βασιλεiα

"Then Jesus said, 'all authority on Eartth and in Heaven has been given to me... therefore go and make disciples of all the nations'" (Mattew 28:18-19) I have trouble with this verse sometimes, you all know by now my view of the kingdom but I'm still troubled. Jesus says here that He has the authority HERE (on earth), and in Heaven (which might also be here). How does He have authority if pain and evil and sin and bitterness still are undeniably present throughout the world? Christ came to do away with all that, right? Why hasn't He?

These questions are probably the toughest to deal with when talking about the kingdom of heaven but when we have trouble with them could we possibly be missing the point? Man was created with a nature that gives us capasity to choose evil. Capacity to choose evil or to choose good. We can chose to enter the Kingdom, become disciples, or not. We are a people "bent on backsliding"(Hosea 11:7).

We act like Jesus is supposed to just do away with all the evil. Let's stop and consider what "evil" might be present within us. As followers of Christ is not the pain and the bitterness and evil and sin being done away with. God constantly works on my heart. He daily heals my heart. Is He not doing away with all tose things; evil, pain, etc. in me? The point of entering the Kingdom is not to all the sudden be in bliss but it it to embrace the healing power of God and then become an entity of healing, a disciple of the healer, Jesus.

The Kingdom is about many things, it is about redemption, reconciliation, and for us it is about chooseing to do good. It's about chooseing to participate in the work God is doing to free the world from sin, from pain, from evil. It's about healing. The kingdom of God is the cure for the world. Jesus does have authority, great authority and He demonstrates it powerfully.

Jesus began His ministry with th message of the Kingdom and in Matthew 28 just before He asends into "heaven" He finishes With the same message, The Kingdom Is Here!