Jesus and the kingdom of God

Jesus was known as a teacher and healer. Surprisingly, his favourite teaching topic (based on the evidence of the Gospel accounts we have) was not love and was certainly not the value or purpose of his death. Rather Jesus’ favoured topic was the kingdom of God. This was the ‘good news’ message that Jesus both announced and demonstrated in his actions.

But what did Jesus mean by the ‘kingdom of God’ and why don’t we spend more of our time thinking about what was central for Jesus? The kingdom of God was based on the idea that God is ultimately in charge and God reigns (or carries out the role of a ruler) wherever people acknowledge God’s goodness, power, inclusiveness and love and seek to live by God’s ways. For Jesus this meant freeing people from sickness or other oppressions, restoring them to community and bringing people life in all its fullness.

In our day, as in the time of Jesus, we have a daily choice in how we will live and how we will relate to others, whether to bring life and hope and wholeness or whether to live in a way where fear or selfishness rules our lives. When we focus too narrowly on the needs and activities of our own church community, we run the risk of missing Jesus’ bigger call to build the kingdom of God.

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