Kingdom & Christ

Jesus teaching about the Kingdom

There are those among the Jesus scholars who claim that, "Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom; the early church proclaimed Jesus."  The early church, that is, transformed Jesus' teachings in such a way as to change the very content of those teachings.  In doing so, they laid the historical groundwork for modern-day Christianity, which is almost all about Jesus and not very much at all about the Kingdom.  The Kingdom Jesus preached was a future time of justice when Jewish society would be stood on its head.  The wealthy would be left standing on the outside while the poor, lame, ill, and amoral majority would in inherit the Kingdom.

What we've done, so the case goes, is to change Jesus' prophetic message of social justice into a salvation religion with Jesus as the saviour and social justice a secondary concern, if that.

Maybe so, and if so the very last verse of the book of the Acts, verse 28:31, might provide a hint as to how the change from a Kingdom-oriented socio-religious movement to a Christ-centered salvation religion took place.  As Acts closes, Paul has reached Rome and initiated his work there while technically under house arrest awaiting trail before Caesar. Acts 28:30 (The Message) states that, "For two years Paul lived in a place he rented for himself, and there he welcomed all who came to see him." Then, verse 31 wraps things up with this summary: "He preached about the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking with all boldness and freedom."  Now, it doesn't matter whether or not this verse accurately sums up Paul's teachings in Rome.  The point is that by the time Acts was written, some time latter in the first century, some followers of Jesus were both preaching the Kingdom and teaching about Jesus.  For them, the two most likely were seen to be inseparable.  They believed Jesus' teachings about the Kingdom, which they had heard from him; and it was only natural for them to develop a dual focus: the Kingdom and the messiah who taught about it.

It makes a good deal of sense, spiritually and theologically, that at least one large branch of the early church would achieve this dual focus of Kingdom and Christ and pass it down to posterity so that it became the dominant branch.  The trick has always been to maintain the two in balance.  If we lean toward the Kingdom, we end up with a social salvation movement that is in danger of losing its spiritual moorings in the one living example we have of the Kingdom, Jesus and the sense that God is With Us in the quest for the Kingdom.  If we lean toward Jesus, the tendency of Christianity generally, we lose the powerful message of the Kingdom of God and replace it with a "safe" message about getting into heaven by believing in Jesus.  Jesus was both prophet and saviour, and it seems that we do best when we maintain the Kingdom and the Christ in balance.