What does the kingdom of god on Earth look like?

Jesus set out to establish the kingdom of God on Earth. He told stories about it. He recruited disciples to help him bring it about. He prayed for it to happen. He taught others to pray for it.

Anyone who studies Jesus’ life and teachings cannot be ignorant of the kingdom’s essentials. His ideas were not of his own origination. He relied heavily on Moses and the great prophets of Israel.

Followers of Jesus have distorted his message by focusing on a personal salvation that will allow the devout believer to escape the Earth and enjoy life forever in a faraway, remote and poorly defined kingdom of God in heaven. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are best understood in his efforts to bring the kingdom of God to this Earth.

Jesus’ talk of a new kingdom of God on Earth is the reason Jesus was arrested, tried, and executed by Roman officials. They saw Jesus as an insurrectionist.

The time is ripe for Christians to make a major refocus and become serious about the kingdom of God on Earth.

At the beginning of the Matthew, Mark and Luke gospels, Jesus is presented as making a speech declaring the arrival of the good news of the Gospel. The Luke gospel is most specific. Jesus’ concerns are identified by Luke as poverty, sickness and people imprisoned or enslaved.

The tools of the Jesus insurrection were simple and straight from Moses and the prophets. First was a radical love and devotion to God (not Caesar). The second was love of neighbor.

Love of neighbor was an old and honored standard embraced by devout Jews. Their debate was not about their obligation to love their neighbor but about who was to be considered a neighbor. Jesus engaged that debate and argued for an enormous expansion of the definition of neighbor.

Jesus made masses of people uncomfortable with the way he understood the meaning of neighbor. Those who lived in poverty and sickness, who were in prison, who were enslaved, and those of differing ethnic and racial heritages were all to be considered neighbors.

Even more difficult for the rich and the powerful were his views on wealth and taxation. Jesus lived and taught in an area of extreme poverty. The people were victims of the super rich who lived in large cities such as Sephorus and Tiberias, and of the politically powerful who kept them impoverished with the demands for tithes and taxes.

In Jesus’ declaration at the beginning of his teaching ministry, he announces the coming of the Day of the Lord. This announcement is conveniently ignored by most Christians. It is the most radical of Jesus’ proposals.

In Old Testament law, it is clearly stated that no individual was to see himself as the owner of land. LAND BELONGED TO GOD. The role of a faithful Jew was stewardship of the land, not ownership.

Land was to be distributed among the tribes of Israel for use and stewardship. The responsibility of stewardship was extensive and was carefully spelled out. The Old Testament law required that land was to be redistributed among the tribes every 50 years.

In an advanced agrarian society, such as the society in which Jesus lived, land ownership was the key to acquiring wealth. Wealthy Jews never wanted to give up their land for redistribution. This portion of Old Testament law was never practiced.

A huge gap had developed between the poor and the rich. Jesus (probably naively) called for the redistribution of land for purposes of stewardship. It was the Jesus plan for the eradication of poverty.

I maintain that the Bible is to be read seriously, not literally. Unfortunately, most Christians read the Bible literally, but not seriously. If a serious student of the Bible reads the Bible seriously, Jesus comes to life with a radical definition of neighbor that leaves no one outside looking in and with radical economics that allows no one to be left behind in poverty.

We live in a very different world than the one in which Jesus lived and taught. Our social, religious, and political institutions are radically different. Our financial systems are likewise radically different.

To advocate the establishment of the social and economic systems that are spelled out in Old Testament law would be absurd. However, to advocate the goals of Old Testament law is a vital discussion that needs to be taking place in the U.S. Congress, in state legislatures, in every political campaign, in classrooms from elementary schools to graduate schools, in churches, Rotary clubs and coffee houses.

At the beginning of this essay, I asked what the kingdom of God on Earth might look like in 2014. If we take our cues from the life and teachings of Jesus, two realities are a must. (1) Every person on Earth must be included in the definition of neighbor. (2) The gap between the rich and the poor must be radically altered, and no person can be left in poverty without basic needs satisfied.

And Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as in heaven.”

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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