The Hidden and Mysterious Kingdom
The article below comes to us from Jerry Wolfe, on behalf of the elders
at the Federal Way Church of Christ:
We in Churches of Christ, like many other Christian traditions, have not spoken frequently about the Kingdom of God. We have spoken of personal salvation. We have emphasized individual response to the Gospel. We have described salvation as a plan. We have referred to Jesus as both Lord and Christ. We have insisted upon the church as the location of the saved. But we have said very little about the kingdom of God.
Yet it appears that in order to understand the church as a part of the missional work of God we must begin to grapple at length with
what is meant by the words “the kingdom of God”. This grappling appears to be no small task. In fact, it seems as if it is a little bit like Jacob wrestling with God. He struggled mightily to overcome, finally settled for hanging on, asked for a blessing, and came away with a limp. Jacob received his blessing, but this encounter set his life in a different direction. It seems likely that in our wrestling with the mysterious stranger we call the kingdom of God that our lives too will be re-directed.
So what is the kingdom of God? Scholars and commentators have struggled to define it. It defies our best attempts at nailing it down in concrete ways. Maybe one of the best clues to the elusiveness of the kingdom is that the synoptic gospels portray Jesus himself as speaking of the kingdom indirectly through parables. “The kingdom of God is like…” is Jesus’ favorite way of describing it. He doesn’t say “this is it”. He doesn’t define it. He offers comparisons…”it is like a hidden treasure, it is like a pearl, it is like a mustard seed”. And he leaves it to his hearers to wrestle with it.
So at best we are able to name certain characteristics of the kingdom. It is a hidden kingdom. It grows in mysterious ways. It appears in surprising places. It is something to be received with joy, yet it may bring hardship. It can be entered, but it can never be contained. It is related to the church, but the kingdom is not the church and the church is not the kingdom. Jesus is Lord on the throne of the kingdom and where God’s will is done there God’s kingdom reign is seen. Jesus cautions against believing people when they say, “here it is or there it is” yet Jesus also says, “the kingdom is among you”.
If the Missio Dei is the coming of the kingdom in its fullness and if the purpose of the church is to be a sign, a foretaste, and a witness of the kingdom of God then we must learn to speak of the kingdom with greater regularity and deeper insight. Not so much to define the kingdom, but in order to begin to see ourselves as a church that has been caught up in the great mission of God.
And so to that end as Jesus’ modern day followers we must wrestle with and hang on to this mysterious stranger that has crossed our path. In our wrestling may we receive a blessing.