Who is Jesus? The Kingdom-bringer
THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD’S KINGDOM IN THE GOSPEL OF MARK
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus comes on the scene with a proclamation. This proclamation is “the gospel of God” (1:14). The content of this gospel - or good news - is that the wait is over, the kingdom of God is here! It is “at hand,” and has been brought near in the person of Jesus Christ (1:15). He’s come to announce the good news that God’s kingdom has arrived. He’s come to achieve the fullness of the salvation promised in God’s coming kingdom. This kingdom story is the gospel story that was the very center of the story of Jesus. It’s his “theme song,” the main melody of his life that everything else is based upon. It’s the best and greatest story ever told that God was writing in and through him. It’s the story he’s called us into.
WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
Some of you may have asked before, “But what is the kingdom of God anyway?” This is an oft-debated phrase in biblical studies and you could surely find a wide range of responses. We’re told in scripture that we should “seek first the kingdom,” (Mt 6:33) and you might have heard others refer to certain types of work as “kingdom-work,” or refer to themselves as “kingdom-minded.” You may be familiar with the debate regarding whether the kingdom has already come or whether or not its arrival is solely reserved for the future. You might consider the kingdom in a number of different ways. Is it a heavenly reality with little to no earthly bearing? A cultural project we’re called to enact and usher in? Some kind of socialist, collectivist utopia? The military defeat and conquest of particular nations and peoples that have opposed God’s work in the world? Or just pious talk in a world so full of sin, suffering, and brokenness that it’s hard to believe God is reigning in any real, meaningful sense.
The kingdom of God is often misconstrued. Yet, it was at the very heart of the story of Jesus. Who he is and what he came to do are bound up in the good news of the kingdom of God. So it’s critical we understand what this means. So let’s give it some definition:
Narrowly-defined: The kingdom of God is God’s reign. God’s reign over God’s people in God’s place.
Broadly-defined: In light of the situation in which God’s people found themselves – mankind’s sinful rebellion against God in general and Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness to God in particular – the coming of God’s kingdom would mean the coming of God’s redemptive reign. That is, the dawning of the age of salvation. That time in which every Old Testament (OT) promise of God’s salvation would be answered.
What OT hopes were associated with the coming of the kingdom of God? Author and pastor, Jeremy Treat, offers us 3 summary categories that we’ll spend some time unpacking. According to Treat, there were 3 major hopes of the OT that were associated with the coming of God’s kingdom: victory over evil, forgiveness of sins, and a new exodus.
1. Victory over Evil – Victory over the enemies of God and the enemies of his people. This meant the defeat of foreign oppressors, but even more than that, it meant the dethroning of Satan, “the ruler of this world” (Jn 12:31).
2. Forgiveness of Sins – In the OT prophets, the arrival of the kingdom would coincide with the forgiveness of the sins of God’s people and the establishment of the New Covenant. God’s people were in exile because of sin. Exile and foreign oppression were God’s judgment upon their unfaithfulness to him and they were awaiting the time when the judgment would be complete and their sin would be fully atoned. To fully and finally regather his people and reestablish his rule over them, the Lord would need to once and for all deal with their sins so that they’d be remembered no more.
3. A New Exodus – An end to the exile of God’s people (the dispersion into which they were cast after the conquest of the northern and southern kingdoms by Assyria and Babylon and the scattering of God’s people all around the Mediterranean world). Though the Jews came back from exile in the 400’s BC, they hadn’t really “come back” from exile. They were still ruled over by foreign oppressors. God had not been speaking through prophets for some time. And so on.
God’s rule over God’s people happens in God’s place. So, the Jews hoped to be regathered into the promised land with the land taken back from foreign oppressors and restored to them. The OT prophets hope that “God as king might deliver his people again through a new exodus, resulting not only in a new land but in a new heavens and new earth (Is 52:11-12, 65:17)” (Treat). The prophets spoke of this new exodus in such a way that it not only indicated a return to the land as the people knew it, but their re-entrance into paradise with God – a land, a people, and a kingdom completely restored.
These are the hopes that would have been stirred up in the hearts of those who heard Jesus’ proclamation. These are the hopes of every human heart - whether they realize it or not. We’re all longing for evil and injustice to be put away, to have peace with our Creator, and to live in a world where everything is as it was meant to be. How does Jesus fulfill these hopes?
HOW DOES GOD ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM IN AND THROUGH JESUS?
The unfolding story of Mark shows us just how Jesus fulfills the hopes of the people of God & ushers in this kingdom. We’ll connect the dots to Treat’s categories, and explain how Mark demonstrates Jesus bringing in the blessings of the kingdom:
1. Victory over Evil – Mk 1:12-13 – The story of Mark begins with Jesus facing off head-to-head with Satan in the wilderness. Satan tempts him for 40 days, but Jesus does not succumb. And at the end of Mark’s story, in his crucifixion Jesus would take a way the legal basis for Satan’s accusations against God’s people “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” as it was nailed to the cross. In this way, God “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Col 2:14-15).
Mk 1:23-27 – Jesus’ public ministry begins with a dramatic synagogue showdown in which he casts a demon out of man! Exorcisms are a regular feature of Jesus’ ministry. So much so that in Mark 3:27, Jesus describes his ministry as the binding of “the strong man” (Satan) and the plundering of his house (performing exorcisms and freeing men and women from his oppression). All throughout the Gospel, he’s battling against the powers of darkness.
Mk 3:14-15, 6:7, 13 – In ch.3 Jesus appoints the 12 apostles as those who will have “authority to cast out demons” (3:15). In 6:7, he sends them out on a mission to preach the gospel and cast out unclean spirits, and 6:13 indicates that on their journey, they successfully cast out many demons. Jesus brings his disciples into the battle against the powers of darkness.
Mk 13:1-31, 14:61-62 – Jesus will judge the opponents of God who refuse to receive him as King. The focus of these passages is that Jesus will judge unbelieving Israel (those opposed to God’s reign through his Messiah) for their rejection of him and vindicate his reign in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. An event prophesied by Jesus during his ministry that he indicated would take place “within the generation” of those who heard his words. The destruction of Jerusalem vindicates Jesus and proves he was not a criminal and blasphemer, but was “the Christ, the Son of the Blessed” who his opponents would see “seated at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mk 14:61-62). This destruction of Jerusalem indicates Jesus’ triumph over all earthly powers and kingdoms. It provides a foreshadowing and picture of what his final triumph over all his enemies will be like.
2. Forgiveness of Sins – The story of Mark begins with John the Baptist calls Israel to prepare for the coming of the kingdom by receiving “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (1:4). Indicating the necessity of forgiveness in order to be reconciled with the coming king.
Mk 2:1-12, 2:13-17 – The King comes in and he forgives sin. In the healing of the paralytic in Mk 2, Jesus demonstrates that as the divine and authoritative Son, he can forgive sin. As the Redeemer, anticipating his own atoning work on the cross, Jesus forgives sin, and in the next scene, welcomes repentant sinners who draw near to him (2:16-17). The story of Jesus is one of receiving sinners into fellowship with himself.
Mk 10:45, 14:24 – Mark makes clear to us that the means of forgiveness is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. That is, Jesus came to deliver God’s people from their sins via his sacrificial death upon the cross. He himself describes this death as “a ransom for many” (10:45) – paying the price to free the guilty from their sentence by taking that sentence upon himself. And in this ransom-death, he’d establish the New Covenant in his blood (Mk 14:24). Shedding his blood to seal the covenant-promise of God to take away the sins of his people and remember them no more.
3. New Exodus – The story of Mark begins with Jesus’ ministry being presented as the beginning of a new exodus. First, Mk 1:2-3 quotes from Is 40:3, a chapter which begins with the words, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is ended” (Is 40:1-2). In other words, Is 40 begins with the statement that God would comfort his people and bring an end to their exile. This is the backdrop for the ministry of John the Baptist, who came to prepare the way for the Lord who’d come in to bring about this exodus. Second, once Jesus comes into the story, he’s presented as God’s Son who, like Israel, passes through the water and is tempted in the desert for a period of 40 days. His experience is an exodus experience. Only, he does not fail where Israel failed in the wilderness. This indicates that Jesus will surely make it into the promised land and bring along with him all those who are his.
Mk 3:13-19 - Throughout the Gospel, we see Jesus regathering and restoring God’s people. In Mk 3:13-19, he appoints 12 apostles who represent the restored 12 tribes of Israel and the fullness of the people of God now reconstituted by Jesus. As the gospel advances, more and more of the dispersed exiles will be regathered by Jesus. This will include not only the scattered Jewish people, but the nations as well.
Mk 1:8, 29-34, 5:41-42, 16:1-8 - The coming of Jesus represents the in-breaking of a new creation as well. He is the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit (1:8) – the One who is the Giver and Sustainer of life, the agent of the new birth, he who would remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. All throughout Mark, Jesus is reversing the effects of the fallen old creation through his miracles of healing the sick (beginning in 1:29-34) – casting out fevers, giving sight to the blind, causing the deaf to hear, the paralyzed to walk, the chronically sick & diseased to be made whole, and even raising the dead (5:41-42)! And all of this is brought to an apex as Jesus ushers in the new creation through his own resurrection from the dead (16:1-8) – never to die again. In Mark, the kingdom has arrived in Jesus and the effects of the fall are being reversed and the vestiges of the old order are being done away with. He has the power to make all things new, and one day, when his kingdom-reign has been fully realized, all the former things will have passed away and every trace of sin, sickness and suffering will be no more (Rev 21:4-5).
Mark demonstrates that the kingdom entered in through the life and ministry of Jesus, was established in his death upon the cross, and is expressed in his resurrection from the dead and ascension to the right hand of God.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT JESUS IS THE KINGDOM-BRINGER?
Much more could be said, but it’s wonderfully clear: The story of Mark is the story of Jesus, the Kingdom-bringer. And based upon all that it means for the kingdom to come, to say he is the Kingdom-bringer is nothing short of saying he is the Savior. The Redeemer. That in and through him, God is writing the story of our great salvation. The best story ever told, better than all the rest.
The best story because it is the story in which our deepest longings are fulfilled and our greatest needs are met. A story in which the great conflict of our sin before God is resolved. In which the ancient antagonist is finally defeated and every wrong is made right. In which all things become what they were meant to be, everything is made new, and we enter into a restored creation in which, to borrow from the hobbit, Samwise Gamgee, “everything sad is untrue” (The Return of the King).
There is no other story like this one. Yet all the good stories with which we are familiar are filled with echoes of this great one. But as it stands, the only good story is God’s story. No other set of promises will prove true like these will. Not the promises of other religions, nor the promises of political systems, nor the promises of science, self-discovery, or a life wholly devoted to our every selfish desire, deriving pleasure and satisfaction as often as we can, however we see fit, because we are the measure of all things - writing our story to our heart’s content as we go. All these stories are rival stories of competing kingdoms. Yet, every story of a kingdom without Jesus the King is a story without the hope of a happy ending.
In his grace, Jesus has called us, like those Galilean fishermen, into this better story (Mk 1:16-20). As we locate our story in his, would the center of his story become the center of our stories. Would the melody of this “theme song” of Jesus reverberate in our heads and hearts as we read Mark’s Gospel together week after week.