The Kingdom of God

John the Baptist and Jesus both proclaimed, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” So, where is it? It certainly doesn’t feel like it.

As Jesus went about His ministry healing the sick, forgiving sin, touching the outcasts, eating with sinners, washing feet, and finally going to the cross, he was showing us what the Kingdom of God looks like.

We usually think of a Kingdom as a region where a powerful figure rules and everyone is subject to that person. That is not the kingdom that Jesus brought. He told Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36-37) He rules over an entirely different kind of kingdom.

The kingdom of God is wherever we serve God as king. And serving God as king looks very much like Jesus’ ministry of service. All through the Bible, God tells us to care for “the widow, the orphan, and the stranger in our midst.” And in Matthew 25, when Jesus tells about the King returning, the question is: how have you cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, those ill or in prison? That is what the kingdom of God looks like.

Which means that none of our political parties represent the Kingdom of God. And when churches try to take over political systems, as has happened many times in history—always with bad results, then the church does not represent the kingdom of God either.

What we ask of our politicians is not to pretend that their party is more Christian. What we need to see from our politicians is that they care for the common good and care for those who need a hand up rather than always catering to those who already have wealth and power. (Ezekiel 34:7-10, Amos 6:4-5, Isaiah 3:14-15, Luke 6:24-26, Mark 10:42-45)

As Christians seek to live in the Kingdom of God. This means that we seek to follow God as our king and reflect God’s priorities in our lives as we live and work and vote. The separation of church and state in our country does mean that the church is not called to rule as a government. But we as Christians are called to live out Jesus’ values as we live and work and vote in our communities.