Jesus and the Mysterious Gospel of the Kingdom: Can You See the Bird’S Nest in My Mustard Tree?

Copyright © 2017 Roger H. Grummer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-4552-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4553-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904907

Archway Publishing rev. date: 04/03/2017

To Betty,

Who walks with me in the Lord,

and

Cheryl, Cynthia, and Jonathan

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1 I Was Wondering

Chapter 2 The Kingdom

Chapter 3 The Kingdom And Presence

Chapter 4 Seeing The Kingdom Metaphorically

Chapter 5 The Kingdom Is Multidimensional

Chapter 6 The Kingdom Highlights Love

Chapter 7 A Kingdom For The Ordinary

Chapter 8 The Kingdom Of Healing

Chapter 9 The Kingdom Of Miracles

Chapter 10 An Apocalyptic Proclamation?

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

My thanks to my wife, Betty, for designing the front cover; and to Stella Hlad, who helped to prepare the manuscript for publication.

Preface

There are some passages of the Bible I wish would have included a more expanded explanation. Jesus and the Mysterious Gospel of the Kingdom is an inquiry into one of those portions. This inquiry has a more pastoral approach than an academic or scholarly one. As such, I hope the reader will discover that this arrangement of information can be in some way helpful in the development of one’s faith formation.

Chapter 1

I WAS WONDERING

HAVE YOU EVER wondered, like I have, what it was Jesus taught that was so appealing to those who heard him? If what Jesus proclaimed didn’t enhance their lives, I doubt they would have continued to follow him. So maybe it wasn’t that he was an especially handsome and charismatic speaker or even a great teacher. It may have been something more radically foundational about the message he proclaimed that favorably touched the innermost being of those who heard him.

A Bible passage triggered my interest into what it really was that Jesus taught. It says, And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people (Matt. 4:23–25). For me those words pose more tantalizing questions. What did Jesus mean by this gospel of the kingdom? This and other questions prompted me to inquire further into what this mysterious gospel of the kingdom was all about.

Of course, it was a different kind of world in which Jesus and his hearers lived. What those words mean to people today might be different from what they meant to people back then. Cultural differences could account for what people understood at the time of Jesus and how something might be understood for us today. There are also many similarities to what people were like at that time and what people are like now. It seems to me that human nature hasn’t changed all that much over the centuries. On the other hand, many things other than human nature have, in fact, changed dramatically.

OTHER WORLDS

Astronomers are now discovering the existence of more and more planets that seem to be somewhat earthlike. Here on earth, I wonder how earthlike our planet is compared to when the earth was younger. Both the vastness of space and the extent of time challenge us to assess the similarities and differences that exist between the world now and the world at the time of Jesus. I’m sure my great-grandparents and those who lived before them would have stood in awe of the changes that have taken place since the time they were alive. Compared to our world today, I wonder how otherworldly the world would seem to those who lived at the time of Jesus.

To many of us, living during Jesus’s time might seem quite challenging. Just imagine what life would be like without electricity, automobiles, airplanes, modern medical advances, computers, the Internet, and other conveniences we take for granted every day. Each day would be a challenge. Just before the most challenging times of his life, Jesus spoke with his disciples and said, In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Every day also presents us with challenges and opportunities; both are difficult. Challenge encounters difficulty we experience in the present. We recognize opportunity in the present as hope. That hope is anticipated as a fulfillment in the future. Of course, the difficulty of hope is that the reality foreseen in hope isn’t yet experienced and is often pursued while following a challenging road. People living at the time of Jesus experienced much of the same challenges and opportunities we do today.

It was into a world of challenge and opportunity, hope and difficulty, that Jesus came. He came proclaiming the gospel of a kingdom, bringing hope and healing to a people who needed what he came to offer them. Take heart, he said. He came to overcome the world, (John 16:33) to offer them the experience of another world that was better than the one they experienced every day.

GOOD NEWS

It was good news to hear that someone could overcome the kind of world in which he or she lived. The Bible says Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom. That kingdom was a world much better than the world God’s people seemed to be chained. The root meaning of the word gospel actually means good news. I doubt very seriously that Jesus appealed to the crowds by telling them how bad they were and how they could expect more bad times in the future. He didn’t tell them there was no hope for them either in this life or in a life to come. He didn’t tell them God would forever hold their sins against them. He didn’t come to condemn them to everlasting punishment in hell. Such a message wouldn’t have been considered good news. Such a message would have hardly encouraged multitudes of people to come hear him. Jesus had a different message for the people.

He proclaimed not bad news but rather good news to a people who longed to hear a word of encouragement and hope. Yet that message he proclaimed seems rather mysterious. What was this gospel of the kingdom really all about?

The land where the Jewish people lived at the time of Jesus was a land dominated by successive foreign powers, including the Persians, the Greeks, Hellenistic Seleucids, Egyptians, and finally the Roman Empire. They had felt like an oppressed people for many years. They longed to live in a world of freedom, where they could worship without restraints and where their hopes and dreams could be realized without fear or without being crushed by the capricious dictates of a tyrannical government. They wanted a life of freedom where they could love and be loved, and where they could live peacefully and joyfully in the presence of their Creator. They yearned for the good news of the coming of the Messiah promised by their prophets of old—a Messiah who would set them free from the oppressive burdens they were experiencing.

It may seem strange that the gospel or good news Jesus proclaimed didn’t sound like the gospel proclaimed in Christian churches today. Today the proclaimed gospel message tells us the good news of a promised Messiah who has come, a personal Savior who came in the person of Jesus to save us from the eternal consequences of our sins.

Did Jesus go throughout the countryside, proclaiming that his life, death, and resurrection would now save them from the dire consequences of their sins? He hadn’t yet died. He hadn’t yet risen from the dead. He didn’t continually proclaim he was the Messiah. Yes, he did make this known (John 4:25–26), but he also told his disciples not to broadcast his messianic identity openly (Matt. 16:15–20).

Jesus is called the Son of God, which simply meant God was born as all human sons are born. Theologians know this process as the incarnation. Jesus was actually God, who loved us so much that he came to earth, born as a human being, to free people not from tyrannical and evil earthly governments but from the eternal consequences of having offended God with our sinfulness. The good news is that Jesus, the Son of God, perfectly expressed the divine love to all people of every time and place through his life, suffering, and death on a cross. He even then demonstrated the truth of it all through his resurrection to life again. Jesus did all this for us so we could live with God as his loved children now in this life and even after we die. The Bible pretty much summarizes this good news in these words: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16–17).

As we mentioned, at the time Jesus proclaimed the good news, or the gospel of the kingdom, he hadn’t yet suffered and died on a cross, nor had he risen from the dead. So the gospel Jesus proclaimed was necessarily expressed quite differently from how Christians generally express it today. Considering that the good news of the kingdom Jesus proclaimed must have necessarily been stated differently, I find myself intrigued. And at the same time, it does also seem rather mysterious. Just what was this mysterious gospel of the kingdom Jesus proclaimed?

You may be somewhat like me if you like good news and aren’t too picky with the form in which it is delivered. Of course, the form chosen must not distort the news conveyed, but instead it must present the news in such a way that it faithfully remains good news. Jesus expressed the gospel of the kingdom in ways that may seem strange or even mysterious to us.

Chapter 2

THE KINGDOM

WHEN JESUS SPOKE about the good news of the kingdom, he spoke in terms everyone could understand. The Jewish people understood very well what kings and kingdoms were all about. They experienced how good or how bad it could be to live in a kingdom ruled by emperors or kings. Kings