I’ve been thinking about other Biblical expressions that have caused as much translation confusion as ‘agape’ has. The expression that usually has gotten translated as “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven” has caused probably as much confusion over the centuries as any.
The major cause of confusion for us in the 21st Century is expressed with the question: how in the world could we in America find meaning in “the Kingdom of God?” To answer such a far-reaching question, the important point to tackle first is to try figuring out what Jesus meant when he used the expression. That task is not at all an easy, straight-forward one. Usually studies of “the kingdom of God” start with the messianic meaning, but that doesn’t help us deal with the meaning Jesus gave because most of the time what he said just didn’t jive with the standard messianic meaning.
The confusion with the messianic meaning starts with the popular belief about the long-hoped-for age when a messiah would be sent from God to free the Jewish people from all oppression from foreign powers. In the century after Christianity began, a man did come along who laid claim to be such a messiah. But of course, that only ended up provoking the Roman Empire to totally devastate the Holy Land, including destroying Jerusalem and the temple. Christians did not participate in that rebellion because by then they had figured out that Jesus did not talk about that popular messianic meaning.
Now, there is a sad reason behind that desperate desire felt by so many people in the century during which Jesus was preaching. We need to always remember that those were terrifying times of violence and oppression. So there was widespread longing for a messiah to put an end to such agonizing suffering. According to that longing, the expression “kingdom of God” meant the time when the New Age would begin, bringing an end to all the violence and oppression.
There are two reasons why I think Jesus couldn’t have meant that. The first is that never happened. Secondly, can anyone honestly see Jesus advocating a military meaning? So that’s not a good place to start studying what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of God.”
But if we start from a different point to look at the way Jesus used the expression, we get a different slant. For example, what happens if we start with the parables? Also we get a different slant if we start when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, and he said, “God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed; nor will people say, ‘Look here it is’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.” (Luke 17:21-22 Common English Bible) ALREADY! Or what could he have meant in the famous Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs”? (Mt. 5:10 Common English Bible) You see, he didn’t say that the kingdom “will be” theirs, but he said it “is” theirs.
Or what happens to the time schedule with the statement: “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom arrive in power.”? (Mk. 9:1 Common English Bible) Does that mean that the kingdom of God came into power 2,000 years ago? And if that is the actual meaning, then with what kind of “power” did the kingdom arrive? Obviously it could not have been the materialistic power that everyone else at that time expected, because that did not happen -- not only did Jesus not kick the Romans and the Greeks out of the Holy Land; but instead, the Roman army swept through the land, burning and destroying everything in their way, including Jerusalem and the Temple. So what was that power that Jesus spoke about? If not physical power (which clearly it was not), then what?
That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer for many years. Well, I think Paul was trying to find the answer to the same question. And I think he began to find that power -- in the experience of Spirit that he started calling “agape.” Clearly, Jesus and Paul were talking about spiritual power. It is only from such an awareness that we can possibly make sense of the “kingdom parables.”
So take the parable that everyone thinks is very understandable -- about the mustard seed. “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? … Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth, but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.” (Mk 4:30-32 Common English Bible) Okay, so what in the world did that mean? Years ago I thought it was a parable about starting a new religion, but I no longer think that Jesus wanted to start a new religion. Obviously, the image in that parable was not what most people wanted to hear about the great messianic age.
Most of the desperate, suffering people at the time of Jesus wanted God to come crashing into history with a messiah leading an army of fiery angels to quickly save them from their oppressive enemies. That’s what salvation meant to them! But they sure didn’t want a messiah who quietly, slowly, obscurely comes as a weak little baby, born out back in a stable, to a lowly carpenter’s wife from a little town of the northern region of their country. And they sure didn’t want someone who tries to compare the great kingdom of God to a lowly, little seed -- even though it may eventually (slowly) grow into a giant bush.
So if Jesus was bringing an entirely new understanding of the “kingdom of God,” then what did he mean? If we take his many comments about seeds and growing, along with the parable of leaven, and put them beside Paul’s description of God’s agape in Rom. 5:5; then we see a very good description of the spiritual life of those people who are able to pay attention to the way God wakes us up.
What do most people with a strong spiritual life say when they reflect back on the beginning of their faith journey? All of us respond with a description that sounds a lot like a seed being planted. And the influence of God’s Presence in our lives is like something that grows up from the depths of our being to slowly take over our whole perspective on Life -- and in that gradual process, completely change our whole perspective on Life.
That means that Jesus brought a spiritual understanding of the “kingdom of God.”
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