Scripture Reading: Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43; Luke 13:19; Luke 17:20-21; Isaiah 11:6-9
We often speak of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, about which He often taught. He had given us some pointers as to what His Kingdom would be like. With the coming of Christ, the Kingdom begins not in the coronation of a mighty king, but in the birth of a crying babe. Yet as Jesus’ ministry begins in the Gospel of Mark, He announces, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). He goes on, and in Luke 17:21 we read, “for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus described His mission, saying that He “must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent” (Luke 4:43). Then in Luke 13:19, we read Him proclaiming that the Kingdom “is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.” This parable points towards a peaceable Kingdom.
All creation belongs together in the arms of its Creator. The final vision is that all men and women should recognise that they are equal in creation, and that the entire creation is called to live in unity, with all members of God’s creation coming together in perfect harmony. Jesus the Christ came to fulfil that vision. Long before He was made incarnate in this world, the prophet Isaiah foresaw it:
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:6-9).
We must keep this vision alive, by accepting God’s way of leading us to His Kingdom.