Grant, O Lord, the touch of your Spirit in this time around your Word, that we might be a people conformed to your image, a people who live out your proclamation that the Kingdom of God is near indeed. Amen.
"The Kingdom of God is near." It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? From a Christian perspective, it's a very important statement. In fact, the reason that we exist as a people at all, is so that we can make that proclamation.
Earlier in the story (back in Chapter 9, for those who want to look it up), Jesus called to his side a group of twelve people (whom we call the Apostles). While they were there in his presence, he trained them in the ways of the Kingdom, and they became a Kingdom people. Then he sent them out to proclaim that new reality that they had come to encounter through his person and his work.
As they embarked on this mission, Jesus' mission to "proclaim the Kingdom and heal the sick," they were fulfilling their purpose in life, they were embracing their greater destiny, and as a result, they were making a very real difference in this world. What an exciting story, that of these Apostles going out and making a difference in this world because they dwelled in this new reality, this thing they called the Kingdom of God.
A chapter later, we see those who have heard of this new reality come to embrace it. And now, they too are fulfilling their purpose in life, embracing their destiny, for now they are out there on Jesus' mission of making a difference in this world. Why? Because the Kingdom of God is so real to them that they can't help but to make a difference. Wherever they are, those around them know that "the Kingdom of God is near."
As Christians, we tend to call this the "Good News."
But is it?
Really? "Good News"?
Jesus says to those who would dare follow him:
"Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, "The kingdom of God is at hand for you.' Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, 'The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.' Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand."
Well, now that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, does it? If the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is "good news," then I don't see why anybody would be so unappreciative so as not to receive this people. After all, how can the "Good News" not sound "good"? Let's read on a bit.
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'"
Okay, now if the Good News sounds like that, then I guess I could see where the problem might come from, why certain people might not want Jesus' disciples around.
To proclaim the Kingdom of God. Is it Good News or Bad News? Of course, as Christians, we think of it as Good News. After all, in Christ, we find that God is for us. There's a great blessing in that. After all, God is Love.
But we also tend to want to overlook that God is not a fluffy-wuffy, cutsy-wootsy, ooey-gooey, nice-and-always-happy sort of love. Rather, God's love is a prophetic-love. God's love is a love biased toward those who are the "have-nots" in a society. The Love of God is the love that roars boldly in favor of those who have been robbed of their voice, who have been dehumanized by systems of poverty, oppression, and shame. God's love is ever-oriented toward justice. To say that God is Love, is to say that God is Justice-Oriented Love, or a Just-Love, or a Prophetic-Love.
This was one of Jesus' central truths about who God is. What was it that he taught his disciples out there on that plain all the way back in Chapter 6? Let's listen to it again.
"Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, you reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way."
Wow! The inbreaking of the blessing of God for the little people in life. How can you not like the sound of that? Well, let's read on…
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way."
That's the Kingdom message for those who are responsible for making the little people in life little in the first place, for those who would steal away the vitality of life from those around them. Because the message of the Kingdom is the message of God's prophetic-love, it is good news for those who have been reduced to nothing, but bad news for those who would so arrogantly dare to climb to live in the clouds on the backs of the nobodies in this life.
Blessed are the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, the hopeless, the excluded, and the seemingly incurable. For the God found in the person and work of Jesus Christ says to them, "The kingdom of God is at hand for you." But cursed are the irresponsible rich, the wantonly powerful, the exclusionary gatekeepers, the self-centered scapegoaters, and the unempatheticaly violent. For the God found in the person and work of Jesus Christ says to them, "Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand."