Have you ever heard someone say that Jesus’ contemporaries were wrong about the kingdom of God, because they conceived of it in political terms? I’ve heard Christian thinkers suggest that Jesus’ notion of the kingdom was entirely apolitical and that the disciples were foolish to assume that the kingdom had anything to do with national Israel (see commentaries on Acts 1.6). I strongly disagree with this line of thinking and suspect Jesus did as well. After all, he is the one who gave the twelve the notion that they would have political power in the age to come:
Matthew 19.28
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Now, I want to be careful here. Jesus did not in any way encourage his followers to take up the sword and establish this new world order. Instead, he encouraged them to spread the good news and to love their neighbors as themselves. Johannes Weiss nicely summarized this position in his seminal Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
Johannes Weiss (1863-1914) By force and insurrection men might establish a Davidic monarchy, perhaps even as glorious a kingdom as David’s had been; but God will establish the kingdom of God without human hands, horse, or rider, with only his angels and celestial powers. To hope for the kingdom of God in the transcendental sense that Jesus understood it and to undertake revolution are as different as fire and water.[1]
When Christians have forgotten this, we have soured the world to Jesus and made quite a mess of things. Our role is to be a prophetic witness in this world while patiently waiting for God to establish his kingdom.
[1] Johannes Weiss, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, trans. by Richard Hiers and David Holland (Philadelphia: Fortress Press 1971), originally published Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892), p. 102.
Amen Mr. Weiss! Couldn’t agree more!
I personally can’t wait for the coming Kingdom and am thrilled that my family and I have an opportunity to partake in it!
I’ve always wanted to visit the Holy Lands however I may put this on hold as I am starting to come to the realisation that we may be headed there VIP first class air travel in some future time. I have always resisted the idea of an Israel where the rulership over the Earth may centred and to then emanate to all of the Earth’s corners over time. However there seems to be compelling evidence that there is. And as you rightly mentioned Jesus words would have given rise to the Apostles to have thought so, and in any case Jesus or any of the other Apostles never said anything to the contrary. What are your thoughts? Do you have a podcast that deals primarily with this matter? Thanks for this tidbit Sean.