Building the Kingdom of God

The view of king/kingdom among the Jewish people consisted of their longing and hope for a Messiah/the Messianic kingdom. “Messiah” is Hebrew for the anointed one and was usually understood to be the long-awaited “King of the Jews” who was to be the expected deliverer of the Jewish people. He was to be the one in whom the Spirit of the Divine would rest, the one who is to rule with righteousness and faithfulness, and the one who is to bring about spiritual transformation in the Jewish kingdom that will become an example of goodness for other nations. Some of the Jewish people are still awaiting the Messiah, while others accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the King of the Jews. It is from the latter group and its followers that the gospel story developed that has me asking:
• What was there about the life of Jesus that he was called the Messiah and the Son of God?
• How is it that people believed they have met in Jesus a power that the grave cannot contain and death could not extinguish?
• What was it about the “Jesus experience” that caused people to say that in his life the signs of the in-breaking into the kingdom of God, that a new relationship with God, had been seen?
• What is it in the life of Jesus that people were challenged to change their lives?
On reflecting on these questions, I find myself moving between Jesus’ times in the Jewish community and the present time. Here are a few of the activities that caught the attention of the people. Jesus was fully human and so he grew in wisdom, grace, and age (Lk 2:52). He changed. He grew into an ever-increasing depth of understanding of living into God, into a relationship where he and the Father (God) were one. Jesus had one place to go and that was deeper into God--letting God work through him. He recognized that the kingdom of heaven, of God, is here and now. And in that kingdom, Jesus shared his love with the Jewish community and beyond—curing the sick, interacting with forbidden or unacceptable people by the Jewish law, feeding the hungry, challenging people through parables and questions, feeling sad when the meaning of his messages were missed or overlooked, teaching about the kingdom and how to be part of it, going apart to pray, and making God visible by allowing God to shine forth through him. This is a bit of what Jesus showed us. In Jesus we see what GOD IS LIKE, learn that God’s Kingdom exists in the HERE and NOW, and realize that GOD IS THE SAME FOR ALL.

In the light of Jesus and his kingdom here are a few questions I found myself reflecting on--How do we grow in wisdom, grace and age? How do we come to appreciate that we are to find God within us, to live into God as God lives us? How do we keep before us as we work that the kingdom of heaven is now? How do we draw into our community and share equally with people of the entire kingdom, the world, and live the words of the song, “All are welcome,” regardless of racial, ethnic, cultural or sexual orientation? HOW DO WE SHOW WHAT GOD IS LIKE HERE AND NOW?

Pat Obenauf is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction Literacy here at WVU.
How do we show what God is like here and now?

Editor’s notes: As Catholics, we understand Jesus to be both fully human and fully divine. Jesus is “true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” (Nicene Creed)
We believe in the Parousia, that is, Christ will come again at the end of time, bringing the Kingdom of God into its fullness, and renewing the entire universe (CCC 1042). The Kingdom of God is both already present and not yet in its fullness; like a mustard seed which holds the potential for the bush which cannot yet be seen. In Luke (17:20-21), Jesus tells us “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.”