There are many times that I wonder what Jesus meant by using the term ‘kingdom of God’. The Pharisees and others obviously wondered when the kingdom of Israel would be restored. They were wondering when God would set up another kingdom like that of Saul, David, and Solomon. They wanted the Messiah to through out the Romans, to cast out their enemies, and to return the people of God to their former glory.
Interestingly enough, the first time that the people chose to have a king over them, they sinned. When Samuel gives his farewell address to the people in 1 Samuel 12, he accuses them of having turned away from God. Samuel tells others about the way that God had delivered them in the past, raising up leaders to overthrow those who were oppressing them when they turned back to God in repentance. But then, they asked for something different.
And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the LORD your God was your king. … I will call upon the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking for yourselves a king.” So Samuel called upon the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.
The people sinned when they called for a king, and yet those who were looking at Jesus as the Messiah were doing the same thing. They were calling for an earthly king to restore the earthly kingdom, which was a sin to ask for in the first place. The kingdom of God just isn’t that kind of kingdom.
In Luke 17 Jesus talks to the Pharisees about the kingdom.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
The kingdom of God is in the midst of us. It is all around us. It is in the places that God shines through brightly. It is in the places that God seems to be missing. We cannot distinguish where it is and where it isn’t because it is everywhere.
Remember, Jesus isn’t talking to his disciples here, he is talking to the Pharisees. He is talking to those who the current church loves to vilify. He is talking to the ‘religious establishment’ and not to those who are challenging it. He tells them that the kingdom of God is in their midst.
Perhaps we are a bit too harsh on our current ‘religious establishment’.
