Jesus came to die for the world, but he also came to deliver the Kingdom of God to us. To bring this truth closer to home, Jesus came not only to die for Biolans but to bless us with the gift and stewardship of the kingdom. Churches and evangelical circles tend to focus on the former to the neglect of the latter. But a careful reading of Jesus should lead to a shift in our focus toward the kingdom.
It is difficult to read the gospels without coming to the realization, at some point, that Jesus makes a big deal out of the kingdom. Yet, even from the beginning of Mark, we read Jesus pronouncing, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,” and we look around, noticing we still live in a world full of evil and suffering. Thus, we eagerly continue reading, waiting to see what Jesus meant when he said the Kingdom of God is “at hand.” Later, Jesus makes the striking statement that some of his disciples “will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God.” Jesus’ disciples must have been overjoyed to find out the kingdom would arrive at last within their lifetime.
Waiting for the kingdom, cultivating Shalom
We, too, wonder when the Kingdom of God will come. The trouble is, Jesus told the Pharisees once that the “Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” The phrase “in the midst of you” can also be translated “within your grasp.”
Within your grasp. Just as audacious, Luke’s gospel account records Jesus reading from the book of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” What Jesus is describing here from the book of Isaiah is the state of shalom.
For the writers of the Old Testament, shalom was a communal state of well-being, where everyone in the community enjoyed justice, righteousness, forgiveness, joy, abundance, healing and, of course, God’s presence. It is a community where one’s freedom and dignity are affirmed and love is the common theme.
Waiting as activation, not anticipation
Jesus’ next statement is also significant: “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus himself — everything he said and did on earth — represents the arrival of shalom. Jesus Christ marks the beginning of God’s kingdom on earth, and thus the beginning of the fulfillment of shalom. The good news is that the kingdom is here right now and may be entered into right now — that is, the kingdom is within our grasp. That means the kingdom exists now and is being carried out today.
The kingdom is here and available to be entered in more than an anticipatory way. The posture of the believer, then, should not be characterized primarily by waiting. When our attitude as believers is simply to wait for the kingdom to arrive, we tend to become lazy and conform to the culture around us. But the Kingdom of God is not a nebulous section of society with certain religious beliefs as a common compartment of life. Neither is it the morals of middle America described with spiritual language.
Thus, the attitude of Biola believers should be one of wariness toward the pattern of waiting for the kingdom. The kingdom is within our grasp now, and thus we cannot afford to wait for God to feed the hungry, or to fight for the liberty of the oppressed, to eradicate grudges and hatred, racism and sexism and all traces of their existence from our midst. These tasks are not supererogatory to the kingdom but integral to it. Being a member of the kingdom community means not only enjoying God in my own private way but also spreading, in tangible practice, the blessings of shalom to others.
Let’s face it: Most of us here at Biola are relatively affluent, spiritually if not also financially. A special challenge exists for Biolans, then, who live in an environment that is insulated from the needy people of the world — physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually. Jesus’ command to “go into all the world” becomes all the more necessary to practice, because nothing less than the kingdom is at stake.
