like paying taxes, so had a war with the Romans, Israel was flattened and
the Jews did not gain control until about 1945.
Jesus told the Disciples and made it quite clear that the Kingdom of God
was not Heaven or a place. The teachings of Jesus nowadays is – The
Kingdom of God is here and now at present and there is a kingdom in the
next life. Jesus made it clear that the kingdom is an attitude, not a place.
The apostles translated the information, the wrong way and they believed
that the Kingdom was a place, but Jesus’ teachings showed that it was an
attitude. In Mark Chapter 1 verse 15, Jesus said ‘ the right time has come,’
he said ‘ and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and
believe the good news!’
The Jews eagerly waited for the time that the Kingdom of God would come
on Earth. God would overcome the evil and the Kingdom of God would only
be true on Earth, when God came back. When he does, evil will be overcome
and sinners will be stopped. The Jews also believed that he would rule from
Jerusalem.
Today we also know that to be part of the kingdom we must allow God into
our lives and to be the most important influence over all of the actions that
we carry out.
In Jesus’ time, he showed signs that the Kingdom of God was not a place and
that it was happening here and now. (He cleansed lepers and let the blind
see etc). People who say that the Kingdom of God is Heaven are incorrect as
it is an attitude, although all members of the Kingdom of God end up in
Heaven.
The church is also not the kingdom as some people think it is, as not
everyone who attends let God into their lives as an overall influence
although we can say that people who are members of the Kingdom show this
by going to church.
Parables of the Kingdom
Parable of the Sower
This is about a man who scatters seeds that fall on a path but birds eat
them. The ground does not give the seeds a chance to settle in. Then some
seeds fell on rocky ground but were choked by weeds. But the last bunch of
seeds fell on good soil and produced 30%, 60% or 100% of corn. This is the
saying that when the seeds fall, the ground does not accept them and let
them sink in. When the second group fall they believe for a short while, but
are distracted by outside influences. The third group try their best to
believe but are distracted by others, but the forth group believe and
accept it. This gives you the meaning that the first seeds are like people
who hear the good news of the gospel but do not take it in and accept it.
The second group of seeds are the same but do take it in but only for a
while then loose it and forget about it. The final group of seeds do accept
the good news and carry out the workings of the gospel in every day life.
In the parable of the mustard seed
This is where a man took the smallest seed in the world planted it and it
became the biggest plant. The small seed is the Christian community of
Jesus. In time the community grows and people join in and this is like the
birds nesting (in the plant). This parable shows the present and future
dimensions.
The Parable of the Seed growing Secretly
This is a parable about a man who scatters seeds on a field and leaves them
to grow. He comes back and sees that they have sprouted and now bare
fruit. The soil itself makes the plants grow and first the stalk appears, then
the ear, and finally the ear full of corn. When the corn is ripe, the man
starts cutting it with his sickle, because harvest time has come. This gives
you the meaning that when the man scatters the seeds in the field, which how
I perceive it means the Word of God being spoken to others. God’s word is
pondered on and thought about during night and day. Questions are asked
and answered from a young age until maturity until finally they believe in
God’s word and when the time is right they to will enter the Kingdom of God
in Heaven.
The lamp under the bowl
The parables say you do not hide a lamp under a bowl or bed, but you put it
on a lamp stand for all to see. This is saying that the message of the
kingdom should be spread far and wide. So that it enlightens everyone and
promotes Christian responsibility. The second part of the parable suggests
that the light should be used to show everyone what is wrong in his or her
lives and to bring corruption and injustice into the open.
Parable of the Measure
This parable says that the way we judge will be the same way as God judges
us, with a little extra added on. This may be to our advantage or it could be
to our disadvantage. If we are generous, God will be generous with us.
This parable ends with a warning that the person who accepts the kingdom
into their lives will receive added bonuses, but anyone who rejects the
kingdom may loose everything, (eternal life).
Story of Jesus and the children
Some people brought children to Jesus so he could bless them. The disciples
turned them away and Jesus was angry and said let them through and then
Jesus blessed them.
This gives you the meaning that to get into heaven you have to be like a
child and to trust people, the kingdom, God, etc.
Story of the rich young man
A young man asks Jesus how he can get into heaven and when he gets his
answer he is not satisfied because he is told he has to simply obey the
Commandments. He asks what more can he do but Jesus said to him that he
would have to sell all of his riches and give it all to the poor, then he will be
able to come and follow Jesus. The man did not like this because he was
very rich.
The teachings or message of the incident is ‘ It is much harder for a rich
person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle’. This is merely an exaggeration because it is possible for a
rich man to get into the kingdom of god. However the richer you are, the
harder it is because every Christian principle which you are expected to
obey will prove almost impossible if it involves making the choice of loosing
some or all of your wealth.
But the apostles were astonished because the great saints of Jewish history
e.g. Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and David were all extremely rich. The
question in their minds was ‘Were none of these saved?’
Jesus’ answer to their problem is we cannot do it on our own but if we use
the inspiration of God we can lift ourselves above our basic human
reactions.
Chapter 8 verse 31
This is connected to the idea of the Kingdom of God because it sets a
standard for Christian living. Jesus follows one of his common forms of
teaching words, which seem to contradict each other e.g. “Whoever wants to
save his life will lose it”. This is made clearer in his next sentence, “But
whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it”. Jesus is reminding
us that if we use immoral principles to make our lives better then we must
accept that we will lose our space in the Kingdom of God because we have
not allowed the ways of god to influence our lives.
The idea of the Kingdom of God today is that God runs it. We get into the
kingdom of God by following Gods ways and following the commandments.
Sometimes there is a large price to pay and some people may have to devote
their whole lives to enter. We get into the kingdom of God by following
Gods ways and sticking to the commandments. We understand that it is not a
place but a state of being, it is inside us, we cannot hear, see or touch it but
we know it is there. We know we can not enter unless we let God into our
lives.
Jesus gives an overall principle when he says to follow me people must
forget themselves and accept the difficulties of trying to live to the highest
principles. He does talk about the Kingdom of God being seen in a completed
form within the lifetime of his listeners. This is a confusing statement
because usually Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God finally being
completed at the end of time.
