The Kingdom

In Matthew 11, John the Baptist has been imprisoned, and has heard of some pretty remarkable stuff that his cousin, Jesus has been doing. John evidently knew he was proclaiming the message of the coming Messiah, but oddly enough, didn't seem to know much about exactly what was going to happen. He had to send some of his disciples (remember, he's in prison, the guards won't let him out for his errand) to ask Jesus if he was the "One" or if he was supposed to be waiting for somebody else. This is Jesus' response:

"Go back and report to John what you hear and see: ⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

Once the John's disciples leave with their response for John, Jesus continues to the crowd that has gathered:

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear.

I can just imagine the shock wave of excitement that must have come over the crowd. This was an oppressed people. The fruits of their labors seldom went to feed their family, instead they went to a people from a far off land who had subjugated them through violent military force and unjust economic practices. The land that had been promised to them by the true One God of the Shema taken by a cruel and foreign people. Many of them would have been hungry. Many diseased from a lack of nutrition and money for proper hygiene. Their people, the people that God had made a covenant with centuries before, were suffering everywhere around them. They were waiting for God to respond - to deliver them like he had from Egypt. They waited for the promised "shoot from the stump of Jesse" (Isaiah 11) to bring about the glory of the Hebrew people once again. Undoubtedly, many of them had grown weary of waiting. Historical accounts tell us of men who grew tired and took up the cause themselves. Some are alluded to in scripture - Barabbas, or Theudus, or Judas the Galilean for example. Unfortunately, they all failed and made it even worse for the Israelites, provoking violence and tighter restrictions from the Romans. The priests had sold out to the Romans - watering down the Torah in exchange for power and legitimacy from the pagan government. Other religious leaders who were less willing acquiesce to the Romans piled up heavy rules from rabbinic traditions to prove their Jewishness in the face of such paganism. These rules did nothing to alleviate the suffering of the people, but simply served as a balm to the conscience of the few men fortunate enough to not have to work in the fields. In the midst of this, the people had waited.

And now.... finally, there was hope. This man in front of them - the one they had seen tell lame men to get up and walk, who opened blind men's eyes, who healed women of their diseases, who had fed the hungry - says to them, "The Kingdom is advancing". There is hope for the poor, the sick, the oppressed - the hopeless. The one they are waiting for has arrived - and he's brought hope. These people didn't know how good the news actually was. They were looking for an earthly, political kingdom. Jesus was talking about more. He was talking about a spiritual kingdom that knew no border. Not even death could defeat the mighty Kingdom this Messiah was talking about. This was a kingdom not just for them, the wayward children of Abraham - but for the whole world, the wayward children of Adam. Regardless of their misconceptions - the news was astounding. Here was hope, the dawn in darkness of night at long last. Jesus told them that there was hope for the blind, the lame, the deaf, the diseased, the poor. The Kingdom was coming. And further, though "forceful" men like John were leading the way - it belonged to people like them. The Kingdom wasn't only for the strong or the greatest, but also for the weak and the least.

Many teens are living in despair right now. A rundown of things that kids in our ministry have dealt with in the last month or so (no names here): a friend's suicide, the death of a parent, struggles with substance abuse, a parent's substance abuse, parents' divorce, parents losing jobs, medical tests to screen for disease. These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head that exist in the lives of the relatively small group of teens that are in our ministry. Now imagine the issues I don't know of in our group and the issues that exist to the larger community of teens in our kids' high schools and middle schools. Our ministry must exist to forcefully proclaim to these teens that the Kingdom is advancing. This Kingdom is for them. It welcomes the brokenhearted, the impure, the confused, the weary, and the weak. Not only does it welcome them, it redeems their sin, their grief, their despair - their humanness.

I can't think of anything more important for us as a ministry than to remember that from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom has been forcefully advancing. This needs to be in the forefront of our thinking. We should be challenging our kids who are Christians to proclaim the Kingdom it in their world through service to the poor, the broken, and the sinful. We should be encouraging the kids who don't know Christ to take hold of the Kingdom - to throw off the oppression of their sin and this self-absorbed culture. We should be teaching them that the Kingdom offers grace and mercy to even the worst of sinners and the people who seem to have little to offer. We must be teaching them that this Kingdom gives them victory over the worst oppressors ever known: Sin and Death.

Please take a moment today and reflect on how your family is proclaiming the Kingdom of God in your neighborhood and community. Make sure your kids understand that your family is living in the service of the Kingdom of Heaven, not this world. If you can't find any areas where your family is forcefully advancing the Kingdom, perhaps its time for a "family meeting" to rearrange some priorities and goals.