Jesus begins his public
ministry by preaching, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near"
(Matt 4:17).
Many students of
Matthew's Gospel consider 4:17 "From this time on Jesus began..." as
a major heading for the middle portion of the Gospel (4:17-16:20). Careful readers will note that 16:21 begins
in identical fashion: From this time on Jesus began.... Thus, 4:17 is not only a snippet from the
preaching of Jesus but also a heading for the presentation of Jesus' public
ministry in Matthew's Gospel. This raises a number of
questions for us. What is the meaning of
Jesus' sermon "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near"? How does it function as a general heading for
Jesus' ministry? Why does Jesus begin
his ministry in this fashion?
I cannot answer these
questions exhaustively, but let us begin by breaking down the passage itself.
Repent
The central exhortation
is Jesus' call for repentance.
Repentance involves changing or turning.
It is a radical "about face" in one's life. I think that a better way of
expressing "repent" is to use the word "realign." Jesus is calling for
conversion. When he proclaims the good news of the kingdom, it is
imperative for his hearers to align or realign themselves with the
values and ethic of God's kingdom.
Often times this text
is misread as a one time event in a person's life. Repentance is typically associated with a
person's conversion experience. This is
certainly true, but it misses some of the force of this text. This text does not exhort a one time
"Repent" but rather it could accurately (although somewhat clumsily)
"Be repenting" or "Repent continuously." In the Greek, the verb is in the present
aspect which suggests that this verbal form carries on-going/durative
force. This is an important observation
because it suggests that repentance or realignment is a way of life for a follower of Jesus
rather than one time event or precondition for salvation.
It is also worth
observing that our text does not indicate of what one needs to repent. I think that this carries two
implications. First, Jesus' call to
repent is comprehensive. Second, what it
means to repent can only be discovered by reading further into Matthew's
Gospel. In other words, following Jesus
involves a continual willingness to realign one's life with the ethos of the
Kingdom of heaven.
The Kingdom of
heaven
Instead of giving
specific directions on repenting/realignment, Jesus provides a single rationale for his
exhortation "for the Kingdom of heaven is near." This clause however has much that needs to be
unpacked.
First, the phrase
“kingdom of heaven” is synonymous with the more common “kingdom of God” which
is found throughout the other three Gospels.
“Kingdom of heaven” is a distinctive of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew routinely makes use of indirect ways
for referring to God. Many scholars
attribute this phenomenon to Matthew’s Jewish-Christian audience, which would
have been used to such efforts to avoid taking God’s name in vain per the Ten
Commandments.
Second, “Kingdom” may
perhaps better be translated “reign.” In
other words, it is a more dynamic
term that the static term “kingdom” suggests. It is the active realm of God’s rule. It is the long awaited age of salvation previewed in the proclamation of Israel's prophets.
It is the sphere in which God’s will is done “on earth as it is in
heaven” as the familiar language of the Lord’s Prayer says.
The power in the phrase
“Kingdom of heaven” comes as one attempts to flesh out or define the ethos implicit in this. The phrase “Kingdom of heaven” begs at least
two questions: What sort of King? What sort of kingdom? This would have been a burning question for
the hearers of Jesus who were all too well acquainted with powers, kings, and kingdoms
of the world.
The Gospel answers both
of these questions in due course. God is
of course the King, but Jesus is portrayed as the regent who has come to
inaugurate the eternal reign of God. By
observing Jesus, we can gain insight into the nature and character of his
kingship, the kingship of God. Let me
highlight briefly two elements of the Kingdom:
1) Jesus came to bring salvation. From the
report of his birth to his death and resurrection, the mission of Jesus was “to
save his people from their sins” (1:21).
2) Jesus expanded the reach of God’s grace. By “expanded” I am by no means suggesting
that God was somehow limited in terms of salvation before the coming of
Jesus. Rather Jesus incarnated and
modeled for God’s people the necessity of moving to a missional engagement model for ministry. With few exceptions, God’s people in the Old
Testament embodied a “Come to” missiological practice. In other words, the nations were invited to
come to Israel to experience God’s best.
Yes, we can point to Jonah and certain oracles in Isaiah to dispute
this, but these exceptions point to the reality of an essential “come to”
practice in ancient Israel. In contrast,
the modus operandi for Jesus was go.
Jesus went and sought out lost
persons in order to bring them back into God’s fold. After his resurrection, Jesus fully unleashed
his disciples to make disciples of all
nations. This involves going.
What sort of ethic is found in the Kingdom? It is one that subverts the power structures
of Jesus’ day. It invites the outsider to the table.
Consider these two
passages in terms of what they say about culture of God’s Kingdom:
Matthew 5:1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up
on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to
teach them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the
merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons
of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult
you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same
way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Notice in particular how Jesus subverts power
structures but reversing the expectations for who will be considered blessed.
In Jesus’ kingdom, it is the downtrodden and excluded who are blessed.
Scripture is not glorifying a marginalized life. Instead, Jesus is emphasizing
that those in such position are most open to God’s grace because they are
desperate for what only God can provide for them.
Matt 22:37 Jesus
replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39
And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Jesus elevates an ethic
of love for God and for others.
Is Near
The verb predicating
“The Kingdom of heaven” is provocative.
It is in the Greek Perfect tense.
I know that most of my readers don’t know Greek, but bear with me. The Greek perfect carries the basic force of
completed action with on-going affects into the present/future. In other words, Jesus is declaring that God’s
Kingdom has indeed come. Jesus’ ministry
involved tangibly demonstrating this truth.
Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out devils as actions
that provided convincing evidence of the presence of God’s kingdom. Yet we have to be careful here because there
is a tension present. In the person of
Jesus, God has brought near his end time salvation, but at the same time, the
present age remains as well. With the
advent of Jesus, we live in a time of overlap between the present age and
future reign of God. Biblical scholars
often talk about the coming of God’s kingdom in terms of a tension between the
“already” and the “not yet.” In other
words, Jesus inaugurated the reign of God through his life, death, and
resurrection, but its full consummation awaits a future date. God’s kingdom is present now wherever and
whenever God’s will is done, but there still remains a day in which God will
usher in God’s eternal reign and bring an end to the present age. This is the essence of the lines of the
“Lord’s Prayer” that read: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven” (6:10).
The very fact, however,
that Jesus is announcing the reign of God in his person is reason enough for
responding to his call for conversion. Anyone who desires to be part of the world as
God intended it was to take notice. In
fact, from our perspective, this gets at the missiological or missional point
of this text. Jesus’ proclamation at its
core is a call to conversion. This is the essence of the repent.
Jesus is calling everyone to repentance: from the devoutly religious to
the most hardened sinner.
To the religious he proclaimed: Align your beliefs and practices to what God
is doing through Jesus. To those on the outside he issued this
invitation: Come and join the new
community that God is raising up in our times.
When we understand Jesus' first message, we must ask ourselves, "Am I (are we) ready to (re)align with the good news of God's long awaited age of salvation?"
© 2015 Brian D. Russell
Interested in learning more about (re)aligning with God and using it as an interpretive approach to the rest of the Bible? Check out my book (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World
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