2024/08/26

158. The Kingdom of God

The Apostle Paul taught the Gentiles by saying, "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24), so that they might become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ through the gospel. He told them, "[A]ddressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart" (Ephesians 5:19), and encouraged them to do so to support that life. This appeal is also found in the letters to the Corinthians and Colossians (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:26; Colossians 3:16). This way of instilling in the Gentiles the mentality of the Old Covenant people still waiting for the Saviour to come was effective in imprinting the words of the prophecy in their memory and in making them believe that Jesus Christ was the prophesied Messiah. Paul, who himself had made it a habit and was convinced that he had been called by Jesus, did not hesitate to do so. 

On the other hand, Jesus came down from heaven not only to fulfil the prophecies of the Old Covenant but also to do the will of the Father (cf. John 6:38). That was to settle the events that took place in the Garden of Eden long before the prophets appeared. God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Genesis 3:22), and then He "drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life" (3:24). Since then, God had been waiting for a time of eternity. As Jesus said, "For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40), that was not about resurrecting people from the dead. 

Jesus had a plan for that. That was to fulfil his own words when he said, "[H]e who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (6:54). These words were fulfilled at Jesus' last supper as follows: "Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'" (Matthew 26:26-28). At that time, Jesus foretold, "I will never drink anything made from the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes" (Luke 22:18). This announcement was fulfilled when Jesus received the sour wine on the cross (cf. John 19:28-30). So, the Kingdom of God has already come. 

The precondition for the Kingdom of God that Jesus had proclaimed to become visible to the world was satisfied at the end of the fourth century, with the establishment of the New Testament and Christianity becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire. However, the Church has kept Paul's exhortation "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart" and has developed it as the framework of the Mass liturgy. The witnesses of Jesus' resurrection, those who had been with him, had received his direct teaching and had a worldview of Jesus Christ, died long ago, and there was no way of knowing their tacit knowledge. At that time, they did not think of the Book of Revelation, built into the New Testament that was then established. 

The habit of repeatedly imprinting the sentiments of the Old Testament people waiting for the Saviour into the memory of Christians unconsciously implants in their memory the feeling that Christ's salvation is also a future event. It infects them with Paul's intense longing: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12). It decisively contradicts the thought of Jesus, who, at instituting the Eucharist, sowed the seed of making his own time present for the future liturgy of the Mass by his words, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). 

Maria K. M.