An Outline Of Jesus’ Proclamation Of The Kingdom 142
AN OUTLINE OF JESUS’ PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM142
The universal witness of the Synoptic tradition is that the absolutely central theme of Jesus’ mission and message was “the good news of the kingdom of God.” This claim can be demonstrated in a number of ways.
1. Whenever the evangelists themselves summarize the mission of Jesus, they invariably do so in terms of the kingdom of God. This is true not only of Mark’s opening summary of Jesus’ proclamation (1:15: “The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the good news”), but also of all such summaries in the Synoptic Gospels.143
2. When Jesus sends out first the Twelve (Matt 10:7) and then the Seventy-two (Luke 10:9),144 the only specific instruction given in both instances is: “As you go, preach this message, ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’”
3. It is always on his own lips. Such language is sparse in the remaining literature of contemporary Judaism; it is relatively infrequent in the rest of the NT.145 Yet it is the predominant note in the teaching of Jesus,146 including at least eighteen different expressions found only in that teaching and nowhere else in all of Jewish or Christian literature (e.g., “to seize the kingdom,” “to enter the kingdom,” “o seek the kingdom,” “he mystery of the kingdom,” “he keys of the kingdom,” “he least/greatest in the kingdom”).147
Thus, it is fair to say that to miss — or to misunderstand — this term is to miss Jesus altogether. The question is, What does it mean? As a convenient way to outline what Jesus was all about, we are well served by Mark’s little summary (1:14-15).