NOTES ON THE MISSION OF JESUS Flashcards
is the central image of Christ’s teaching in the
Gospels
Kingdom of God
the condition for entry into the Kingdom:
repentance
Second
is the nature of membership in the Kingdom:
discipleship, or the following of
Christ
Third is the life characteristic of the Kingdom:
love
Fourth, the
Kingdom’s norm, is the
New Law of the Spirit
Lastly, the charter of the
Kingdom is set forth in the
Beatitudes
The kingdom belongs to
the poor and lowly
Jesus’ invitation to enter his kingdom comes in the form of
parables
Three historic and harmonizing interpretations of the kingdom of God
The Christological Dimension
The Idealistic/Mystical Dimension
The Ecllesiatical Dimension
“The Kingdom is not a thing, it is not a geographical dominion like worldly kingdoms. It is a
person; it is he. On this interpretation, the term „Kingdom of God‟ is itself a veiled Christology.
By the way in which he speaks of the Kingdom of God, Jesus leads men to realize the
overwhelming fact that in him God himself is present among them, that he is God‟s presence.”
(Pope Benedict, Jesus of Nazareth, Part 1)
The Christological Dimension
The Kingdom of God resides in the heart of man. Origen wrote, “those who pray for the coming
of the Kingdom of God pray without any doubt for the Kingdom of God that they contain in
themselves, and they pray that this kingdom might bear fruit and attain its fullness.”
The Idealistic/Mystical Dimension
The kingdom of God is in the here and now, present in and through the Church. Yet it is a mixed
reality that will only be perfectly realized at the end of history. This current “mixed” state can be
seen as the Church on earth which now grows in the field of the world with both weeds and
wheat until the harvest when Christ says he will “tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and
bind them in bundles to be burned. But gather the wheat into my barn” (Matt 13:30).
Ecclesiatical Dimension
they picture for us the face of Christ in
sketching the vocation of every disciple of Christ, drawn to share in his
Passion and Resurrection. They spotlight the essential qualities, actions, and
attitudes of Christian living
The Beatitudes
The blessings of the Kingdom are promised to
the poor and the powerless; to
the gentle and the afflicted; to those who seek eagerly for a righteousness
beyond external observance; to the compassionate and the pure-hearted; to
those who turn from violence and seek reconciliation
is a simple story used to
illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels
parable
