The Kingdom is Near

Paula Shockley
1 day ago
2 min read

A person standing at the edge of two paths: one leading back toward a city filled with harsh light, surveillance cameras, barricades, and towering government buildings — the other leading forward into soft, natural light where people are being healed, embraced, and restored. — Created using ChatGPT

17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers. 19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fisher of people." 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 23 Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. (Matthew 4:17-20, 23)

When Jesus heard that John, the baptizer, had been arrested Jesus took up John's clarion call for repentance and proclaimed that the kingdom of God had come near. That must have sounded absurd. The evidence of daily life under Roman occupation would have seemed to be in direct conflict with the nearness of God. People were oppressed by the corruption of those in power - those who increased the debts of citizens in order to skim off profit for themselves, leaders who used their ethnic and religious heritage to certify or cover their deviant behavior, leaders who persecuted those (like John the baptizer) who openly criticized them. Perhaps it was a longing for a better kingdom that led Simon, Andrew, James and John to immediately leave their government jobs as fisherman for the empire when Jesus called them. They couldn't have known what they were signing up for, but they quickly saw that, wherever Jesus went, there was healing and restoration.

The political landscape today may feel out of control in ways we've never seen before, but in reality it looks eerily similar to empires of the distant and not-so-distant past - corruption, abuse of power, abuse of religion. What if this is exactly where we need to be in order to long for a better kingdom, and in order to see how starkly different God's reign is in comparison to the worldly powers that be? Perhaps our comfort has made us complacent to and complicit in the injustice that has always been at the heart of empire. May God open our eyes to see, and give us the courage to leave, those things that do not bring God's kingdom of healing and restoration near to all.

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them light has shined. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. 4 For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. (Isaiah 9:2-4)