“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’” (1:15)
Has the kingdom of God come? The Gospel of Mark is saying that it is “near”, not “has come”. But you could ignore such a difference. For this kind of description is telling imminence of the kingdom of God, not literal difference of time. According to Jesus’ teaching in Mark’s Gospel, you should think the kingdom of God has come already. But there is no any trace of the fact that the kingdom of God has come through our personal lives or human history. There is no big change between before and after Jesus’ proclamation that the kingdom of God has come. And even though Jesus who is the same as the kingdom of God has been living in this world, there is no change much as before. So to speak, we still fight each other, hate each other, and we are lonely and isolated, sick and finally we die. If the kingdom of God does not affect any in our lives, what is of use for the kingdom of God to be near? It seems very contradictory between the fact that the kingdom of God is very near and that there is no change at all in the world. How could we overcome this contradiction?
First of all, the kingdom of God, where Jesus said it was near, did not come on that moment when he proclaimed, but might already have come. If we regard God as power for life, the creation event should be considered as the kingdom of God. Only God is a creator, and God could exist only in the moment of creating activity, and then that creating moment could be the same as the kingdom of God. From this point of view, the kingdom of God could mean creation itself.
But this world, in which we experience, is not always creative or life-oriented. What is worse, because of emergence of mankind, more precisely, the fallen mankind caused more violence and destruction in this world. We cannot include these kinds of characteristics of sin in the kingdom of God. And then, is it right to say that this world could be divided between the kingdom of God and of Satan. Since the Bible is telling us that possibility of existence comes only through God, we cannot say the kingdom of Satan could be independent enough to resist against the kingdom of God. We don’t know yet how to differentiate between them.
In this point, we should understand that the kingdom of God is operated in a hidden way. Karl Barth’s statement that God is “Hidden God”(Deus absconditus), and also “Revealed God”(Deus revelatus) is correct. By creation God reveals himself and also He exists by the hidden way of being, so that we can not explain in full through the corridor of our recognition. In this viewpoint we should understand the kingdom of God by dialectic relationship between hiddenness and revelation. In God’s hiddenness the question why the kingdom of God does not leave any clear trace could be answered.
What the kingdom of God is hidden means that the kingdom is eschatological. The kingdom of God is open to the end, and also we could understand it perfectly at the end of time. So many theologians explain that character of the kingdom of God through tension between “already” and “not yet”. The kingdom of God has begun already through creation and Jesus Christ, but in history not to reach yet to the end time, in which the substantial beings of life expose themselves, it is still not yet come. The kingdom of God “already, but not yet” is God’s existential mystery. When we could see such a world, we might be very close to that kingdom.
Lord, help us not to lose eschatological hope for the kingdom of God. Amen!
Has the kingdom of God come? The Gospel of Mark is saying that it is “near”, not “has come”. But you could ignore such a difference. For this kind of description is telling imminence of the kingdom of God, not literal difference of time. According to Jesus’ teaching in Mark’s Gospel, you should think the kingdom of God has come already. But there is no any trace of the fact that the kingdom of God has come through our personal lives or human history. There is no big change between before and after Jesus’ proclamation that the kingdom of God has come. And even though Jesus who is the same as the kingdom of God has been living in this world, there is no change much as before. So to speak, we still fight each other, hate each other, and we are lonely and isolated, sick and finally we die. If the kingdom of God does not affect any in our lives, what is of use for the kingdom of God to be near? It seems very contradictory between the fact that the kingdom of God is very near and that there is no change at all in the world. How could we overcome this contradiction?
First of all, the kingdom of God, where Jesus said it was near, did not come on that moment when he proclaimed, but might already have come. If we regard God as power for life, the creation event should be considered as the kingdom of God. Only God is a creator, and God could exist only in the moment of creating activity, and then that creating moment could be the same as the kingdom of God. From this point of view, the kingdom of God could mean creation itself.
But this world, in which we experience, is not always creative or life-oriented. What is worse, because of emergence of mankind, more precisely, the fallen mankind caused more violence and destruction in this world. We cannot include these kinds of characteristics of sin in the kingdom of God. And then, is it right to say that this world could be divided between the kingdom of God and of Satan. Since the Bible is telling us that possibility of existence comes only through God, we cannot say the kingdom of Satan could be independent enough to resist against the kingdom of God. We don’t know yet how to differentiate between them.
In this point, we should understand that the kingdom of God is operated in a hidden way. Karl Barth’s statement that God is “Hidden God”(Deus absconditus), and also “Revealed God”(Deus revelatus) is correct. By creation God reveals himself and also He exists by the hidden way of being, so that we can not explain in full through the corridor of our recognition. In this viewpoint we should understand the kingdom of God by dialectic relationship between hiddenness and revelation. In God’s hiddenness the question why the kingdom of God does not leave any clear trace could be answered.
What the kingdom of God is hidden means that the kingdom is eschatological. The kingdom of God is open to the end, and also we could understand it perfectly at the end of time. So many theologians explain that character of the kingdom of God through tension between “already” and “not yet”. The kingdom of God has begun already through creation and Jesus Christ, but in history not to reach yet to the end time, in which the substantial beings of life expose themselves, it is still not yet come. The kingdom of God “already, but not yet” is God’s existential mystery. When we could see such a world, we might be very close to that kingdom.
Lord, help us not to lose eschatological hope for the kingdom of God. Amen!
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