"Jesus of Nazareth" Chapter Three

In this chapter Pope Benedict explores the frequent mention of "The Kingdom of God" in the preaching and teachings of Jesus. As he states on p. 47 the phrase "Kingdom of God" occurs 122 times in the New Testament, concentrated mostly in three Synoptic Gospels (those being the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke that most closely focus on the episodes during Christ's ministry.) He explores whether the Kingdom of God refers to the future heavenly kingdom (one that may come rapidly in apocalyptic cataclysm or a long way off), or the Kingdom of God that an individual finds upon dying, or the Kingdom of God that is the body of the faithful who are alive at a given time, or if the Kingdom of God is ushered in and therefore present here and now in Jesus Christ as Messiah and Son of God. Benedict cautions against making an "arbitrary claim" and trying to "bend everything else until it fits," especially when hypothesizing about comments where Jesus is "enigmatic" or speaking in a "mysteriously coded" way (p. 59.) As it is the basic tenet of the Christian faith that Jesus Christ is the means by which the Kingdom of God is here, Benedict writes "it is not simply in Jesus' physical presence that the 'Kingdom' is located; rather, it is in his action, accomplished in the Holy Spirit. In this sense, it is in and through him that the Kingdom of God becomes present here and now; that is 'drawing near' "(p. 60.) In a way, this is a restatement of Benedict's most eloquent summary of what Jesus Christ has done for humankind: "What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually...."

So I do not think that Jesus is quite as enigmatic and mysterious in his sayings as some find him to be. For example, Benedict (and others) have found Jesus to be enigmatic when he says "the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force" (Matthew 11:12) (p. 59.) I'd argue that it's not that mysterious if you couple it with what Benedict said, quoted above, that Jesus "brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually..." Jesus is observing that the personage of God, in the form of the faithful and the non-believers, has indeed "suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force." Those who do not heed and discern God's true will often perform literally and symbolic violence upon the Kingdom of God as it exists among the faithful on earth. Violence is a forceful and harmful impatience. Jesus is not referring to religious wars or conflicting faiths because remember, when he said this he was only preaching to and trying to convert those of the Jewish faith. He viewed the profanities and lack of charity being exercised by many who claimed to be of the highest faith to be a form of violence. When reading the scriptures, I agree with Benedict that one must not "bend everything until it fits." To avoid this, one must constantly touch base with where Jesus was and for whose benefit he was speaking, and in the conflict of the times, not the future. Jesus focused like a laser beam on his mission to preach to and convert the Jews, as witnessed by his momentary hesitation to miraculously cure the daughter of the Samaritan woman. So Jesus viewed, for example, the rejection and killing of John the Baptist as violence on the Kingdom of God, because John was the one warning that excesses and perversions of the Law needed to be repented. Jesus was referring more to the violence as being the harm done to the faithful by the refusal to discern and obey the true will of God.

Another reason that Jesus referred to the Kingdom of God so often is that just as he constantly reminded his followers that what Jesus wrought was from God the Father, he never wanted people to forget that all power and goodness comes from God. Jesus did not want people to worship him in his bodily form as he lived. He constantly reminded people that he was speaking for God, and that he was bringing God to them in his form, but so that they might know and comprehend better God's purpose and will, not to represent God in his entirety on earth. This is the source of one of the biggest misunderstandings among faiths; how Christians can believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and bring the "unveiled God," yet not be removing the God from the heavens and placing him in a human body. I'll write more about this in another post. But the frequent mentions of the Kingdom of God and God the Father are Jesus' way to constantly point his followers to the One God that all children of Abraham believe in.