The kingdom of God

I have been thinking a lot about the kingdom of God and heaven lately. The parent I wrote about passed away peacefully recently and is no longer suffering. She has received her ultimate and complete healing: no more pain, sickness, disease or suffering. No, it is not what we would have chosen for her; we would much rather she had been healed and lived many more years on earth with us, but we have peace knowing where she is and that we will one day see her again.

So what does that have to do with the kingdom of God? Everything! You see, she was a follower of Jesus and a child of God; she had submitted her life and become a part of the everlasting kingdom of God. She could face death, and we could face losing her here on the earth, because of the assurance that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."

What is the kingdom of God like? The disciples of Jesus wondered that, too, and so Jesus taught many parables about the kingdom of God. He compared the kingdom of God to a treasure hidden in a field; a man discovered the treasure, and joyfully sold all that he had to purchase that field in order to obtain the treasure. He also said the kingdom of God is like a pearl merchant who found a pearl of great price, so beautiful and valuable that he sold everything to purchase it. (Do you detect a theme here?)

In what is commonly referred to as the parable of the sower, the story he told about a man who was sowing seed and how that seed fell in different kinds of soil, he taught about how we respond to the message of the kingdom of God. In some cases, the seed fell on the path, and birds immediately came and snatched up the seed so that it could not grow. In other cases, it fell on rocky soil, where there were more rocks than soil (sounds like the ground around where I live!). The seed sprouted quickly but then withered and died because there was not enough depth to the soil for it to send down roots and grow. Other seed fell among weeds; the seed sprouted and grew, but the weeds soon choked it out and it was never fruitful. Finally some seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew, and returned a crop, some 30, some 50, and some even 100 times as much as was originally planted.

The parable is not so much about the sower but rather about the soil. The soil represents the hearts of people. For some, they hear the message of the kingdom of God but it never has a chance to grow because it is immediately swept off by the 'birds of the air,' those things that are in opposition to God. The rocky soil is the hearts of those who eagerly respond to the message of the kingdom, but they do not have much depth to their new-found conviction and quickly lose interest. The soil where the seed grew but was choked soon by weeds is the hearts of people who hear the message of the kingdom of God and respond, but soon life gets in the way, and the cares and troubles of life choke out their enthusiasm. The 'good' soil is the hearts of those who hear and respond to the message of the kingdom by allowing it to go down deep into their lives and produce change in their lives, ultimately producing the fruit of a life totally committed to God.

Jesus came to both describe and demonstrate what the kingdom of God is like, and to invite all who will follow to become part of that kingdom. The longer I follow Jesus, the more I love him, and the more I realize that following him is more valuable, more important, than anything else I will ever do. The kingdom of God is about relationship; Jesus invites us to come into relationship with him, with his Father, with the Holy Spirit, and with one another. He stands ready to welcome you into his family, to bring you into the kingdom of God, whenever you are ready.

October 1, 2008