Here Comes the Kingdom

The time promised by God has come at last.

Being a parent of small kids, they are always asking for your time, and so now we say in 10 minutes, we will do this or that, and Wesley will set a timer. After 10 minutes, he quickly reminds us that the time is up, so let's play.

Jesus was called to bring the good news of God’s grace to a people whose primary religious expression was one of waiting. Primarily, they were waiting for the Messiah to come and liberate them. Jesus confronted their passive waiting with the radical notion that the time for waiting was over: The Kingdom of God is near!

How remarkable that Jesus should choose Galilee as the premier. “He did not prepare for a missionary campaign, first Jerusalem and then into the rest of the world; no, he remained in insignificant Galilee.” Similar to our presidential debates, some of these caucuses don’t seem very significant to me, but the candidates feel it is most important to win them.

Galilee, the Jewish settler region to the west of the Sea of Galilee, is where Jesus begins his ministry and, in terms of popular appeal, enjoys his greatest success (1:28; 3:7). Galilee is also where Jesus, following his death and resurrection, gathers his dispersed and defeated followers (14:28; 16:7) and recommissions them for ministry.

When Jesus arrived on the scene, no alarms were going off, no trumpets blasting as they would for a king parading in. It is quite the opposite. His main man, John the Baptist, who was to prepare the way, is now locked up, yet Jesus is ready to begin his ministry.

Can you imagine living in Jesus’ day? The Roman Empire has taken over everything. The emperor’s hands are in every aspect of society. Herod, the “King of the Jews,” is a hateful man who might kill anyone at any time. The Temple authorities are in cahoots with the Empire. It sounds like some of the nations today.

Along comes a rabbi who proclaims that the time (kairos) is fulfilled. And, in God’s good time, God’s Kingdom—NOT Rome’s Kingdom, NOT America’s Kingdom—has come near.

The near approach of the Kingdom was what Jesus preached as His “good tidings” to the people, and good tidings it would be to those who believed Him. It was like proclaiming the dawn of “the millennium.” John the Baptist had already announced the nearness of God’s Kingdom, but it was in the judgment aspect that he proclaimed it; Jesus emphasized its gracious aspect as the coming of salvation.

The “kingdom of God,” as used by Jesus, signified the whole sphere in which the will of God, as an ethical power, is recognized and obeyed. Here comes the reign of righteousness! As we see throughout Mark’s gospel, there was an urgency with Jesus. Mark doesn’t let the grass grow up under Jesus’ feet.

Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom implies an urgency. It is as if the course of history had converged at this moment and in the announcement that God was just about to reclaim authority over the creation. That same urgency is evident throughout Jesus' ministry, however short it may have been. When God is about to take control, people are expected to respond immediately.

Even though we pray every Sunday that God's kingdom will come, we often lack urgency about its coming. We suppose it is far into the future and not a pressing matter right now. Jesus tried to convince people that the kingdom was so near that it was already a reality. That's why Jesus is sometimes credited with saying the kingdom is still in the future and claiming the kingdom is already here.

God's dominion hovers nearby, breaking in at unexpected times. The kingdom comes when the hungry are fed and the naked clothed. It comes when nations work out a peace accord that sticks. It comes when the depressed and dejected hear a word of genuine love. The rule of God is present, if not fully and continuously. It is present when Christians embody it in their lives. There is then an urgency about this Christian life because, at any moment in any place, we are liable to have the opportunity to let God rule in a specific place at a specific time. We never know when such a "fullness of time" will occur. We cannot anticipate and plan those crucial moments. So, we must be ready to claim the kingdom whenever and however it may appear in our midst. We must be focused on the possibilities of the rule of God in every situation. There should be an urgency about every moment of Christian life!

It's fair to say that any sense of urgency about our faith is missing among a good many contemporary Christians. That is undoubtedly the case with most of the mainline Protestant denominations. There is simply nothing to be urgent about! Christian faith is a lifelong pilgrimage that ends only when we die, so why the urgency? Or, some might ask, what's the hurry? Maybe when I know I am about to die, I will feel some sense of urgency, but not now. The cause of this depletion of urgency is found in the simple fact that many of us have no confidence in the idea that God is about to end history and bring us all to judgment within days or weeks. After all, we have heard preachers claiming that the last days were upon us for years -- no, for centuries. The New Testament teachings about the last days seem dated and irrelevant. The church has lived for two thousand years, and the end has not yet come; why should we think it will come now in our lifetimes? If there is no end in sight, what is there to be urgent about? Maybe another cause still contributes to this exhaustion of urgency. It is just that -- an exhaustion of urgency. Our lifestyles have become increasingly fast-paced. In their work, some live from one crisis to another. Raising children these days seems to produce numerous and endless crises. Marketing agents try to make us believe there is an urgency about grabbing this or that deal before it's too late. Maybe contemporary life in America already provides us with too much urgency. As a result, we want our religious faith to be a quiet, peaceful time and certainly not another urgent matter. The consequences of this depletion of urgency are dire. The absence of urgency yields a kind of complacency and apathy that stifles enthusiasm and drains away all zeal. Indeed, this is one of the problems contributing to the grievous condition of many churches today. Friends, can we regain a sense of urgency that the time has come at last, The Kingdom of God is near, without resorting to the scare tactics of the "last days" without me sounding like it’s the last days?

The Kingdom has come, and that is Good News. It is timely, available, decisive, and assuring for us. Time is one of the most important resources of God and man. The difference is that God effectively uses time to fulfill His purpose. At the same time, man struggles with the tendency to waste time by “killing it,” “delaying it,” “polluting it,” or “ignoring it.”

Don’t hesitate any longer if you don’t know Jesus as your savior. The time is now! Our life and God’s patience are short when it decides His Son. Amen.