 by Mark D. Roberts and Patheos.com

Note: You may download this resource at no cost, for personal use or for use in a Christian

ministry, as long as you are not publishing it for sale. All I ask is that you acknowledge the

source of this material: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/.For all other uses, please contact me at [email protected]. Thank you.

Table of ContentsIntroduction

What Was the Core of Jesus Message?

What is the Kingdom of God?How Did Jesus Proclaim the Kingdom of God?

Where is the Kingdom of God?

When is the Kingdom of God Coming?

How is the Kingdom of God Coming?

How Did the Message of Jesus Lead to His Crucifixion?

Summary

What Was the Message of Jesus? IntroductionJust about everybody wants Jesus on their side, or so it seems. Yes, there are a few zealous

atheists who seem happy to dismiss the relevance if not the historical reality of Jesus. But,

for the most part, people like to claim Jesus as a supporter. This includes large numbers of

secularists and Muslims, ironically enough. In the United States, Jesus is used to prop up

politics on both sides of the aisle. And he is said by conservative Christians to support their


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theology while liberal Christians think Jesus is clearly on their side. Catholics, Baptists,

Mennonites, Episcopalians, and, yes, even Presbyterians (like me) think their theology is a

legitimate if not the most legitimate expression of what Jesus himself taught.

Given the popularity of Jesus, you might think that

most people would have a reasonably accurate

understanding of his message, that which he

proclaimed and enacted almost 2,000 years ago in

Judea. Yet, in my experience, this is not the case. Mostpeople cannot describe the message of Jesus in a way

that reflects the earliest historical records of his

teaching, which are found in the New Testament

Gospels.

If you were to ask the average person what Jesus

preached even the average Christian youd probably

hear something about love: Jesus taught about love.

He said we should al l love each other. A well-informed

person might even remember that Jesus called his

followers to love their enemies. So is love the center of

Jesus message. In fact, he did talk quite a bit about

love. Jesus said that loving God is the greatest

commandment and loving our neighbors is the runner

up, or even an extension of the winner (Mark 12:29-31). So, to be sure, love figured

prominently in the message of Jesus.

But love was not the core of his proclamation. If Jesus had been running around first-century

Judea telling people to love each other, he certainly wouldnt have been crucified on a Roman

cross. Neither the Romans nor the Jewish authorities would have been particularly bothered

by a Jewish prophet who told people to love each other. Truly, quite a few Jews would havebeen distressed over the thought of having to love their enemies. But the Romans the

obvious enemies of first-century Jews wouldnt have crucified someone whose main crime

was tel ling Jews to love them and turn the other cheek! If anything, the Romans would have

protected such a peacemaker. So, the rock solid fact of Jesus crucifixion suggests that the

core of his message must have been more contentious, indeed, more scandalous, than a call

to love.

Its common for people to reduce the message of Jesus to something all too simple and, I

might add, all too similar to the biases of whoever is doing the reducing. Youll see this in

many of the contemporary scholarly attempts to summarize the message of Jesus. Theinfamous Jesus Seminar, by the time it stoned Jesus to death with its red, pink, gray, and

black beads, ended up with a sage who spoke in esoteric riddles, just the sort of teachings

preferred by, well, the voting members of the Jesus Seminar. Such a peculiar preacher would

hardly have been put to death as a threat to Roman order in Judea, however. (You can find

my in-depth critique of the Jesus Seminar and its approach to Jesus in my series: Unmasking

the Jesus Seminar.)

Whatever Jesus preached, it got people excited. Even the demons were riled up. And Jesus

message angered most of the religious leaders he encountered. In the end, it got him killed

on a Roman cross. So what exactly was this inspiring, challenging, goading, and apparently


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Gordon Fee speaking at Laity Lodge

subversive message of Jesus all about?

Ill begin to answer this question in my next post.

What Was the Core of Jesus Preaching?In my last post I began a multi-part series that seeks to answer the question: What was the

message of Jesus? I mentioned that many people would answer this question by saying

something about love, because we rightly associate Jesus teaching with love. But, as it turns

out, love is not the core of his message, though it is close and essential to that core. What

Jesus actually proclaimed, first and foremost, was not that we should love, but something

else.

We find a succinct summary of this something else in the first description of Jesus ministry

in the Gospel of Mark:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,

and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and

believe in the good news (Mark 1:14-15).

Here is Marks summary of the core of Jesus message. It is, in a nutshell: The kingdom of

God has come near.

The phrase kingdom of God appears 53 times in the New Testament Gospels, almost always

on the lips of Jesus. The synonymous phrase, kingdom of heaven, appears 32 times in the

Gospel of Matthew. Throughout the accounts of Jesus ministry, he is always talking about

the kingdom of God. Many of his parables explain something about this kingdom: it is like

mustard seed, a treasure, a merchant looking for pearls, and a king who gave a banquet

(Matt 13:44-47; 22:2). Jesus even defines his purpose in light of the kingdom: I must

proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this

purpose (Luke 4:43).

Given the centrality of the kingdom of God to

the preaching, and, as well see, the actions of

Jesus, its strange that many Christians are

relatively unfamiliar with what this phrase

means. But if we want to understand the

message of Jesus, not to mention his whole

ministry, including his death and resurrection,

then we must grapple with what he says about

the kingdom of God. Gordon Fee, one of thewisest of evangelical New Testament scholars,

once said in a lecture on Jesus: You cannot

know anything about Jesus, anything, if you

miss the kingdom of God . . . . You are zero on

Jesus if you dont understand this term. Im

sorry to say it that strongly, but this is the great failure of evangelical Christianity. We have

had Jesus without the kingdom of God, and therefore have literally done Jesus in.*

If youve read this far, Im assuming that you dont want to be zero on Jesus, and that you

dont want to do him in, either. Neither do I. So we must work together to figure out what


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King Abdullah II of Jordan at the National PrayerBreakfast

kingdom of God, we need to pay close attention

to his use of the word kingdom. When we try to

understand Jesus message of the kingdom, we

easily get tripped up by a language gap. In

everyday English, kingdom means a place

where a king reigns. The Kingdom of Jordan, for

example, is the place where King Abdullah II

rules. But when Jesus spoke of the kingdom of

God, he did not think in terms of local ity, but

authority.

In the New Testament Gospels, Jesus uses the

Greek phrase he basileia tou theou, the kingdom

of God. The word basileia could sometimes refer

to a locale over which a king ruled, but its

primary meaning in the first-century was reign,

rule, authority, sovereignty. (The same was true of the Aramaic term, malku, the word

probably spoken by Jesus.) We see this meaning clearly in one of Jesus parables. He speaks

of a nobleman who went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then toreturn (Luke 19:12, NIV; the NRSV reads to get royal power for himself). The Greek of this

verse reads, literally, he went to a distant country to receive a basileia for himself. He

didnt go to get a new region over which to rule, but rather to get new and greater authority

over the place he already lived.

We see this same meaning of kingdom in the Hebrew Scriptures. In Psalm 145, for example,

we read:

All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,

and all your faithful shall bless you.

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom[malkuth in Hebrew; basileia in Greek],

and tell of your power (Ps 145:10-11).

Here Gods kingdom is parallel, not to the place over which God reigns, but to his divine

power. Gods faithful praise his sovereignty here, not the place over which God is sovereign.

So when Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God has come near, he doesnt mean that a

place is approaching, but that Gods own royal authority and power have come on the scene.

So, we could paraphrase Mark 1:15, which summarizes Jesus preaching, as follows: Gods

reign is at hand. Gods power is being unleashed. Turn your life around and put your trust in

this good news.

Of course Jesus announcement of Gods reign didnt come in a vacuum. It was both

consistent with and a fulfil lment of a central theme in the Hebrew prophets. In my next post

Ill examine how these prophets spoke of the kingdom of God, and how this prepared the way

for the message and ministry of Jesus.

What is the Kingdom of God? Part 2In my last post in this series, I began to clarify the core message of Jesus: The kingdom of

God has come near (Mark 1:15). Our word kingdom, it turns out, misses the precise sense


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of Jesus own language. What he proclaimed was not the approach of a place where God rules

(our typical sense of kingdom), but rather the dawning of Gods kingly authority on earth.

Thus, when we read the phrase kingdom of God in the Gospels, we need to think in terms of

Gods reign, rule, authority, or sovereignty. This, according to Jesus, is what has come near.

In his proclamation of the reign of God, Jesus echoes the

language and hopes of the Hebrew prophets. I have known this

for over 20 years, but it was strongly impressed upon me three

years ago as I was writing my book,Jesus Revealed. Inpreparation for this project, I re-read the Hebrew prophets,

beginning with Isaiah and ending with Malachi. Time and again,

I ran into the language of Gods kingdom as the Lord promised

that, someday, he would return to rule over his people.

Consider, for example, the following passage from Zephaniah,

who prophesied in the latter half of the seventh century B.C.:

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;

shout, O Israel! . . .

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you,

he has turned away your enemies.

The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; . . .

a warrior who gives victory;

he will rejoice over you with gladness,

he will renew you in his love; . . .

I will deal with all your oppressors

at that time.

And I will save the lame

and gather the outcast,

and I will change their shame into praiseand renown in all the earth.

At that time I wil l bring you home,

at the time when I gather you;

for I will make you renowned and praised

among all the peoples of the earth,

when I restore your fortunes

before your eyes, says the LORD. (Zeph 3:14-20, emphasis added)

According to this prophecy, at the right time the LORD himself will be the king of Israel. In

this role, he will give victory to his people, removing their oppressors, gathering theirscattered exiles, and restoring their fortunes.

Consider one other passage from the Hebrew prophets, this one from Isaiah:

How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,

who brings good news,

who announces salvation,

who says to Zion, Your God reigns.

Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,


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Mustard plants in Southern California. Not quite thesame variety as in Judea in the time of Jesus.

the kingdom in a childlike manner gives us a bit more information about the kingdom of

God. Notice that the kingdom is not something we create by our own efforts, but rather

something we receive. Christians sometimes speak of Gods kingdom as something we

produce by our own efforts, as in: It is our duty to bring in the kingdom or Our vision is to

usher in the kingdom of God. This misses the biblical point, which emphasizes the agency of

God as that which inaugurates Gods own reign. Whatever our relationship to the kingdom,

we dont bring it or produce it or inaugurate it. Ill say more later about how we live in this

world in light of the reign of God.

Parables. Some of Jesus explanations of the

kingdom take the form of parables, which at

times seem more like riddles than

clarifications. For example, at one point Jesus

says,

With what can we compare the kingdom of

God, or what parable will we use for it? It

is like a mustard seed, which, when sown

upon the ground, is the smallest of all the

seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it

grows up and becomes the greatest of all

shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so

that the birds of the air can make nests in

its shade (Mark 4:30-32).

This parable, an animated simile, tells us about the kingdom of God by supplying a vivid

picture of its paradoxical size. It begins as a tiny seed, but ends up as a giant plant.

Whereas many Jews in the time of Jesus expected the reign of God to appear in its full

grandeur, Jesus reveals that it begins as the smallest of seeds. The full extent of Gods

kingdom will only be revealed later.

Notice, once again, how Jesus parable of the mustard seed coheres with Old Testament

prophecy. Through Ezekiel God once said,

I myself will take a sprig

from the lofty top of a cedar;

I will set it out.

I will break off a tender one

from the topmost of its young twigs;

I myself will plant iton a high and lofty mountain.

On the mountain height of Israel

I will plant it,

in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,

and become a noble cedar.

Under it every kind of bird will live;

in the shade of its branches will nest

winged creatures of every kind. (Ezek 17:22-23)

Whereas Ezekiel spoke of a tiny cedar sprig that grew into


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One of the relatively few cedar trees stillliving on the mountains of Lebanon, which

was once covered with these trees.

a noble cedar in which birds would nest, Jesus used the

mustard seed to make a similar point about Gods

kingdom. Though it begins humbly, in Jesus own ministry,

it will someday be gloriously large, a resting place for all creation.

To sum up what weve seen so far, Jesus announces the presence of Gods reign through

basic statements, explanations, and parables. Yet his words, as important as they may be,

do not exhaust Jesus means for proclaiming the kingdom. Alongside the words of Jesus we

find his works, his actions that announced dramatically the coming of Gods kingdom. Tothese actions Ill turn in my next post.

How Does Jesus Proclaim the Kingdom of God? Part

2

In my last post, I showed some of the ways Jesus used words to proclaim the kingdom of

God. These included basic statements of fact, explanations, and parables. But Jesus

proclaimed Gods coming reign, not only in words, but also in works. These actions both

illustrated the kingdom of God and demonstrated its presence. Without these works, Jesus

announcement of the kingdom would have fallen on deaf ears. People would have regarded

him as a dreamer, perhaps as a deceiver or even a demoniac, but not as the divine envoy of

the kingdom.

The works of Jesus that revealed the presence of the kingdom took various forms, including

healings, exorcisms, nature miracles, and other symbolic gestures. Let me say a bit about

each of these actions and their significance.

Healings. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus healed people of various diseases. His extraordinary

popularity came, not simply from the authority of his preaching, but also from his authority

over human bodies. Yet healing was not an end in and of itself for those familiar with theHebrew prophets. It was also a sign of the presence of Gods reign on earth. In Isaiah 35, for

example, God comes to save and redeem his people. In this context we find the following

promise: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy (Isa 35:5-

6). The fact that these things were happening in the ministry of Jesus proved the presence of

the kingdom. Jesus himself said this when he was asked by the disciples of John the Baptist

whether he (Jesus) was the one through whom the kingdom was coming. Jesus said, Go and

tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are

cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them

(Matt 11:4-5). In other words, Because the healings promised in Isaiah are happening in myministry, yes, I am the one through whom Gods kingdom has come.

Exorcisms. One of the most peculiar aspects of the Gospels for North American readers is

Jesus repeated expulsion of demons. Most of us simply arent familiar or comfortable with

such things, unlike so many believers in the Southern Hemisphere today. But, whether we like

it or not, exorcisms are central to the ministry of Jesus, and, according to Jesus himself, clear

evidence of the presence of the kingdom. In Matthew 12, for example, some of the Pharisees

accuse Jesus of casting out demons with demonic power. He answers them, first by citing the

now classic line about a house divided against itself being certain to fall (Matt 12:25). Then

he adds, But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God


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Rembrandt van Rijn, "The Storm on the Seaof Galilee," 1633.

has come to you (Matt 12:28). Whatever we might think of Jesus exorcisms, for him and his

fellow first-century Jews they are a demonstration of the presence of Gods reign.

Nature Miracles. According to the Gospels, Jesus multiplies food, walks on water, and stills

the storm. Once again, these mighty works are associated with Gods kingdom. In Psalm 89,

for example, the Lord says, I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my

servant David: I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all

generations (Ps 89:3-4). Then, only four verses later the Psalm continues, O LORD God of

hosts, who is as mighty as you, O LORD? Your faithfulness surrounds you. You rule the ragingof the sea; when its waves rise, you still them (Ps 89:8-9). So Jesus power over nature

suggests that Gods promised kingdom has arrived and, indeed, that God himself is somehow

truly present in the ministry of Jesus.

I recognize that for many people today the miracles of Jesus are harder to swallow than a

camel. In some circles and among quite a few New Testament scholars, the miracles of Jesus

are not considered as historical events so much as

symbolic legends. Yet if you take away the miraculous

from the message of Jesus, you severely truncate his

announcement of the kingdom and, at the same time,you are left with a Jesus whom most people would have

ignored. Even many skeptical modern scholars,

therefore, believe that Jesus must have been a healer of sorts, one who used

psychosomatic cures and the power of suggestion to help people feel better. At this point Im

not prepared to mount a defense for the genuineness of the miracle stories in the Gospels.

But, whether you believe that the miracles happened or not, they are clearly essential to the

picture of Jesus painted by the gospel writers. The mighty works of Jesus, more than showing

his love for people, are part and parcel of his announcement of the reign of God. Take away

these works and theres no reason to believe his words. (In my book, Can We Trust the

Gospels?, I explain why I believe it is reasonable to accept the miracle stories in the Gospelsas historical.)

Other Symbolic Gestures. Although the mighty works of Jesus persuaded people to take

seriously his announcement of the kingdom, he did other things that illustrated the kingdoms

presence and character. For example, Jesus ate with social and religious outcasts (tax

collectors and sinners) as a sign of the unexpected inclusiveness of Gods reign. Similarly, he

embraced children, not only because he loved them, but also to teach something essential

about the kingdom. Let the lit tle children come to me; do not stop them, Jesus said, for it

is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs (Mark 10:14). Like the Hebrew

prophets, who often used symbolic gestures to communicate Gods message, so did Jesus.

Ultimately, some of his most powerful statements about the kingdom would come through

symbolic actions: the cleansing of the temple, the Last Supper, and the crucifixion itself. Ill

have much more to say about these actions later.

Where is the Kingdom of God?So far in this series weve seen that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God using a variety of

words and works. The essence of his message is summarized in Mark 1:15: The time is

fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

Growing up as a Christian, I always read this verse as saying: The time for your personal


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salvation has arrived. Be sorry for your sins and believe in Jesus as your Savior so you will go

to heaven after you die. After having spent much of my life studying Jesus, I no longer

believe this is what Jesus meant in Mark 1:15, though I still believe in the truth of what I

once attributed to Jesus. We do experience personal salvation through Jesus, partly through

acknowledging our sins so that we might trust Jesus as our Savior. Our salvation does include

life beyond physical death. But I dont any longer believe this is what Jesus meant when he

proclaimed the presence of the kingdom. Part of my problem in the past was that I wasnt

clear on the location of the kingdom of God.

The language of Mark 1:15 certainly suggests that Gods reign is coming on earth. This fits,

as we have seen previously, with the promise found repeatedly in the Hebrew prophets:

someday God will come to reign on earth, establishing justice and peace for his people and,

indeed, for all nations.

The earthly location of Gods reign is also revealed in one of the core teachings of Christian

faith, that which we call The Lords Prayer. In Matthew 6 Jesus taught his disciples to pray:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven . . . . (Matt 6:9-10).

The parallelism of this prayer interprets your kingdom come as your will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. In other words, we are to pray that Gods reign will be experienced on

earth as it is right now in Gods own heavenly presence. When Gods rule is completely

established in this world, then all things will be ordered according to Gods perfect design.

Its fascinating to discover how much this prayer of Jesus is similar to the prayers offered up

by faithful Jews in the first century. Consider, for example, the following prayer that manyscholars believe to have been offered daily in the time of Jesus:

May God establish his kingdom in your lifetime and in your days and in the li fetime of all

the house of Israel, even speedily and at a near time. (Kaddish prayer)

Sounds quite a bit like, Thy kingdom come, doesnt it?

Then theres the eleventh blessing of the so-called Eighteen

Benedictions that were spoken during weekly synagogue services:

Restore our judges as at the first, and our counselors at the beginning; and reign Thou

over us, Thou alone. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who lovest judgment! (Benediction 11 of

the Eighteen Benedictions)

By proclaiming that the kingdom of God was

near, Jesus was saying that these prayers were

being answered. God was beginning to rule on

earth as he did in heaven in the ministry of

Jesus himself.

When I have taught before on the location of the


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Ruins of the synagogue in Capernaum. Photo used bypermission from http://www.holylandphotos.org/

Heaven? No, this is just an In-N-Out restaurant in LAXin Los Angeles. But, when In-N-Out opened its firstTexas restaurants last week, patrons had to wait inlines for hours. Did they think it was heaven? Or just

that In-N-Out has heavenly food?

kingdom of God, people sometimes remain

unconvinced. What about the kingdom of

heaven? they wonder. And didnt Jesus himself

say his kingdom was notof this world? How do

you explain these passages? In my next post Ill

address these questions.

Where is the Kingdom of

God? Is It Heaven?This post could have been entitled Where the

Kingdom of God is Not. It deals with the first of

two common misunderstandings of the kingdom

of God as proclaimed by Jesus. Ill address each of these, one today and one tomorrow, by

stating something that the kingdom is not and then defending my statement with evidence

from the gospels.

1. The kingdom of God is not what we call heaven.

In my last post I mentioned that, as a boy, I understood Jesus proclamation of the kingdomto be an invitation to get saved and go to heaven. If you had asked me Where is the

kingdom of God? I would have answered In heaven. This answer wouldnt have been

completely wrong, because God does reign over heaven. But it would have missed much that

is essential to the kingdom of God. In fact, we misconstrue Jesus teaching if we think that

his proclamation of the kingdom was tel ling us something about Gods rule up in spiritual

space or in the afterlife.

Part of our confusion comes from the fact that the Gospel of Matthew records Jesus as

speaking about the kingdom of heaven rather than the kingdom of God. Where Mark 1:15

reads the kingdom of God has come near, Matthew 3:2 has the kingdom of heaven hascome near (literally in Greek, the reign of the heavens,he basileia ton ouranon, mirroring

the Aramaic spoken by Jesus, malkuta dishmaha). Matthews phraseology doesnt mean that

the kingdom is literally up in the heavens.

Rather, he is using a common circumlocution

for God, much as my grandmother did when she

said Good heavens rather than Good God.

So, the kingdom of heaven is not the kingdom

that exists in heaven, but the reign of God over

both heaven and earth.

The words of what we call the Lords Prayer

confirm this understanding of the kingdom of

God. Jesus taught his disciples to pray: Your

kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as

it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). Notice that we are to pray for the kingdom to come. It is not a

place to which we go after death. Moreover, in his use of Semitic parallelism, Jesus roughly

equates the kingdom with the will of God. Currently, in heaven, God reigns and therefore his

will is done. We are to pray for Gods kingdom to visit us, for his will to be done on earth.

The fact that the kingdom of God/heaven encompasses this world seems at first glance to be


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contradicted by something Jesus himself said to Pontius Pilate during his trial: My kingdom

is not of this world (John 18:36, NIV). Doesnt Jesus mean My kingdom is not here on earth,

but up in heaven? No, in fact this is not what Jesus means. Two pieces of evidence make

this clear. First, the Greek of John 18:36 literally reads, My reign is not from this world [ek

tou kosmou toutou]. Second, the latter portion of John 18:36 explains, But now my kingdom

is from another place [ouk estin enteuthen]. Literally, this sentence reads, Now my reign is

not from here. Jesus is speaking, not of the location of his kingdom, but of the source of his

royal authority. Unlike Pilate, he does not get his authority from an earthly source (Caesar),

but from God. Now its certainly true that Jesus was not seeking to use his divine authority to

establish merely another political state on earth. Nevertheless, the kingdom he announces is,

in a sense, heaven on earth, not heaven in heaven.

Sometimes when I have taught people that the kingdom of God is not equal to heaven, they

have responded negatively because they assume Im saying things I am not in fact saying.

Some fear Im denying the reality of life after death. So, let me be clear in saying that I

believe there is indeed life beyond this life and that we enter this realm through faith in

Jesus Christ. Moreover, our life beyond this life will include a much more immediate and

pervasive experience of Gods reign.

Others fear that talking about the kingdom of God as an earthly reality necessarily leads to a

liberal political agenda. This fear is stoked by the fact that many Christians who are

politically and socially left of center have often used kingdom language for their political and

social agendas. I believe that there is no necessary or sacred connection between the

kingdom of God and any political agenda, left, right, or center. All human visions, platforms,

and programs must be laid at the feet of the King of kings, who calls his followers to a

surprising and utterly counter-cultural way of making a difference in the world. Perhaps Ill

have more to say about this later.

Tomorrow, Ill discuss another place, besides heaven, where the kingdom of God is not (at

least not entirely).

Where is the Kingdom of God? Is It In Your Heart?Yesterday, I began to consider the location of the kingdom of God. My first point was:

1. The kingdom of God is not what we call heaven.Gods reign surely encompasses what we call heaven. But when Jesus speaks of the kingdom

of God, he is not talking simply about life with God after death. Indeed, the kingdom of God

touches earth as well as heaven.

This brings us to a second, common misunderstanding of the kingdom of God. Once again, Ill

put up a negative statement and then defend it with evidence from the Gospels:

2. The kingdom is not merely in our hearts.I cannot tell you how many times in the last twenty years Ive heard people locate the

kingdom of God in human hearts. Christians do it, and so do many New Agers. Their credo

comes from something Jesus himself said: The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).

But they missed Jesus own meaning by a mile.

Yes, to be sure, Gods reign touches human hearts. When people live under the rule of God,


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their inner beings are healed, transformed, and renewed. But the kingdom of God is not

limited to some kind of internal, subjective experience. Yes, I know Jesus is quoted as saying

that the kingdom of God is within you, but this verse is usually wrenched way out of

context. Lets return to the passage from which this line comes:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he

answered, The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they

say, Look, here it is! or There it is! For, in fact, the kingdom of God is entos hymon (Luke

17:20-21).

Ive left the original Greek untranslated for a moment so we can see the context of this

phrase without prejudging its meaning. Jesus is speaking, not to his faithful disciples, but to

a group of Pharisees. They expected the kingdom of God to come with great signs, most

obviously the beginnings of a successful revolt against Rome. But Jesus says their

expectations are misguided. In fact, the kingdom of God is entos hymon. Given what Jesus

says about the hearts of the Pharisees elsewhere that are full of greed and self-

indulgence and all kinds of fi lth (Matt 23:25, 27) its unlikely that Jesus is telling the

Pharisees to look within their own hearts to find the kingdom. Rather, he is saying to them:

The kingdom of God is right here, in your midst. The Greek phrase entos hymon can mean

among you, as it does in this instance. If the Pharisees want to find the kingdom, Jesus

says, they should look, not into their own sinful hearts, but right in front of their eyes, at

Jesus himself, at his words and works.

So, though Gods reign embraces and transforms human hearts, it is not limited to some sort

of interior experience. The kingdom of God impacts actions, thoughts, relationships, families,

institutions, and governments. In the end, it will touch everything on earth, when Gods will

is fully done on earth as it is in heaven. Yet this expansive kingdom has begun on earth in

a most unexpected and unnoticed way rather like a mustard seed in the ministry of Jesus.

If the kingdom of God is neither up in heaven nor limited to human hearts, but is somethingwe ought to experience in all aspects of our earthly life, this points to another question:

When is it coming?Did Jesus envision the kingdom of God as present reality? Or was it rather

something that was coming in the future? In my next post Ill begin to deal with the

question: When is the kingdom of God coming?

When is the Kingdom of God Coming? Then?In my previous posts in this series (May 16, May 19), I considered the question: Where is the

kingdom of God? I showed that in the teaching of Jesus, the kingdom of God is not just in

heaven or in our hearts, though it touches both heaven and hearts. Rather, the kingdom of

God is not so much a place as it is the reality of Gods sovereignty and power. The kingdom

of God ult imately embraces all of creation, including both heaven and earth, including hearts

and minds and even bodies (in a new form).


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Perhaps even more intriguing than the question

Where is the kingdom of God? is the question

When is the kingdom of God coming? This is

especially relevant these days, given the recent

hubbub over the prediction by Harold Camping

that the Day of Judgment would come two days

ago on May 21, thus beginning the final

restoration of Gods kingdom over all creation.

The fact that youre reading this piece today

indicates that Mr. Camping wasnt quite right in

his prediction. But, st ill, you might wonder when

the kingdom of God is coming?

Jesus proclaimed that the reign of God was coming to earth, but when? Did Jesus preach the

coming of the kingdom as a future reality, as many Christian affirm? Or did he believe that

the kingdom of God was truly present in his earthly ministry, as many other Christians affirm?

In this post I want to lay out some of the basic evidence from the Gospels, focusing on the

future kingdom. Then, in my next post, Ill examine passages that suggest the kingdom of

God is present. Finally, Ill try to make sense of what Jesus teaches about the timing of thecoming of the kingdom.

The Future KingdomIn many of his sayings, Jesus appears to state that the kingdom of God will come in the

future. For example:

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).

This line from what we call The Lords Prayer implies that Gods kingdom isnt present in the

moment, but is something that will come in the future. As we saw earlier in this series, this

echoes first-century Jewish prayers for the coming of Gods reign.

Heres another statement of Jesus that points to the future of the kingdom:

I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and

Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the

outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 8:11-12).

Note that many will come to the great messianic banquet. They havent yet arrived. Here

Jesus draws on the prophetic hope of Gods future kingdom as a feast of rich food, a feast of

well-aged wines that the Lord will prepare for all peoples (Isa 25:6).

I tell you, I wil l never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it

new with you in my Fathers kingdom (Matt 26:29).

In this poignant line from the Last Supper, Jesus looks ahead to the t ime when he will share

in the messianic banquet with his disciples. He draws from the eschatological language of the

prophets in speaking of that day the future day of the Lord (see Isa 25:9, for example).

One could point to many other places in the Gospels where Jesus implies that the kingdom of

God will come in the future. This type of futuristic eschatology (eschatology = doctrine of

the end times) is familiar to many Christians in our time of history. Most recently, I has been


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exemplified by Harold Camping and his followers.

When I was a young believer, my friends and I were enchanted by The Late Great Planet

Earth, by Hal Lindsey. This book, which has sold over 35,000,000 copies worldwide, showed

that the kingdom of God was coming in the future, and that it was coming soon, and how

world events made all of this quite certain. But when Jesus didnt hurry back to earth in the

70s, for a while the eschatological fever broke.

In 1996, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins published Left Behind, the first volume in theirfictionalized account of the end of human history and the beginning of Gods eternal kingdom.

So far, 65 million of the Left Behindbooks have been sold. Why has this series drawn so

many readers? When I asked a group ofLeft Behindfans about this, one woman informed me

confidently: Because these books tel l us whats going to happen in the future. The others

agreed. Future eschatology, with certainty, wow!

Jesus clearly spoke of the kingdom of God as something that was coming in the future. He

seemed less enthusiastic than many about predicting the precise timing of this event,

however. In fact, Jesus once said:

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Butunderstand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief

was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken

into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected

hour. (Matthew 24:42-44)

Even the closest followers of Jesus did not know when he was returning. Yet they were not

alone. See who else lacks this information, according to Jesus:

But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but

only the Father. (Mark 13:32)

This should give us pause when trying to predict when the kingdom of God will fully come on

earth.

Yet, pause comes also from some of the things Jesus said about the kingdom of God as a

present reality. I consider this tomorrow.

When is the Kingdom of God Coming? Now?In yesterdays post, I examined several sayings of Jesus that suggest the kingdom of God is

coming in the future. Today, I want to consider sayings that emphasize the presence of the

kingdom now.

The Present KingdomIf Jesus had only spoken of the reign of God in a future tense, our task would be simple.

Unfortunately for those of us who like things neat and tidy, Jesus also spoke of the presence

of the kingdom. Here are some examples:

The time is fulfi lled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the

good news (Mark 1:15).

Though one could argue that has come near


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isnt exactly the same as is here, the sense of

Greek is that the coming near of the kingdom

has already begun to happen in some significant

way. If I said to you, The tornado has come

near, you wouldnt wait around before getting

into a storm cellar. Youd understand that it was

very close by, almost here.

Heres something else Jesus said about thepresent kingdom:

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast

out demons, then the kingdom of God has

come to you (Matt 12:28).

In response to those who accused Jesus of casting out demons with satanic power, he

pointed to the true source of his authority: the Spirit of God. The exorcisms of Jesus are not

merely evidence of his compassion for demonized people, they are also evidence that the

kingdom of God is already present. The Greek of Matthew 12:28 actually uses a past tense

verb (aorist), emphasizing that the kingdom of God has already approached.

Jesus also said:

The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say,

Look, here it is! or There it is! For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you (Luke

17:20-21).

Jesus is not saying to the Pharisees that the kingdom is in their hearts, but that it is in their

midst. Where Jesus is doing the work of God, there is Gods kingdom.

In a previous post I discussed this passage. A perceptive reader challenged my translation ofis among you, wondering why other translations prefer is within you. The kingdom of God

is within you is found, for example, in the KJV and the NIV. My response is, first, to point to

the fact that Jesus was not saying to the Pharisees that the kingdom of God is in their

hearts. Rather, the kingdom was among them because they were in the presence of Jesus

himself. Moreover, most recent translations prefer is among you or something similar: is

among you (NRSV, HCSB), is in the midst of you (ESV), is already among you (NLT 2,

Message, CEB), in your midst (TNIV, NIV 2011). Of course its possible that all of the

translators could be wrong. But at least you see that my translation is not too idiosyncratic.

In certain quarters of Christendom the presence of the kingdom has been a popular theme.Whereas conservative Christians have tended to embrace the future kingdom, more liberal

Christians have generally preferred the present kingdom. (There are exceptions on both sides

of this rule, of course.) If Gods reign is here, then so is Gods justice and peace, at least in

principle. The task of the believer is not to wait around for some dramatic act of God in the

future, but to live out Gods kingdom now by promoting divine justice in the world today.

Many Christians talk about making the kingdom come or building the kingdom through

their efforts.

Interim ConclusionIf you were to read through all four Gospels, youd find more evidence for the future andfor


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the present kingdom. This presents us with a riddle. Which did Jesus proclaim? Ill attempt to

solve this riddle in my next post.

When is the Kingdom of God Coming? Then? Now?

Both? Never?I ended my last post with an apparent riddle. Throughout the Gospels Jesus proclaims the

kingdom of God, sometimes as coming in the future, and sometimes as a present reality. So

which is it? How can we understand the apparently divergent themes in Jesus preaching of

the reign of God?

Throughout the last 150 years, many New Testament scholars have cut this Gordian knot by

claiming that some of what is attributed to Jesus in the gospels is not authentic, but was

added by the early church. Ironically, depending on the preference of the scholar, the

supposedly inauthentic portion of Jesus teaching can be either the future kingdom or the

present kingdom. Scholarly methodology bends freely to the whims of the individual scholar.

So, for example, Marcus Borg, a prominent member of the Jesus

Seminar and prolific author on Jesus, has repeatedly argued

that Jesus did not expect Gods kingdom to come sometime in

the future. Gospel passages that suggest this were inserted by

the early church, Borg claims, under the influence of Jewish

eschatology. Yet, contradicting Borg, a cadre of contemporary

scholars insists that Jesus did in fact present himself as an

eschatological prophet who proclaimed the coming of the

kingdom. John P. Meier is a highly-acclaimed advocate of this

view, though he hasnt received as much popular attention as

Borg, partly because Meiers writings are more scholarly and

less sensationalistic than Borgs. (One of the very best books

to introduce you to the scholarly debate about Jesus is co-

written by Marcus Borg and N. T. Wright. Its called The

Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions. I highly recommend this book.)

If you wade through the tangled bog of New Testament scholarship, as I have, youll find

circular arguments almost everywhere among those who try to slice and dice the teachings of

Jesus. The Jesus Seminar is perhaps the most brazen in this regard, assuming from the

outset that Jesus was a non-apocalyptic Hellenistic sage and then excising from the Gospels

anything that doesnt fit this assumption. Other scholars are more subtle. But, in the end,

efforts to reduce Jesus preaching to either an exclusively future kingdom or an exclusively

present kingdom are unconvincing. The riddle of kingdom of God is too deeply embedded inthe Gospel accounts to be amputated by responsible scholarship. (For more on the Jesus

Seminar, see my article: Unmasking the Jesus Seminar.)

Could it be that Jesus simply contradicted himself? Did he speak of the kingdom as present

and future without realizing his confusion? I doubt it. Even bracketing Jesus unique identity

for a moment, Id argue that brilliant, influential thinkers are rarely so obviously confused.

Moreover, they are rarely easy to fathom. Have you ever tried to understand Plato, or

Augustine, or Calvin, or Kant, or Wittgenstein? Good luck! Thus, simply working with

historical probability, its likely that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God as somehow both

future and present, and that he knew what he was doing at the time.


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In two recent posts, I cited examples of Jesus speaking of the kingdom of God as either

future or present. In a few instances, however, he indicated that the kingdom has both

present and future dimensions. Take this parable for example:

With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is

like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds

on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and

puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade (Mark4:30-32)

Jesus invites us to look at the mustard seed from two perspectives. In the present and it is

really present it is small and insignificant. In the future, however, the mustard seed will be

great and notable. Similarly, Gods reign has truly come on earth in the ministry of Jesus.

When blind eyes are opened, when deaf ears hear, when demons are cast out, when the

hungry are fed, when sinners are forgiven, the kingdom of God is truly present on earth. Yet

its relatively small, and wont reach its full, glorious extent until later.

Many New Testament scholars today realize that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom as both

present and future. You can find a refreshingly concise statement of this perspective in thenow classic little book by G. E. Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom. Scholars who hold together

both dimensions of the reign of God sometimes speak of it as already and not yet. The

kingdom is already present in the ministry of Jesus and it is not yet fully present. If you read

through the Gospels with this thought in mind, much begins to make sense. The sayings of

Jesus and his actions demonstrate both the real presence and the future glory of the kingdom

of God.

But the whole idea of already and not yet may seem odd and hard to fathom. If youre

accustomed to thinking of the kingdom as either future or present but not both, this new way

of looking at Jesus can seem counter-intuitive. What sense does it make, you might wonder,to speak of something as already and not yet present?

I have found that three analogies from contemporary life make this seemingly odd concept

much easier to grasp. But, since this post is running on, Ill save these analogies for

tomorrow.

When is the Kingdom of God Coming? Some

Already and Not Yet AnalogiesIn recent posts I have shown that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God as something both

present and future. Like the mustard seed, the kingdom is small in the moment, yet will be

great in the future. The more we study Jesus ministry without chopping it into disconnected

bits, the more we realize that he proclaimed the reign of God as something that was already

and not yet present. It was already present in Jesus own ministry, but it was not yet fully

present. Much more was still to come.

I have found that three analogies help people grasp the already and not yet-ness of the

kingdom. You can probably think of others, but here are my three.

Engagement and Marriage


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At last!

As a pastor, I have the privilege of sharing with engaged couples as they prepare for

marriage. When their wedding day arrives, most couples are well-prepared to commit their

lives to each other. In the minutes before the ceremony begins, I visit with the bride and

groom, praying with them for what lies ahead. If I were to ask them at that point, Do you

love your fianc? Will you commit yourself completely to him or her? they would answer

Yes. Yes. Are they married at that point? No, not yet. Yet are they deeply committed to

each other? Yes. Do they love each other profoundly? Yes. All thats necessary for a marriage

is present and ready to go. In many ways theyre already feeling as if they were married, and

yet they arent married.

Pregnancy and ParenthoodTheres just about nothing more exciting for a woman who wants to be a mother than being

pregnant. From the moment she first hears the good news of her pregnancy, she starts

preparing emotionally to be a mother. After just a few weeks, she gets to hear the babys

heartbeat during a visit to the doctor. Not long afterward, she begins to feel the baby kicking

and moving. By the time a woman is nine months pregnant, she has thought about her baby

for thousands of hours. She has taken new baby classes. She has prepared a place for the

baby and usually chosen a name. She loves her baby intensely. So then, is a woman in her

last weeks of pregnancy a mother? In so many ways the answer is yes. But most peoplewould say that, however real her motherhood may be, something is lacking. The act of giving

birth makes it all complete. (Well, actually, its just one big step forward in a lifelong

enterprise of being a mother.) Is a woman a mother when shes nine months pregnant? She is

already . . . and not yet.

Completion and GraduationI enrolled as a freshman at Harvard College in September of

1975. Sixteen and a half years later, in May of 1992, I faced

the last challenge of my Harvard career: the oral defense of

my Ph.D. dissertation. On that fateful day in early May, I satin a room with four brilliant scholars and defended my

academic work. Then they sent me out in the hall to sweat

while they decided my fate. After about twenty minutes, my

advisor beckoned me back into the room. We have voted

unanimously to approve your dissertation, he said.

Congratulations, Dr. Roberts!

In order to make things official, I had to submit four copies

of my doctoral thesis to the appropriate office and, of

course, pay all of my outstanding bills. I did these things

soon after my oral defense was over. And that was that!

Done!

But was I really done? Could I truly claim to be Dr. Roberts?

Well, not quite. Graduation wasnt until early June. I wouldnt hold my Ph.D. in my hand until

then. So, was I Dr. Roberts in late May of 1992? In some sense, yes, I already was. And, in

some sense, no, I wasnt yet.

The Kingdom of God: Already and Not YetWhen Jesus began his ministry in Galilee, the reign of God had truly begun to appear on


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scrolls. This picture used by permission ofholylandphotos.org, an outstanding website of photos

of biblical sites.

whom, it was hoped, would someday be

vanquished by the Lord and his anointed

leader. One Jewish writer, perhaps a Pharisee,

wrote a collection of psalms, one of which bears passionate witness to Jewish hopes for the

coming kingdom:

See, Lord, and raise up for them their king,

the son of David, to rule over your servant Israel

in the time known to you, O God.Undergird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers,

to purge Jerusalem from gentiles . . .

He will gather a holy people

whom he will lead in righteousness . . . .

And he will be a righteous king over them, taught by God.

There will be no unrighteousness among them in his days,

for all shall be holy,

and their king shall be the Lord Messiah. (Psalms of Solomon 17)

Jesus proclaimed the reign of God to a people who fervently hoped and prayed for its coming.

Yet he did not affirm common Jewish expectations for how the kingdom would come. He

didnt raise up an army to wage war against Rome. And he didnt promise that God would

fight this battle himself in some imminent Armageddon. In fact Jesus answer to the question

How will the kingdom come? was quite novel, elusive, and frustrating.

Now that Ive established the Jewish context for Jesus explanation of how the kingdom will

come, Ill focus on Jesus in my next post.

How is the Kingdom of God Coming? Part 2

In my last post, I outlined some of the ways Jews in the time of Jesus answered thequestion: How is the kingdom of God coming? Though there were a variety of answers to that

question, almost all Jews in the first century agreed that the coming of Gods kingdom would

include the expulsion of Rome from Judea. The Zealots and others of revolutionary ilk were

convinced that this would happen as human beings did the heavy lifting, with some help from

the Lord. Others preferred to wait for God to lead the charge. (In the end, the Zealot-option

prevailed as the Jews waged war against Rome in A.D. 66-70. The end of this effort, of

course, was the utter destruction of the temple and the devastation of the Jewish people.)

Jesus perplexed many of the Jews in his day by

his unwillingness to support a revolt against

Rome. He healed the servant of a Roman

centurion (Matt 8:5-13), praising this leader in

the oppressors army as a paragon of faith (v.

10). He hung out with Jewish tax collectors who

had collaborated with Rome in order to become

rich (Luke 19:1-10). He even appeared to

support paying taxes to Rome (Matt 22:15-22).

But, far more confusing than this was what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. God will

bless those who are meek, merciful, peaceful, and persecuted, not those who use human


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This is the kind of coin that Jesus used to make hispoint about giving to Caesar what is owed to Caesar,and to God what is owed to God. Curiously, the Latinaround the head of Tiberius Caesar reads TI CAESAR

DIVI AUG F AUGUSTUS, or Tiberius Caesar Divi AugustiFilius Augustus, in English, Augustus Tiberius Caesar

the Son of the Divine Augustus. Photo fromhttp://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=179249.

strength to fight against Rome (Matt 5:3-10).

Moreover, Jesus taught that one should not

resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on

the right cheek, turn the other also; and if

anyone wants to sue you and take your coat,

give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces

you to go one mile, go also the second mile

(Matt 5:39-41). More troubling still, Jesus

called his fellow Jews to love their enemies and

pray for those who persecute them (Matt 5:44).

In context, there could be no question in the

mind of Jesus audience to whom he was

referring in all of this: the Romans. Dont fight

against the Romans, he said, but love and pray

for them.

Can you imagine how controversial this must

have been? Here was Jesus, proclaiming the

kingdom of God, doing miraculous works toprove that Gods reign had arrived, and yet

opposing what most of his peers believed to be

an essential element of the kingdoms coming the expulsion of Rome and the punishment

of all who had oppressed Israel.

For us this can seem very theoretical, far removed from real human experience and emotion.

But suppose Jesus appeared on the scene right now in Israel. Suppose he went around tel ling

Israeli fathers whose children had been killed in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks

that they should turn the other cheek and love their enemies, and that this was somehow the

way to peace. When we put matters in these terms, it s easier to understand not only why so

many people were confused by Jesus, but also why many were so angry at him.

Jesus seemed to be saying that the kingdom of God would come, not through human

strength, but through weakness, not through military victories, but through apparent defeat,

not through hatred, but through sacrificial love. How could this be possible?

Ill continue to work on this question in my next post.

How is the Kingdom of God Coming? Part 3Any consideration of how the kingdom of God is coming must grapple with one of the most

striking and surprising passages in the New Testament. The first chapters of the Gospel of

Mark chronicle Jesus healings, exorcisms, parables, and controversies. Through his words and

works, his true identity is seen, but not seen; it is revealed, and yet secret.

In Mark 8 Jesus asks his disciples Who do people say that I am? (8:27). Some think that

Jesus is John the Baptist reborn. Others think he is Elijah, the prophet whose return signals

the coming of the kingdom. Others regard Jesus as one of the prophets a label Jesus

himself accepts (see Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24; 13:33). After warming up his disciples with a safe

question about what others think, he becomes much more direct and personal: But who do

you say that I am? (8:29). Peter, always the impetuous one, sticks his neck out with a bold


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GIOTTO di Bondone, TheStefaneschi Triptych: ChristEnthroned, c. 1330, Tempera

on panel, Pinacoteca,Vatican

Ron Paul get elected. Dont you think at this point David Axelrod would take the President

aside and rebuke him? Maybe hed suggest that Mr. Obama needs some serious rest, or

perhaps electroshock therapy? This is akin to Peters reaction to Jesus incredible suggestion

that his calling as Son of Man includes suffering and dying. From Peters point of view, it

makes absolutely now sense whatsoever.

Jesus appears to accept Peters confession You are the Messiah, even as he refers to

himself as The Son of Man. But then Jesus redefines the mission of the Messiah/Son of Man

in a radically new way. He will bring the kingdom of God, to be sure, but only throughsuffering and dying. This is how the kingdom will come.

But this answer begs another question: How will the death of Jesus be a pathway for the

coming of the kingdom of God?

Ill pick this up in my next post in this series. Stay tuned . . . .

How is the Kingdom of God Coming? Part 4In my last post in this series, I examined the passage in Mark 8 where Peter confessed Jesus

as the Messiah (Mark 8:27-30). But, when Jesus starting talking about the Son of Mansuffering and dying, Peter rebuked Jesus, who in turn rebuked Peter for thinking in human,

not divine terms (8:31-33). Peter, like most of his Jewish compatriots, expected the kingdom

of God to come in power. The Messiah would lead this victorious charge and share in Gods

glory, not suffer and die along in the process.

Peter was not the only one of Jesus disciples to be confused over

the nature of his messianic calling. Two chapters later in Mark, Jesus

once again informed his closest followers that he, as Son of Man,

was going to be assaulted and killed (10:33-34). Immediately after

Jesus said this, James and John approached him and asked, Grant

us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory

(10:37). Rather cheeky, dont you think, not to mention obtuse.

Jesus responded by asking James and John if they were able to drink

the cup that he drinks, and then by informing them that it was not

his job to decide who gets to sit at his right or left hand (10:38-40).

(The idea of the cup Jesus drinks deserves further attention, and wil l

be the subject of my next post in this series.) When the other

disciples heard what James and John were plotting, they became

angry, presumably because they wanted to sit by Jesus in his glory.

Jesus proceeded to rebuke the whole lot of them:

You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize

as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants

over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to

become great among you must be your servant, and whoever

wishes to be first among you must be slave of al l. For the Son of Man came not to be

served but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many. (10:42-45)

The attitudes exhibited by James and John, and the rest of the disciples for that matter, are

inconsistent with the way of Jesus, which leads to greatness but only through servanthood.

The prime illustration of this paradox? Jesus own destiny as Son of Man. Here, for the first


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time, Jesus supplies a hint as to the reason for his imminent death. He is going to give up

his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus wasnt the first Jew in Second Temple Judaism to speak of giving up ones life for the

sake of others. A century and a half before, Mattathias, the father of Judas Maccabeus and

his brothers, urged his sons to show zeal for the law, and give your lives for the covenant of

our ancestors (1 Maccabees 2:50). The Maccabean brothers were to fight to the death for the

sake of their faith. Even closer to Jesus understanding of his sacrifice is a description of

martyrdom found in 4 Maccabees: [Those who died] having become, as it were, a ransom[antipsychon] for the sin of our nation. And through the blood of those devout ones and their

death as an atoning sacrifice, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been

mistreated (4 Macc 4:21-22). Here, the will ingness of Jewish people to suffer and die rather

than compromise their faithfulness to God is seen as making up for the sin of the Jewish

people, which in turn motivated God to preserve the nation.

These texts from the Maccabean literature and Jesus description of his own sacrifice in Mark

10 were inspired by two crucial chapters from the prophet Isaiah. These chapters begin with a

hopeful vision of the coming of Gods kingdom:

How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,

who brings good news,who announces salvation,

who says to Zion, Your God reigns. (Isa 52:7)

But then the passage takes an unexpected turn, picturing Gods servant as anything but

attractive (52:14-53:2). Moreover,

He was despised and rejected by others

a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faceshe was despised, and we held him of no account. (53:3)

Yet this Suffering Servant endured such scorn for the sake of others:

Surely he has borne our infirmities

and carried our diseases; . . .

But he was wounded for our transgressions,

crushed for our iniquities;

upon him as the punishment that made us whole,

and by his bruises we are healed. . . .

Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;

because he poured out himself to death,

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many, . . . (53:4-5, 12)

Although this passage from Isaiah does not use the word ransom (lutron in Mark 10:45), it

clearly conveys the idea of one who suffers for the sake of others, so that they might be

made whole. Through his painful death, the Servant of God bears the sins of others. And

somehow this is part and parcel of the coming of Gods kingdom announced at the beginning

of Isaiah 52.


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Of course what makes Jesus statement in Mark 10:45 so curious is that he doesnt speak of

the Servant of God giving his life as a ransom for many, but the Son of Man filling this role.

Theres nothing in the Hebrew Scriptures to suggest that the Son of Man would bring the

kingdom through some sort of sacrificial death. We dont find this connection in the

Maccabean literature or in other Jewish writings either. Jesus is weaving together disparate

strands of Jewish tradition to create a unique tapestry of the coming kingdom. He, as

Messiah and Son of Man, will bring the kingdom, but only by fulfill ing the role of the Suffering

Servant in Isaiah 52-53. For the first time in the Gospels, we see a part of Jesus rationale forsuffering and dying. He will bear the sin of many in order to bring the healing and forgiveness

of Gods kingdom.

In my next post Ill examine in greater detail Jesus curious statement about drinking the cup

(Mark 10:39). This, as it turns out, provides another window through which we can glimpse

Jesus sense of his passionate destiny.

How is the Kingdom of God Coming? Part 5

In my last post I began to comment on the passage in Mark 10 where James and John askJesus: Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory (10:37). Of

course the fact that Jesus has just spoken for the second time about his imminent death

doesnt seem to have made much of an impression of these two disciples. Jesus responds by

saying, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or

be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? (10:38). James and John eagerly

reply, We are able (10:39), to which Jesus adds, The cup that I drink you will drink; and

with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized (10:39).

What is Jesus talking about? Do you feel rather like James and John at this point, not really

knowing what this talk of a cup is all about? Its worth understanding this allusion, not only

to get the point of this passage in Mark, but also to get insight into Jesus understanding of

his approaching death.

In several passages of the Old Testament, the cup is a

symbol of Gods wrath. (By using the word wrath, Im

not referring to Gods anger alone, but also just judgment

upon sin.) In Psalm 75, for example, we read:

For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup

with foaming wine, well mixed;

he will pour a draught from it,and all the wicked of the earth

shall drain it down to the dregs. (Psalm 75:8)

Or, take the following passage from Isaiah, which

appears shortly before the description of the suffering

servant in chapters 52-53.

Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!

Stand up, O Jerusalem,

you who have drunk at the hand of the LORD


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JACOMART, Jaume Bao, The Last Supper,1450s, Panel Cathedral Museum, Segorbe

kingdom family, if you will, his closest disciples. Here is Marks description of the key

moments of this feast:

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it

to them, and said, Take; this is my body. Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks

he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, This is my blood of

the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of

the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. (Mark

14:22-25)

Its all to easy for Christians to miss the potential

scandal of Jesus action. He and his fol lowers are

remembering Gods salvation of Israel from Egypt, not to

mention Gods faithfulness to his people throughout the

ages. Jesus, as host, is directing the meal, when he

makes a most unexpected pair of assertions. This is my

body and This is myblood of the covenant. Until that

moment in history, the Passover was preeminently about

God, and secondarily about Israel. But now Jesus, an

apparently faithful Jewish man leading a celebration of

the Passover, says in so many words: Really, this is all

about me! Astounding! Shocking!

If you have a hard time relating to the apparent offense

of these statements, suppose that this Sunday when I

celebrate communion at Laity Lodge, instead of saying to

the people, This is the body of Christ, broken for you, I

were to say, This is my body, the body of Mark Roberts.

Here is Gods salvation, in me. Blasphemy, you say!?

Indeed! My future as Senior Director of Laity Lodge would suddenly be in jeopardy, I canassure you.

Yet this is more or less like what Jesus was doing with the Passover. Either he was struck by

a fit of megalomania, or he was somehow telling the startling truth of his life and mission.

Even as Passover was all about Gods salvation of Israel, now that salvation was being

embodied in Jesus himself.

Jesus refers to the cup of wine as my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many

(Mark 14:24). This is an allusion to the story in Exodus 24, where the people of Israel

endorse Gods covenant. Then Moses, having sacrificed many animals, took the blood and

dashed it on the people, and said, See the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made

with you in accordance with all these words (24:7-8). The new covenant will be ratified with

blood, but in this case with the spilled blood of Jesus, who, like the lambs sacrificed in the

first Passover, will give his life so that Gods people might be spared.

Jesus wasnt the first one to connect the blood of the covenant with the coming of Gods

kingdom. In fact the prophet Zechariah made this same connection in a passage we associate

with Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!


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Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!

Lo, your king comes to you;

triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

and the war horse from Jerusalem;

and the battle bow shall be cut off,

and he shall command peace to the nations;

his dominion shall be from sea to sea,

and from the River to the ends of the earth.

As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. (Zech 9:9-11)

Because of Gods covenant with Israel, which was ratified with the blood of sacrificed

animals, Gods king will rule over a global kingdom and Gods people will be redeemed from

bondage. Jesus comes as the divinely-anointed king, not at first to lead Israel to victory,

however, but to offer his own blood so that the new covenant and Gods universal kingdom

might be inaugurated (see also Jeremiah 31).

Through the actions and words of the Last Supper, Jesus says:

Even as God once saved his people from slavery in Egypt, so God is now saving his

people from slavery to sin through me.

Even as the blood of lambs once enabled death to pass over Israel, so my blood will

lead to the forgiveness of sin.

Even as the first covenant was sealed with sacrificial blood, so the new covenant will be

sealed through my blood, poured out for many.

I am choosing the way of death, Jesus says, so that the new li fe of the new covenant may

come. My sacrifice will overcome the problem of sin, so that Gods kingdom may be

established in all its fullness.

In the last l ine of The Last Supper in Marks Gospel, Jesus himself points to the coming of the

kingdom: Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when

I drink it new in the kingdom of God (14:25). Though Jesus is about to die as a ransom for

many, he has hope of a new day, when the kingdom will come and there will be a grand

messianic banquet. Yet before this happens, Jesus must fulfill his unique calling by offering

his body and blood for salvation.

How Does the Message of Jesus Lead to His

Crucifixion?In my last post, I wrapped up an extended answer to the question: How is the kingdom of

God coming? I showed that Jesus, contrary to the expectations of his disciples and, indeed,

all other first-century Jews, believed that the kingdom of God would come as the Messiah

drank the cup of Gods wrath, offering himself as a ransom for many (Mark 10:35-45). Jesus

envisioned his role as Messiah though he preferred the enigmatic title, Son of Man as


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Model of the temple in Jerusalem in the time of Jesus.From the Israel Museum.

leading to his death in Jerusalem. During his last meal with his disciples, Jesus symbolized

his death by recasting the imagery of the Passover meal to focus on himself and his sacrifice.

Even as God once led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, so Jesus would lead Gods

people out of bondage to sin and its consequences by taking the due penalty for sin upon

himself.

But, you might wonder, why would this sense of his calling get Jesus crucified? Surely what

Jesus thought about his future was odd and unexpected, and quite disconcerting to some

Jewish leaders, but was it a reason to have him put to death? In our effort to understand howthe message of Jesus led to his crucifixion, we seem to be missing a crucial piece of the

puzzle. And, indeed, we are.

The missing piece is the other watershed event, in addition to The Last Supper, that

happened in Jerusalem during the last week of Jesus life: the so-called cleansing of the

Temple. It comes after Jesus grand entrance into the city, an entrance fit for a king

literally. No doubt many of those who welcomed Jesus with their hosannas expected him to

go to the Temple, the center of Jewish life and faith, and announce the beginning of the end

of Roman rule over Judea. But when Jesus

entered the Temple, not only did he not dowhat was expected, but, once more, he did

something utterly unexpected and, I might add,

unappreciated. As Mark tells the story,

[Jesus] began to drive out those who were

selling and those who were buying in the

temple, and he overturned the tables of

the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow

anyone to carry anything through the temple (11:15-16)

What rationale did Jesus offer for such shocking behavior? Marks adds,

He was teaching and saying, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of

prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a den of robbers. (11:17)

The phrase, den of robbers, comes from the prophecy of Jeremiah (7:11), where God

condemned the Israelites for being unfaithful to him and believing that they could hide in the

spiritual protection of the temple, just like thieves in their hideout. Jeremiahs prophecy

spelled doom for the temple, which God was about to destroy as a part of his judgment upon

Israel (7:12-15). By using this passage, Jesus not only inferred that the temple authorities

were dishonest thieves, but also that God was about to judge the temple and destroy it. Not

exactly a way to win friends and influence people among the Jerusalem priesthood.

Jesus was not the only Jew in his day to criticize the Temple. Many of the common folk

despised its heavy taxation and financial corruptness, while the Essenes from Qumran wrote

it off completely as spiritually bankrupt. But Jesus action in the temple, combined with his

citation of Jeremiah, was a frontal assault on the central institution of Judaism in his day.

Moreover, he explicitly undermined the authority of the entrenched temple hierarchy. Its no

wonder that the chief priests and the scribes, when they heard what Jesus had done, kept

looking for a way to kill him (Mark 11:18). A prophetic rabble-rouser in Galilee could be

ignored; one who defamed the temple itself needed to be dispatched quickly. The problem for


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the authorities, however, was the widespread popularity of Jesus. Now if they could only get

the Romans to crucify Jesus . . . . (For a more in-depth study of why Jesus actions in the

Temple led to his death, seeThe Crime of Jesusin my series Why Did Jesus Have to Die?)

If youve been fol lowing my series on the message of Jesus, you can see that his action in

the temple wasnt merely a ploy to get himself killed. Rather, it was the logical conclusion to

his proclamation of the kingdom of God a kingdom in which forgiveness comes from Jesus

directly, without the mediation of temple, priest, or sacrifice. In the coming kingdom of God,

in the new covenant inaugurated through Jesus own sacrifice, there is no need for a templein Jerusalem, or anyplace else for that matter. Instead, in the coming kingdom of God:

See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them as their God;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

and he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3-4)

In my next and final post in this series, Ill tie up a few loose ends and suggest how the

message of Jesus might be lived out among his people today.

What Was the Message of Jesus? SummaryThroughout this series on the message of Jesus Ive attempted to answer the most common

and central questions people have about his message. In this final post I want to review

what we have learned by summarizing my answers succinctly.

What Was the Core of Jesus Message?The core of Jesus message was the proclamation of the coming of the kingdom of God: The

time is fulfil led, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good

news (Mark 1:14-15).

What is the Kingdom of God?

The English phrase kingdom of God translates a Greek phrase from the Gospels that refers

not so much to the place where God rules as to the presence and power of Gods actual rule.

The kingdom or reign of God is here when God is exercising his authority, whether in heaven

or on earth.

How Did Jesus Proclaim the Kingdom of God?Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God in words (basic statements of fact, explanations,

parables) and in works (healings, exorcisms, nature miracles, other symbolic gestures). What

Jesus said, he did. This not only illustrated the truth of his proclamation, but it also drew the

people to him.

Where is the Kingdom of God?Contrary to popular perceptions, the kingdom of God is not primarily in heaven or in our

hearts. Rather, the reign of God touches all dimensions of reality. Gods rule impacts actions,

thoughts, relationships, families, institutions, and governments, as well as heaven and


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human hearts.

When is the Kingdom of God Coming?Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God as something present in his ministry and also as

something that was stil l to come in greater fullness and glory. Thus, the kingdom is not

either present or future, but both present and future. It is the already and not yet kingdom.

Its is already here, and not yet fully here. Thus it is rather like an engaged couple, a

pregnant mother, or a finished but not quite yet graduated doctoral student.

How is the Kingdom of God Coming?According to Jesus, the reign of God will not come through a Jewish revolt against Rome.

Though he agreed with his Jewish contemporaries who looked forward to the coming of an

anointed deliverer, Jesus conceived of the work of the Messiah in radically unexpected terms.

Rather than conquering the Romans through force, Jesus, as Messiah or Son of Man, would

die on a Roman cross. Through this sacrificial action he would take Gods judgment upon

himself, offering his life as a ransom for many. The new exodus, Gods new act of salvation,

was taking place in Jesus, and would be culminated in his passion and resurrection.

How Does the Message of Jesus Lead to His Crucifixion?Throughout his ministry, Jesus consistently upset many of the religious and political leaders

of the day. His proclamation of the kingdom through words and works made him a marked

man, both because he contradicted many of the core values of his opponents and because he

undermined their popular impact. But when Jesus cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem, this

was the last straw. He became a clear and present danger, not just to the Pharisees in

Galilee, but also to the priestly hierarchy in Jerusalem, and even to the Temple, the core

institution of Judaism, and therefore to the fragile peace of Judea. Thus, he threatened the

social order so essential to Roman domination. The leaders in Jerusalem, both Jewish and

Roman, sought to crucify Jesus, both to get him out of their way and to warn others not to

follow in his footsteps. (For a more extensive discussion of this topic, see my blog series WhyDid Jesus Have to Die?)

Closing Thoughts: How Do We Follow Jesus Who Announced andInaugurated the Kingdom of God?If Jesus came to inaugurate the reign of God on earth, if he proclaimed this message in words

and works, and if, in the end, this message led him to the cross, then how do we who believe

in Jesus follow him today? Let me offer a few brief suggestions. There is much more that

could be said, but Ill save this for another day.

1. We should seek to l ive each moment in the reality of the kingdom of God. Jesus said, The

kingdom of God has come hear; repent and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15). This call is

still valid today. When we accept Gods rule over our lives, we adopt values and priorities

that are radically different than those of the world. Thus we make a U-turn; we repent and

live our lives in a brand new direction, pointing toward Gods kingdom.

2. We live in the world as salt and light. Like Jesus, both our words and our works should

proclaim the reality of the kingdom. We talk about the good news of what God has done in

Christ, inviting others to accept this gospel and live under Gods reign. And we live out this

reign each day by loving our enemies, healing the sick, confronting evil, feeding the hungry,

forgiving those who wrong us, and living as a active member of the community of Jesus.


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3. We take up our cross and follow Jesus each day. We who live in the community of Jesus

must seek, not to dominate others, but to serve them. We live, not for our own glory, but for

God, to whom belongs the kingdom, and the glory, and the power.

4. We live in the present power and the future hope of the resurrection. Although I have not

spoken of the resurrection in this series on the message of Jesus, were it not for the fact that

Jesus was raised from the dead on Easter, none of what Ive said would have any value

whatsoever. The message of Jesus would have been long forgotten as wishful thinking by one

among many faile

What Was the Message of Jesus

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