Reflection
What seems most universally applicable about Jesus’ message was his conviction that the ‘reign of God’ or the “kingdom of God’ was at hand. He called people to conversion so that they might believe this good news. He believed that many of his contemporaries were beset with wrong ideas about God and were looking for their experience oi God in the wrong place. He recognized that some of the biggest obstacles to conversion were ingrained ideas and images which prevented people from believing that God was close to them and which led them to be fearful of God. Again and again, in preaching about the” reign of God ‘ and in sharing his conviction that God was not to be feared, Jesus tried to undermine these barriers to believing the good news he wanted to share.
Michael Morwood
Prayer
epent and believe the good news.
Action
Do you still experience the ideas and images about God that Jesus tried to dispel? How do they prevent spiritual development? Read and reflect on the meaning of the “reign of God” as Jesus’ preached it.
Suggested Reading
The kingdom of God is not something people will be able to see and point to. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:21
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17
God’s kingdom is for the poor in spirit, not the proud of heart./
Pope Francis
f we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for…. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.
Frederick Buechner
Jesus made clear that the Kingdom of God is organic and not organizational. It grows like a seed and it works like leaven: secretly, invisibly, surprisingly, and irresistibly.
Os Guinness
The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God.
Leo Tolstoy
When the Church tries to embody the rule of God in the forms of earthly power it may achieve that power, but it is no longer a sign of the kingdom.
Lesslie Newbigin
In what sense, then, did Jesus declare that the Kingdom of God was present? Our answer must at least begin with His own answer to John: “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the Gospel preached to them.” In the ministry of Jesus Himself the divine power is released in effective conflict with evil.
C.H. Dodd
The kingdom of God: God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing.
Graeme Goldsworthy
The kingdom of God is an alternative arrangement of human society around Jesus which leads to human flourishing.
Brian Zahnd