Implications of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God for Social Transformation

1. Introduction

Jesus Christ the ‘social activist’ sometimes gets unnoticed due to popularity of divine attributes. But a glance at his life and teachings will help us realise that Jesus was a radical social activist who fought for justice and confronted the existing social structures! Necessarily the life and teachings of Jesus was centred around the Kingdom of God.

2. The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God/ Heaven is the central theme of the public proclamation of Jesus. The summary verse in Mark 1: 15 says “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” To repent includes reorienting faith and hope and also includes to shift loyalties away from the then prevalent structure. After repentance

The Kingdom of God is translated from Greek hē basileia tou theou, and is found mainly in the New Testament books of Mark, Luke, and Acts. The variant preferred by Matthew, ‘the Kingdom of Heaven,’ (Gk hē basileia ton ouranon), corresponds to the Hebrew malkût šāmayim or Aram malǩtā˒ dišmayā˒. The Hebrew word malkuth means the “reign’ or “kingly rule” or “kingship”. The Greek word Baseleia similarly may be translated as ‘reign’. Thus, the Kingdom of God implies the “reign of God” and may not mean ‘spatial, territorial, political, or national’.¹

2.1 Old Testament

Although not explicitly found in the Old Testament, the concept of divine kingship is prevalent (Psalms10:16; 22:18, Exodus 15:18). Conspicuously, Kingdom of Yahweh appears in I Chr. 28:5. Significantly, the King of Israel /Judah is often portrayed as behaving as the vicegerent or vassal of the divine king. This implies that the king is supposed to be the ideal human king! Ps 146: 5-10 goes in detail to describe that the ideal human king is supposed to defend the cause of widows, orphans and uphold the rights of the oppressed. On behalf of God, they are the guardians of justice and righteousness.² In fact the very establishment of Israel is linked to a liberation of the oppressed slaves in Egypt through God’s servant Moses.

Nevertheless, Bible also laments that neither the kings of united Kingdom of Israel nor the subsequent divided kingdoms (Israel/ Judah) were able to uphold the justice and righteousness for the poor and the oppressed. Much of the prophetic literature mince no words in expressing divine displeasure over the state of affairs. Significantly, the protest against injustice started from David itself when Prophet Nathan confronts David over him shedding innocent blood. Subsequently, Prophet Ahijah was seen instigating rebellion against King Solomon when Israel was at its zenith (I Kings 11). The opulence of Solomon was seen as an indication of the ditching of liberative trajectory of Moses in favour of a royal trajectory.³ The prophets believed in delegitimising the royal consciousness and uphold the liberative aspects of God.

2.2 Jesus and Kingdom of God

Jesus was necessarily involved in teaching about the Kingdom of God. The word didaskalos (one who teaches) is often used in referring to Jesus. The word ‘teacher’ is used 42 times in the Gospels.

He chose the path of decisive solidarity with the marginal people and the accompanying vulnerability required by that solidarity. Thus, he was the ideal Davidic King: One who effects the reign of God on earth. He was very much involved in criticising the structure to dismantle the royal consciousness of the dominant culture.⁴

3. Social Setting during the time of Jesus

Roman Empire was a harsh reality the populace of Palestine endured during the first century CE. In the imperial system the essential application of power was to benefit elite and their retainers by the further acquisition of land and its products. “The essential manifestation of this power was in the periodic extortion exacted for Roman protection in a taxation system for the benefit of elites.” Roman political control was founded on fear; its function was to provide protection- occasionally genuine but more usually spurious protection from itself- in return for taxes and services. The Roman Empire functioned as both enterprise and power syndicate. As enterprise syndicate, it provided real services for elites and their retainers, such as land acquisition, slaves taxes for elites and ingroup clients. As power syndicate the empire’s elites sought merely to control without providing any service to its commoners.

The low-status person was to receive protection from threats while the high-status persons received loyalty, products and services. This was the case starting from the Romans to the local largeholders of land. Peasants were tenants in the land they previously held. They had to heavily rely on the landholders. The land owner was only supposed to pay the tenants as per the agreement and anything more was considered as ‘favour’. The plight of the peasants was in sharp contrast to the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire. Even some largeholders fell before the tactics of the Israelite elites. These disappropriated largeholders became social bandits.⁵

4. Kingdom of God and Social Transformation

Kingdom of God was the development of an alternate consciousness to the one presently offered by the imperial forces. If the coming of a theocracy to Israel was to make sense, it should be able to solve the local problems. Thus, it had key elements that stood in contrast to the one offered by the Empire. They were

4.1 Love and Compassion

Love is the central tenet of Kingdom of God. It is God’s utmost love towards the creation that enabled the formulation of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is unique that the ultimate King comes in search of the subjects. God doesn’t leave the subjects to destruction but out of love initiates the redemption. Jesus teaches with many parables on how gracious and accepting God is. Against the prevailing socio-religious structure that lacks compassion on the ‘troublemakers’ and the ‘sinners’, the Kingdom of God initiates reconciliation with the outlaws.

The love is epitomised on the cross when God emptied the Self as the Great Shepherd to lay down one’s life for the sheep. As against the Empire that employs the ‘expendables’ at the frontline of a battle, Jesus puts himself at the forefront and sacrifices his life.

Love is also expected to be the virtue of every person in the Kingdom of God. The double commandment to love the Lord God with one’s whole being and the neighbour as oneself assumes special significance. Jesus sums it up as the greatest of all commands and where all the law and the prophets are centred upon (Matt 22:37–40). This love assumes paramount importance in one’s life in the Kingdom of God. Jesus teaches categorically that love towards God in the Kingdom of God has to be always accompanied by love towards fellow human beings. This was substantiated by the parable of the Good Samaritan where the Priest and the Levite were probably one who was pious but failed to employ the love that generates compassion to a neighbour.

Jesus goes a step further when he demands love towards one’s enemies. The command to love the enemies is grounded ultimately in the patience and forgiveness of God and his compassion. Jesus reasons in Matthew 5:45 that God guarantees to everyone without exception the constant provision of elementary essentials for life prior to their human self- actualisation into good or evil. The extreme case of love towards the enemies becomes the model for every social relationship. “Consequently, a division into personal, social, vocational or political enmity is rejected, for love imitates God who, everywhere, constantly creates new possibilities for life.”⁶

Palestine was inhabited by numerous religious and ethnic communities. These communities were involved in frequent battles for supremacy in the past. But the only thing that bound them together during the time of Jesus was that they were under the Roman Empire. Still there was a relative unease between them. In such a context, love becomes paramount importance to attain reconciliation among the populace. Jesus commanded to love one another especially to even those who harm us was a major shift away from the then prevailing hostile conditions. This was an effective catalyst for communal harmony.

4.2 Justice and Righteousness

“But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” Jesus says in Matt 6:33 emphasising the importance of righteousness in the life of the people of God.

Righteousness is the translation of Hebrew root ṣdq or the Greek dikaioun. Righteousness may mean (1) a quality or state of being righteous, upright, in the right, or just; or (2) that which is in conformity with a standard or in a state of acceptability to God.

God as a righteous God is often echoed throughout the Bible. God prefers justice but is also merciful. God speaks what is right (ṣedeq) and declares what is just (Isa 45:19). God works vindication (ṣĕdāqôt) and justice (mišpāṭim) for all who are oppressed. Jesus was critical of unjust social structures. He attacked the very circumstances which led to economic disadvantage, political domination and cultural, religious, ideological regimentation. This is demonstrated by his attack on the temple as the economic, political and religious centre of Palestinian society (Mk. 11:15-19, Jn. 2:13-16). He expressed his contempt for religious systems that legitimised abandoning the aged [like through Corban (Mark 7:11)] and oppressing the hapless. Jesus was critical of the neglect of weightier matter of law-justice, faithfulness and mercy (Matt 23:23).⁷

On the one hand God loves justice and so prefers a just society, but on the other hand the Bible has taught us that no one can be completely guiltless. Thus, it involves God’s saving activity and the people ought to live in this knowledge. Jesus thus was critical of self- righteousness in the Kingdom of God. Jesus confronts the Pharisees in Luke 16:13 “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of human beings, but God knows your hearts, because what is exalted among humans is an abomination in the sight of God.” Jesus through various sayings in fact highlighted that self-righteousness led to various forms of injustice.

Many in the attempt to attain ‘righteousness’ ignored the essence of various commands. The Kingdom of God favours a society to uphold justice. Every person is urged to counter the dehumanising structures that keep anyone in bondage. The populace is exhorted to make the society a hub of justice. It is where the people realise and endorse the liberative aspects of God rather than blindly approve the royal trajectory those at the top of the hierarchy wishes to attain. This necessarily involves criticising the existing power and social structures to help the people achieve conscientisation. That is when the carefully honed images of the imperial pride and piety is exposed to be fake in stark contrast to the reality of suppression of the peasants and the poor under the Roman stratification and taxation. It involves a confrontation of Roman propaganda choirs who seek to internalise imperial history, ethic, and psychology. Thus, the Kingdom of God is a counter culture that thrusts on love and righteousness.⁸

So, Jesus emphasised on righteousness of God. This not only warrants everyone to ensure justice in the society but also recognise that the righteousness is attained through God. The Kingdom of God reveals a love which goes beyond justice and loves the unrighteous, the unjust and the enemy If the kingdom is God’s reign that breaks in by divine action, then God’s righteousness here would be a vindicating, saving work of God. Jesus urged his followers to greater righteousness (Matt 5:20) and spoke of it in terms of piety (Matt 6:1). He reserved praise for sinners who threw themselves on God’s mercy; such are vindicated (Luke 18:14).⁹

4.3 Preferential Option for the Poor

At the beginning of his public life, in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus summarises his primary concern when he applies to himself the words which he has read from the Book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk. 4:18f). The words for poor designate persons and groups lacking (totally or in some degree) the basic necessities of life: food, drink, clothing, shelter, health, land/employment, freedom, dignity and honour, etc. Poverty may be concretely indicated by these specific manifestations (hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, unemployed, despised). Jesus was therefore putting himself on the side of the poor, prisoners and the blind and was not an accomplice of the rich, the mighty and the religious or ideological leaders. B. J. Malina in her Interpreting the Bible with Anthropology: The Case of the Poor and the Rich contends that from anthropology that in biblical cultures economics, politics, and religion commonly are embedded in kinship institutions, with the result that ‘wealthy’, ‘sonless’ women whose husbands have died are referred to as “poor widows. Poverty in such contexts refers to “the inadequacy of life without honour, with consequent social and personal inability to participate in the activities of the community, the inability to maintain self-respect as defined by community social standards.”¹⁰

Thus, Jesus chose to identify with the othered community. He championed the cause of the marginalised when the bourgeoise chose to look askance. He transcended ‘ethical’ and ‘moral’ barriers when he touched and engaged with the social outclasses like lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, sexual minorities and gentiles. He denounced the self- righteousness of those who questioned his association with the marginalised. He healed their sick and fed them when the elites and nobles ignored their plight. By these actions Jesus was preaching a Kingdom of God with preferential treatment for the marginalised.

He also advocated his followers to do so. He promotes almsgiving (Mt. 6:1–4) and fiercely denounces oppression (Mt. 23:1–36). He sets forth this good works for the poor, weak, and oppressed as the only criterion for the final judgment (Mt. 25). Thus, the Kingdom of God envisages a new reality that underlines the cause of the disregarded. It is a Kingdom that considers the inherent values of every human being. It encourages the subjects to take utmost care of the oppressed and the downtrodden. As against the survival of the fittest, the Kingdom of God advocates compassion for the weakest. They are no longer an object to be exploited or a burden to be disposed-off. Instead they are rightful stakeholders of the Kingdom of God. The new community is thus exhorted to take care of the underprivileged among them.

4.4 Community with Equality

The Community in the Kingdom of God is one that abhors the social stratification employed by the Romans. He condemned the warped mind of James and John to be at his either sides and suggested service as the essential criteria to be a leader. He later washed the feet of the disciples, thus confronting the common notion of ‘service’ as the menial job of the subaltern.

Thus, the greatest of the kingdom of God were those who were the subalterns. This reversal of fortunes is intended to ensure equality among the new community. Thus, the Kingdom of God is a community where none is despised: where neither the ‘clean-unclean’ notion of the Pharisees (Mt. 15) nor the class stratification of the Roman Empire hold ground.

Probably the richest metaphor for the kingdom of God is that of the wedding feast (Mt. 22:1- 10) or banquet (Lk.14:15-24). A reversal of the social order is visible when the first shall be last and the last first (Lk.13:29). It is the essence of a feast that everyone has enough to eat and drink. It is important at a feast that there is room for everyone and nobody is excluded.

The parables of the wedding feast, respectively of the banquet, can serve to ground all of those dialogues, and parables of Jesus, concerning the Kingdom of God. Jesus seeing the faith of the centurion exclaims “many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 8:11).

Thus, exclusivism holds no place in the kingdom of God. The Community is diverse and constitutes people of different groups and traditions. The community embraces an egalitarian society where everyone is respected. In an era when there is increased inclination to unification of language, culture and tradition, the Kingdom of God stands out as one that celebrates diversity.

5. Conclusion

The teachings of Jesus about the Kingdom of God were intended to achieve a community that is developed on love, compassion, justice and righteousness. The ministry and teaching of Jesus opposed the politics of oppression with the politics of justice and compassion, resisted the economics of affluence with the preferential treatment of the oppressed and celebrated diversity of human culture. This serves as a beacon of social transformation in the world.

Foot Notes

1. Dennis C. Duling, “Kingdom of God”, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 4932-59
2. Rev. Dr Koshy P. Varughese, The Life and Faith of the People of God New Testament, (Thiruvalla, CSS, 2019) 59
3. Walter Brueggemann, Trajectories in the Old Testament Literature and the Sociology of Ancient Israel, Journal of Biblical Literature, 98/2 (Jun 1979): 161- 185
4. Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (New York: Fortress, 1978), 80-89
5. Bruce J. Malina, The Social Gospel of Jesus (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001) 40-57
6. William Klassen, “Love in the New Testament”, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 5381-95
7. George Eldom, The Gospel of the Kingdom of God (Michigan: Paternoster Press, 1959), 1-45.
8. Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man (New York, Orbis Books, 1988) 1-88
9. John Reumann, “Righteousness in New Testament”, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 7522-36
10. Thomas D. Hanks, “Poor”, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 7046-58

Bibliography

• Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. New York: Fortress, 1978.
• Brueggemann, Walter. “Trajectories in the Old Testament Literature and the Sociology of Ancient Israel.” Journal of Biblical Literature 98, no. 2 (June 1979): 161- 185.
• Duling, Dennis C. “Kingdom of God.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
• Eldom, George. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Michigan: Paternoster Press, 1959.
• Hanks, Thomas D. “Poor.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 7046-58. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
• Klassen, William. “Love in the New Testament.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 5381-91. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
• Malina, Bruce J. The Social Gospel of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.
• Myers, Ched. Binding the Strong Man. New York: Orbis Books, 1988.
• Reumann, John. “Righteousness in New Testament.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 7522-36. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
• Varughese, Rev. Dr Koshy P. The Life and Faith of the People of God New Testament. Thiruvalla: CSS, 2019.

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