February 10 - Mark 2: Kingdom Come

Some people confronted Jesus: "Why do the followers of John and the Pharisees take on the discipline of fasting, but your followers don't?" 

Jesus said, "When you're celebrating a wedding, you don't skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but not now. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!" (2:18-20)

This passage jumped out at me in today's reading. For my entire Christian life, the whole idea of God's Kingdom has been a vague concept, undefined and somewhat confused in my mind. It's one of those things that I sort of get but would have a hard time explaining to another person (which means that I don't really understand it, huh?)

I'm currently taking the Perspectives course, and it's seriously blowing my mind. The lecturers come from all over the U.S. and are fabulous. The content has provided answers to questions I could never fully articulate. It's challenging me from Scripture in areas that I thought I already understood, and it has revealed God's Word more deeply to me in larger context of God's Grand Story. If you haven't taken it, I highly recommend it (and we're only on week 5 of 15!)

Two weeks ago, the topic was the Kingdom of God, and the lecture and readings helped clarify for me what Jesus meant by that phrase.

"The Kingdom of God is His kingship, His rule, His authority. When we realize this, we can see this meaning in passage after passage in the New Testament. We can see that the Kingdom of God is not a realm or a people, but it is God's reign. Jesus said that we must "receive the Kingdom of God" as little children (Mark 10:15). What is received? The Church? Heaven? What is received is God's rule. In order to enter the future realm of the Kingdom, people must submit themselves to God's rule here and now." George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom

It also helped me understand why Jesus had to keep repeating what the Kingdom is like to his disciples and others Jews because they didn't understand it or Him.

"In the Old Testament view, the coming of God's Kingdom is usually seen as a single great event. The Kingdom of God was expected to be a sudden, mighty manifestation of God's power, sweeping away wicked regimes of human power and filling all the earth with righteousness...Here was John [the Baptist]'s problem, and it was the problem of every devout Jew, including Jesus' closest disciples, in their effort to understand and interpret Jesus' person and ministry. How could He be the Coming One, who was to bring the Kingdom, while sin and sinful institutions remained unpunished?" Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom

Rome wasn't being overthrown. Israel wasn't being restored to its former greatness. How could this man be the Messiah when He clearly wasn't performing as expected? Jesus wasn't acting like their image of the Messiah, which prompted their basic question about the discipline of fasting in this passage. Every other time I've read these verses, Jesus' answer puzzled me, but now I'm understanding more of the picture.

"This is the mystery of the Kingdom, the truth which God now discloses for the first time in redemptive history. God's Kingdom is to work among people in two different stages. The Kingdom is yet to come in the form prophesied by Daniel when every human sovereignty will be displaced by God's sovereignty. The world will yet behold the coming of God's Kingdom with power. But the mystery, the new revelation, is that this very Kingdom of God has now come to work among people but in an utterly unexpected way. It is not now destroying human rule; it is not now abolishing every sin from the earth; it is not now bringing the baptism of fire that John [the Baptist] had announced. It has come quietly, secretly, without drawing attention to itself. It can work among men and never be recognized by the crowds. The Kingdom now offers the blessings of God's rule, delivering people from the power of Satan and sin. The Kingdom of God is an offer, a gift that may be accepted or rejected. The Kingdom is now here with persuasion rather than with power." Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom

The fact that God's rule and authority has arrived on earth through the person of Jesus is cause for celebration. A big celebration. Like a wedding. This is Kingdom Come! This is Kingdom Come! I finally get it.

Thank You, Lord, that Your Kingdom has come and Your Kingdom will come. Thank You that Your Kingdom is at work in my life and has delivered me from the power of Satan and sin. I pray that I will never take Your power in me for granted. I praise You for Your great mercy and love which is giving unbelievers the opportunity to repent and be saved in this present evil age, but I long for the day when You come back again in blazing power. Come, Lord Jesus, come.