God’s kingdom is an upside-down kingdom, yet there are people of Christian faith who hardly seem to know that they belong to a kingdom, let alone what sort of kingdom it is—even though a quick Google search for ‘upside-down kingdom’ gets plenty of hits on Christian sites.
There are two expressions for this kingdom in the Gospels: the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. Kingdom of heaven occurs 33 times, all in Matthew’s gospel. Kingdom of God occurs four times in Matthew, 14 in Mark, 32 in Luke, and twice in John.1
Do the two expressions actually refer to the same thing? Yes, they do. Every instance except the earliest is reported as coming from Jesus’ lips. The earliest instance is from John the Baptist, as he announces the coming of Jesus: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:1).2 When Jesus begins his ministry, he uses the same words (Matthew 4:17). But in the report of the same event in Mark 1:15, he says, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” The fact that a different word is used is neither here nor there. The gospels in which the expressions are found were written in Greek, presumably based on eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ preaching in Aramaic, and it would be surprising if there weren’t minor differences in translation and reporting. Matthew and Mark are reporting one event, not different ones in which Jesus changed his wording!
So what do these expressions refer to?They are metaphorical, in that when Jesus lived in Israel the word kingdom denoted a polity with a ‘king’ whose rule ideally passed from father to son. A king typically exercised almost unfettered power. As Jesus uses kingdom, God is king of a spiritual realm, but he remains king for eternity and is no autocrat. In the announcements quoted above Jesus tells his listeners that this kingdom has now come to earth, and Matthew (4:23, 9:35) and Luke (8:1) tell us that Jesus went from place to place proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. Indeed, that is why he has come (Luke 4:43). The kingdom was manifest in Jesus’ instant healings and exorcisms as well as in his preaching and his striking responses to the allegations of the Pharisees and others. Look at the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3 and 5:10) and the parables in Matthew ch 13. When the Pharisees suggest that Jesus must be driving out demons with help from the prince of demons, he exposes the irrationality of their argument and concludes, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12.:28, Luke 11:20). Clearly, for Jesus’ listeners, the kingdom of God is now, on earth. Matthew’s repeated use of kingdom of heaven apparently leaves some believers thinking, “So that’s where God’s kingdom is: in heaven. That’s where I’m going when I die.’ They’re right, but they overlook the fact that Jesus announced that the kingdom of heaven was also arriving on earth, beginning with him.
When Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, he says to the Father, “hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10, NIV). The Greek is more vigorous. The first three of the four clauses begin with an imperative verb and end with the word ‘your’: roughly, ’sanctified be the name of yours; come be the kingdom of yours; done be the will of yours; as in heaven, so on earth’.3 Such is the arrangement of the sentence that ‘as in heaven, so on earth’ evidently applies to the whole of what precedes it, including your kingdom come. So God’s kingdom, at least since Jesus’ ministry, includes both heaven and earth.
So how is this kingdom upside-down? Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter responds, “You are the Messiah.” Then Jesus tells them that he will be rejected by the establishment figures, be killed, and after three days rise again. Peter begins to rebuke Jesus for saying this, but Jesus responds strongly: “Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:15-23, Mark 8:29-32). Then Jesus speaks to the crowd, as well as his disciples:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (Mark 8:34-36; also Matt 16:24-26)
This is a kingdom turned on its head. Peter still understands the Messiah as the man who will save Israel militarily and become its Davidic King, restoring its former glory. He is deeply shocked that his future king—whom he has correctly identified—predicts his own rejection, his death, and his (not yet understood) resurrection—the very opposite of what Peter expects from the Messiah (and he must be aware that earlier claimants to Messiahship have been executed, so Jesus seems to be identifying with them!). But Jesus’ teaching in the passage above is clear: the subjects of this king will deny themselves and be willing to die for their faith in him.
Paul’s hymnos in Philippians 2:6-11 has the form of a composition praising the person to whom it is directed. Normally, a hymnos would begin with the subject’s high birth or success in social climbing, then enumerate his Roman virtues and his deeds, perhaps on the battlefield, concluding with the glorious manner of his death and listing his titles. Paul’s use of the hymnos defies the expectations his readers had of a hymnos. First, Jesus’ social position is simple: he is God! But then everything is upside down. For his virtues and deeds, be humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. His manner death was crucifixion, the most inglorious, humiliating and horrendous way to die. But because he died this criminal’s death, God exalted Jesus above every other being, so that all would kneel before him and confess his lordship. This turns the logic of an earthly kingdom upside down.
What of the king’s subjects? They are to have the same mindset as Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). (For more on the Philippians passage, see my earlier pair of posts beginning here: https://thoughts-around-faith.net/philippians-23-11-part-1-of-2/)
Despite Jesus’ repeated prophecy about what awaits him (Matt 17:22-23, 20:18-19), his disciples have still not understand the extraordinary nature of God’s kingdom. The mother of the disciples James and John requests that her sons be placed on the left and right of Jesus’ throne (Matthew 20:20-23; also Mark 10:35-40). She has an earthly Messiah in mind. Jesus responds that they don’t know what they are asking, and concludes
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28; also Mark 10:42-45)
Here is the essence of God’s upside-down kingdom.
Where does this leave those who have faith in Jesus? Peter, whose understanding was turned full-circle at Pentecost,4 later wrote,
… you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. . . . For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. (1 Pet 2:9-10, 15-16)
Jesus’ followers live in this world, but are to be the priests of God’s kingdom, using their new-found freedom to praise him and to serve him by doing good (see also Revelation 1:5-6). Paul writes that they are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for [them] to do (Ephesians 2:10). There is much more to be said about this: read N.T. Wright’s How God became King or The Day the Revolution began (on this, https://thoughts-around-faith.net/the-revolution-8-final-the-revolution-continues/)
Sadly, parts of Christendom see their goal as exercising political power, enforcing ‘Christian values’ by law. But this is the pursuit of plain old earthly kingship. God’s upside down kingdom is paradoxically different.
- Why John doesn’t refer to the kingdom of God needs its own discussion. But, briefly, he uses the expression eternal life 17 times, whereas Matthew and Luke each use it three times, and Mark twice. John’s focus differs from the other three writers. They primarily narrate Jesus’ ministry, and kingdom of God occurs on Jesus’ lips. John, writing later, looks back and wants to tell his reader who Jesus is: the light, the bringer of eternal life.[↩]
- Quotations are from the New International Version, 2011 edition.[↩]
- The verbs are in the aorist imperative form, used to express requests to a superior, here to God: ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου· ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς·[agiasthētō to onoma sou; elthetō hē basileia sou; genēthētō to thelēma sou, hōs en ouranō kai epi gēs][↩]
- Even after the resurrection, the disciples still misunderstood who Jesus was and what God’s kingdom would look like (Acts 1:6), but when the Holy Spirit came upon Peter at Pentecost, it brought the extraordinary revelation heard in his public speech (Acts 2:14-39).[↩]