The four gospels found in the New Testament reveal that the “The Kingdom of God” stands at the heart of Jesus’s ministry. It is the subject of the first words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of Mark: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). Similarly, the first words that Jesus says in public in the Gospel of Matthew is “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17), with the phrase “kingdom of heaven” another way of referring to this same reality (as heaven is the place of God). In Luke 4:43, Jesus says, “It is necessary for me to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose.” While the Gospel of John has less references to the kingdom of God than the other gospels, it still mentions this reality as Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…..Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5). Many of Jesus’s parables begin by saying, “the kingdom of God/heaven is like” and many other teachings of Jesus talk about entering the kingdom of God (e.g., Mark 10:14-15, 23-25). Jesus points to how his casting out of demons shows that the kingdom of God has come (Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20). Time and time again, the gospels summarize Jesus’s ministry as preaching the good news of the kingdom (Matthew 4:23; Luke 8:1), and the book of Acts even notes that Jesus spoke about the kingdom in the 40 days after his resurrection (Acts 1:3).
But even before Jesus went about preaching the kingdom, John the Baptist also preached about the kingdom of God as Matthew 3:1-2 says, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!’” The ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus looked very different to people in that John had withdrawn from society to live in the wilderness and resembled an ascetic and austere figure in his attire of camel hair and a diet of locusts and honey (see Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6) and taught his disciples to fast, while Jesus was known for his propensity to dine with figures with questionable morals, like tax collectors and other sinners (as in that world, you were who you ate with!), and lack of fasting or requirement of his disciples to fast (see Matthew 9:14; 11:18-19). Their different activities, however, did not reflect different messages but rather their different roles in this kingdom and relationship to it.
John’s Preaching of the Kingdom of God
The heart of the message of John the Baptist was the same as Jesus. Both preached the gospel (Luke 3:18) and the kingdom of God (Matthew 3:2), which is why they both ran afoul of the Pharisees and Sadducees (see Matthew 3:7; 16:1) and why they both attracted similar people like tax collectors (see John 21:32; Luke 3:12; 11:29 for tax collectors following John; Matthew 31:32 also mentions prostitutes following John). Both spoke about the need for all people – including the religious leaders – to repent, that one does not enter into the kingdom of God through one’s lineage but through life of repentance (see e.g., Matthew 3:9; 5:20). Such life causes one to bear fruit and those that fail this test will instead face judgment (see e.g., Matthew 3:8; 7:17-19). An important element of this fruitful life is treating others well and being generous instead of greedy with one’s possessions, as John instructed people to do so in Luke 3:10-14 in a manner that recalls many of Jesus’s teachings about how to treat others and handle one’s property (see Luke 6:29-31; 12:21; 18:22).
The difference between John’s message and Jesus’s message about the kingdom was that John was saying that the king is coming (see Matthew 3:11-12; Mark 1:7-8; Luke 3:16-17; John 1:15, 29) and denied that he was this king (Luke 3:15; John 1:19-27) while Jesus arrived as that king. John spoke of himself as the friend of the bridegroom (John 3:29) while Jesus described himself as the bridegroom (Matthew 9:14-17), an image that was a reminder of an image God used to describe the relationship between himself and His people (see Isaiah 62:5). John concurred with this claim of Jesus (see Matthew 3:13-17; John 1:29-36; 3:25-30), saying that he must decrease while Jesus must increase (John 3:30).
The continuity between John’s message and Jesus’s message is why Jesus would speak about the good news being preached since the days of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:12; Luke 16:16) and also why the gospels themselves and many of the sermons of the Apostles in Acts begin by noting the ministry of John the Baptist (e.g., Acts 10:37; 13:24)
John’s Problem with the Kingdom of God
While John preached the kingdom of God and pointed to Jesus as the king, it seems that he did not understand all aspects of the kingdom which Jesus was bringing. When Jesus comes to be baptized, John tries to stop him because he thinks that it is he who should be baptized by Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17). He recognizes the king and looks forward to the kingdom, but he does not see how the kingdom will be brought through Jesus’s death on behalf of sinners.
Not only is Jesus’s humility in baptism surprising to John, so is his ministry. After John’s arrest, Jesus went out and preached the kingdom (see Matthew 4:12-17; Mark 1:14-15). It would make sense that if the king had arrived to bring the kingdom, he would set free his people who were in bondage. In fact, Jesus had even proclaimed the release of captives in light of God’s promises to the prophet Isaiah (see Luke 4:18-21, where Jesus says he fulfills this promise of Isaiah 61:1). But John now sat in prison, seemingly wondering whether Jesus was the one who was bringing this kingdom. John then sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus was the one to come or if he should look for another (see Matthew 11:2-3; Luke 7:20). Jesus’s response pointed to the miracles he was performing (Matthew 11:4-5; Luke 7:21-23) that were fulfilling the promises, like healing the blind, lame, deaf, and lepers. Interestingly enough, though, Jesus does not mention releasing those in captivity. These words show that the kingdom has arrived in Jesus but could indicate to John that it wasn’t coming all at once in the way that he was expecting; healing was coming but there would also be suffering that would continue. Such suffering was not because the kingdom was not here but because the kingdom of God, that is present, is suffering violence (Matthew 11:12). Jesus brings the kingdom through his death and resurrection, and this kingdom arrives and moves in the midst of the hostility of other kingdoms until Jesus’s glorious return (which is why Jesus tells John’s disciples in Matthew 9:14-17 that the day will come when his disciples fast again).
Rather than being hard on John the Baptist for his misunderstanding, I think his confusion should comfort us. He was not the only one who didn’t fully understand the kingdom that God had promised and that he had proclaimed. None of Jesus’s followers seemed to get it, as they were broken-hearted after Jesus’s death. God had promised a kingdom to come that is different from the kingdoms of the world, but we can be so caught up in the kingdoms of this world that we think God will bring His kingdom in similar ways as the world. We need to remember that the upside-down kingdom of God came in an upside kind of way – and that it continues to advance in upside down kinds of ways.
Jesus’s words about John confirm this idea that we should not be too harsh about his misunderstanding, as John’s question and confusion did not lead to Jesus dismissing or erasing John’s ministry or his role. In fact, quite the opposite, as Jesus tells the crowd after they hear John’s question that there is no one born of women who is greater than John (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28) and that he was the Elijah who was promised to come before the arrival of God to be with his people (Matthew 11:13). Jesus’s commendation of John not only points to his role, it also reveals John’s place in the kingdom of God.
John’s Place in the Kingdom of God
After speaking about John’s greatness in relation to those born of women, Jesus says, “the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28; Matthew 11:11 says the same thing using the phrase “kingdom of heaven”). If John preached the kingdom, why is it that he is less than the least who is in the kingdom? This seems to point to the fact that John didn’t get the same opportunity to enter into the kingdom of God as we do in that he prepared the way and saw it arriving but only got a glimpse of its reality as he was imprisoned and died before Jesus’s death and resurrection.
John was great and did great things, but those who stand on the other side of the death and resurrection of Jesus have an even greater role to play in experiencing the reality of the kingdom of God that has come in Jesus and in sharing this message. Jesus sent out his followers to proclaim this message as well (Matthew 10:6-7), but we don’t just proclaim that God is coming but can declare that God has come and brought the blessings of the kingdom and the promises of God to be experienced now. Instead of declaring that the king will come, we declare that the king has come and brought to us the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47) through his death (Matthew 26:28) and has authority now on heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18) so we should obey all that he has taught (Matthew 28:19).
Let’s follow in John’s footsteps of proclaiming the kingdom, remembering that we are not the king and that the king should increase while we decrease. Let us recognize, though, that the kingdom is not just coming but is here, moving forward in upside down ways that might not be what we expect but fulfill God’s promises in the present as we await the day in which our reigning king returns and “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Revelation 11:15).
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