‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
The Kingdom of heaven arrived because the king had come at last. Jesus was the one who received the throne of his father David and a kingdom without end (see Luke 1:33). This was a fulfillment of what God spoke through the prophet Daniel, when he told Nebuchadnezzar that "the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" represented the fact that "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people" (see Daniel 2:31-45). Considering that the dream interpreted by Daniel included the rise and fall of many earthly kingdoms one might have expected the Kingdom of heaven to triumph through means of military might. But from the commission of Jesus to his disciples we learn that it was actually to spread in a different way than any earthly kingdom.
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.
The opponents of the Kingdom of heaven were not earthly kingdoms. There was no such parity. The struggle was not against flesh and blood (see Ephesians 6:12), but rather against the reign of the powers of darkness, of which sickness, death, and demonic possessions were symptomatic. Could a kingdom actually grow in this way without fighting against the majority of humanity that was still hostile to it, enthralled by the dark powers? Could a new and spiritual Israel thrive while a corrupt empire like Rome seemed to possess all power from a human perspective? It would perhaps seem that one would need to target Rome to make space for the Kingdom of heaven. But we learn from the parables of Jesus that the Kingdom does not spread in that way. Rather, it grows in a hidden, immeasurable way, under the surface and behind the scenes. It can grow even alongside evil. It has more to do with the presence of the leaven of the Gospel, the salt and light of disciples, than on power of strategy. Disciples make a different kind of power and the authority present because they bring the presence of the king himself. And wherever he is present the Kingdom grows. He is, after all, no ordinary king, but the one whom Revelation calls "King of kings and Lord of lords" (see Revelation 19:16).
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
The promises of the Gospel are precious beyond all price. After all, "what can a man give in return for his soul?" (see Mark 8:37). Yes, we were purchased at a price (see First Corinthians 6:20), but a price we can never repay. But though we cannot repay it we must respond. We must "glorify God in your body" (ibid). Can we then see how applying any kind of monetary value to spreading the Gospel could potentially render the whole message unintelligible, as though it were merely something that could be acquired through our efforts? The point was not to prevent evangelists from making a living through the Gospel, since, according to Paul, "the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel" (see First Corinthians 9:7-14) and since, as Jesus said, the "laborer deserves his keep". The point was that such support must never be seen as the purchase price for the Gospel itself. Cost must never become an obstacle for anyone who needs to hear the Good News. We must instead join the Spirit and the Bride in Revelation and say: "let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (see Revelation 22:17).
The more I called them,
the farther they went from me,
Sacrificing to the Baals
and burning incense to idols.
We may not always find a welcome response to the message of the Gospel. Sometimes indeed it appears to have the opposite effect. Yet we must nevertheless imitate the compassionate heart of God who is not dissuaded by disinterest or even disobedience. His response to the idolatry of his people was to love them still more:
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
who took them in my arms;
I drew them with human cords,
with bands of love;
I fostered them like one
who raises an infant to his cheeks;
Yet, though I stooped to feed my child,
they did not know that I was their healer.
So let us honor the one who is "God and not man, the Holy One present among you". He does not desire the flames to consume us, though that remains a live option given our free will. He wants to use us to spread the Kingdom in which the water of life, that can extinguish those flames forever, is freely available for all who desire it.
Come To The Water / I Will Run To You - Matt Maher
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