The Gospel of the Kingdom [1]
p>This article will look at what Jesus taught about
the Kingdom of God
through His healing miracles. In later articles we will look at Jesus’ other
teachings about the Kingdom.
Jesus Himself specifically said that some of His miracles were to teach about the Kingdom of God. Matthew tells the story of how a man who was demon-possessed, blind and mute was brought to Jesus “and Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see” (Matthew 12:22). When the Pharisees heard this they said " It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons." Jesus then said:
" Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (verses 25-28). (Luke recorded it this way: “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” Luke 11:20).
His last words quoted above show us that Jesus’ healing miracles were evidence that “the kingdom of God has come upon you”.
Elsewhere in the Gospels we notice that teaching about the Kingdom of God went hand–in-hand with healing. For example:
- Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. (Matthew 4:23)
- Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. (Matthew 9:35)
- When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Luke 9:1-2. See also Matthew 10:1-7)
- The crowds … followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. (Luke 9:11)
- When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' (Luke 10:8-9)
When John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to ask if He was “the one who was to come” Jesus sent them back to John with this message: “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The 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” (Matthew 11:2-6). His healing miracles and His preaching of the good news combined to provide irrefutable evidence that He was indeed the one John was expecting.
In later articles we will look at the various things Jesus taught about the Kingdom, but in this article I want to consider what Jesus meant when He said “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”. There are two questions we need to ask about this:
1. What did Jesus mean when He said “the Kingdom of God has come upon you” (or “to you”)?
2. How did Jesus healing miracles demonstrate that “the Kingdom of God has come”?
1. The coming of the King and the coming of the Kingdom
Jesus was born to be King. The angel who announced His birth to Mary said: “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:32-33). “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, " Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." (Matthew 2:1-2). At His trial before Pilate the governor asked him, " Are you the king of the Jews?" " Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. (Matthew 27:11).
The Greek word translated “kingdom” in English is basileia which is primarily an abstract noun, meaning " sovereignty, royal power, dominion," and then secondarily a concrete noun, meaning the territory or people over whom a king rules. In other words, the Kingdom of God is primarily the sphere of God's rule, or where His rule is acknowledged, rather than a geographical territory. From the Gospels we discover that the Kingdom of God was present in the person, teaching and works of Jesus. So, when Jesus said “the Kingdom of God has come upon you” or “the Kingdom of God is among you”, He was explaining that wherever He is present and where His authority is acknowledged the Kingdom of God is present.
However, there were other occasions when Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is
still future, at least in the sense of a fuller reality. We’ll come back to those later.
2. The King’s authority
On one occasion, when Jesus healed a paralysed man he said “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, " I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home” (Mark 2:10-11). In other words, the healing of the man was evidence that Jesus had authority to forgive sins. The statement had just been made that only God has this authority (verse 7), so this miracle was a clear and intentional demonstration that Jesus was acting with God’s authority.
Mark uses an interesting expression when he tells the story about a deaf mute who was healed by Jesus. “There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.” (Mark 7:32). It is significant that Mark uses the expression “could hardly talk” because this expression occurs only once in the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by the disciples, and that one time is in Isaiah 35:6. Isaiah is describing the wonders of the Kingdom of God and the age to come and says “the mute tongue will shout for joy”. This is exactly the expression which Mark uses, telling us that with the coming of Jesus the Kingdom-age had begun[i].
The connection between sin and suffering
If Jesus healed someone in order to show He had “authority to forgive sins”, does this suggest that disease is the result of sin? Many of the Jews in Jesus’ time believed that such a link existed, and that if someone was sick it was evidence that they had sinned. Good health, on the other hand, was considered to be evidence of a godly life.
In John 9:1-3 we read about a time when Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, " Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" " Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, " but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”.
This answer by Jesus makes it clear that disabilities such as blindness are not a punishment for sin, although this was the popular Jewish belief at the time. However, it is equally clear that a connection exists between sin and suffering of all kinds, including disease. In the verses we looked at in the beginning of this article (Matthew 12) we saw that Jesus was speaking about two “kingdoms”:
- the kingdom of Satan
- the Kingdom of God.
Disease (described here as being possessed by demons) belongs to the kingdom of Satan. When Jesus healed diseases this was a direct attack on the Kingdom of Satan. In a similar way, when Jesus sent out His 72 disciples He said “Heal the sick and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ (Luke 10:9). The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (verse 18). Healing the sick (verse 9) and casting out demons (verse 18) were apparently related things, if not the same, and they often go hand in hand. Jesus then said to them “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (verse 19). He clearly meant that healing the sick (or casting out demons) was a direct attack on the kingdom of Satan.
These verses tell us that disease belongs to “the kingdom of Satan” and that healing is part of the Kingdom of God. Disease came into the world as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin. People suffer from diseases as a result of the sinful condition of the world, not as a direct punishment of their own sins. So, when Jesus healed diseases He was demonstrating that His work was to change the sinful condition of the world: to overcome sin and all its consequences; to put an end to what He called ‘the kingdom of Satan”. This work began when Jesus came into the world, and the work of overthrowing Satan’s kingdom and establishing God’s Kingdom therefore began with the presence of the King in the earth.
Matthew makes an interesting reference to an Old Testament prophet when recording how Jesus healed people.
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
" He took up our infirmities
and carried our diseases."
(Matthew 8: 16-17 quoting Isaiah 53:4 which says “he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows).
We usually think of Jesus’ sufferings described in Isaiah 53 as being for our sins and this is suggested in Isaiah 53:11 (“my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities [sins]”.) However, Matthew’s use of this verse shows that Jesus’ work is to remove sin and its effects (including disease and suffering) and that this work had already begun, even before the cross.
The work of establishing God’s Kingdom has begun, although it is not yet completed. So, we can say that the Kingdom of God has “come unto you” but is not yet fully a reality. That is why He taught us to pray “Your Kingdom come”, so that we pray that the work He began will be completed.
ENDNOTES:
[i] Another time, Jesus was reading from the Scriptures in a synagogue. Luke said:
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place [Isaiah 61:1-2] where it is written:
" The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, " Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:17-19)
“Recovery of sight for the blind” was just one type of miraculous healing which Jesus did. When Jesus gave sight to the blind it was evidence that this Isaiah Scripture was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus and the Kingdom-age had dawned.
