Following Jesus into the Kingdom

Following Jesus into the Kingdom of God

In Chapter 4 of his Gospel, Matthew is setting the foundations of Jesus’ message and purpose.

He begins by placing Jesus life clearly in the context of prophesy. Jesus is the fulfilment of their dreams for the future. As a nation they have been waiting for God to send them a deliverer. They have seen this as a nationalistic dream, and while Jesus is not exactly what they expected, Matthew repeatedly tells them with quotations from their scriptures, that he is the one. In this case Jesus is simply moving house, but Matthew explains it as a fulfilment of prophesy.

In verse 17 we have a very concise summery of Jesus message. It is about the Kingdom of God. While Jesus might not have been what they expected, this message is right to the point. It takes them back to the foundation of their nation. They were to be a theocracy. They were to be ruled by God. That has enormous nation and political implication for them and for us. Like us they had chosen to follow a different national path. We say we must keep our faith and our politics quite separate. Jesus is calling us to base our lives, our politics and our nation on the values and qualities of God. So he begins by calling for repentance. He is calling us to realign our whole lives to the will of God. That’s big!

Then Matthew tells the story of Jesus calling disciples. This is not just about Peter, Andrew, James and John. This is about all of us. For the kingdom to become a reality there will need to be people who are radically changed in themselves (repentants). How is that going to happen? Only by spending a lot of time with Jesus; learning, imitating, following. They also need to be focussed on calling disciples, so that the process of growth of God’s Kingdom can continue.

Finally Matthew wants us to know that Jesus purpose is all about deliverance. Its about setting people free from whatever it is that enslaves them; good news for slaves to materialism, healing for those who are captive to disease. Jesus teaching is full of metaphors. He spoke in parables and they were all about the qualities of the Kingdom of God. His actions were metaphoric as well. Jesus healing disease is subtly about forgiveness and power over the evil that enslaves us. Healing is about salvation; making people whole, able to repent and become disciples; who follow Jesus into the Kingdom of God.

Adrian.