THE REIGN OF GOD: A Drama of the Trinity
01. INTRODUCTION
As Bible depicts, God loves his creation and very specially the humanity. This love has been expressed through his human mediation namely the prophets, elders, leaders, to all human races in order to make them all as his own people. At a privileged moment in history, God has sent his own beloved Son as the universal sacrament of his saving love. But it is a paradox that Jesus has to fulfill his mission and there by reveal his Father, Spirit and himself ultimately through the cross. This paper attempts to highlight the mission of Jesus and there by revealing himself, Father and Spirit solely based on the evidence from the Second Testament.
02. THE MISSION OF JESUS: PROCLAIMING AND ESTABLISHING THE REIGN OF GOD
The gradual consciousness into his mission get a dynamic impetus at his baptism, where he clearly perceives his vocation entrusted by his Father. Simultaneously the outpouring of the Messianic Spirit endows him with power to begin the mission of preaching and establishing the Kingdom (cf. Mt 3:13-17; Mk 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22). This unique experience also enables him to understand his own mission better and consequently to make a fundamental choice that it is a prophetic messianism through suffering, death, and glorification (cf. Is 42-53); and not an apocalyptic kingdom (cf. Dan 7) or Davidic kingdom (cf. 2 Sam 7). He too realizes that the Kingdom is present in him already (cf. Mt 11:12-13; Lk 16:16). That is why, when he was questioned about the Kingdom of God by the Pharisees, he asserts: ‘The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you’ (Lk 17:20 b-21). In other words the Kingdom of God is present in the person of Jesus by the very fact of his advent. Above all his intimacy with Yahweh as Abba moves him to present the Kingdom through his words and deeds.
2.1 The Words and Deeds of Jesus: Manifestations of the Kingdom
2.1.1 The Words of Jesus
Unlike the other teachers of Judaism, Jesus spoke with authority (cf. Mt 7:29), which is often marked by the expression “I say this to you” (cf. Mt 5:20,22,28,39) for he spoke in communion with his Father (cf. Jn 6:37-40). He proclaimed in the Synagogue at Nazareth that in him the project of God is realized (cf. Lk 4:18). Being challenged by his opponents, on the power of casting out demons, he makes it clear: “but if it by the power of God that I cast out demons, this proves that the Kingdom of God has already come” (Lk 11:20; cf. Mt 12:22-28). Once again he explains the nature of God’s Kingdom to the Pharisees, as a historical reality, present and operative in the midst of the people (cf. Lk 17:20-21) and definitely not a miraculous or an apocalyptic one. And at the Last Supper he narrates, that the Kingdom has already come and yet still to come (cf. Mk 14:25 ff; Mt 26:29; Lk 22:18,29 ff). Besides his explicit words, he also describes his mission of establishing God’s Kingdom through parables, which are the characteristic features of his teaching – The Mustard Seed (Mt 13:31-32; Mk 4:30-32; Lk 13:18-19); The Leaven (Mt 13:33; Lk 13:20-21); The Hidden Treasure (Mt 13:44). Through his parables, he calls every one to enter the Kingdom (cf. Mt 8:11; 10:5-7; 28:19), by making a radical choice (cf. Mt 13:44-45; 22:1-14), including the sinners (cf. Mk 2:17), poor and lowly (cf. Lk 4:18; 7:22).
2.1.2 The Deeds of Jesus
During the two and a half years of his public ministry, Jesus set out to realize the mission, which he has conceived in the process of his prophetic consciousness by discerning the will of his Father through out his life.
The Disciples: Like any other teacher, Jesus too was surrounded by disciples, primarily for the sake of the mission – to be with him; to become fishers of men; to have complete attachment to him even at the cost of their lives (cf. Lk 9:57 ff; Mt 8:18 ff); and to be send with power to preach and heal (cf. Mt 10:1ff; Mk 3:14 ff). Unlike the other teachers, he had variety of disciples from every walk of life – fishermen, Zealots, tax collector (cf. Mk 1:29; Jn 1:44); even a group of women disciples (cf. Lk 8:1ff), who probably remained at home and helped Jesus through hospitality and having faith in him (cf. Lk 10:38 ff; Jn 11:1-44; 12:1-8). From this band of disciples, he chose twelve (cf. Mk 3:13) to be the symbol of the New Israel.
The Miracles: Jesus never performed any miracles for his own sake. Rather always as part of his mission in the service of God’s Kingdom (cf. Lk 13:31-33). He states that it is a sign of his mission, to those who accused him of working miracles with the power of Beelzebul (cf. Mt 12:22-29). They are indeed the signs of the coming of God’s Kingdom to the sick, poor and marginalized. Jesus also performed miracles in the context of faith, and he restrained himself, when there is no faith in the recipient (cf. Mk 6:5 ff; Mt 13:58). Hence they are answers to the prayer of faith of the poor and sick.
The Table-fellowship: Jesus’ table-fellowship with tax collector and public sinners was symbolic action of proclamation that God’s Kingdom was preferably for the poor, despised and marginalized (cf. Lk 14:15-24; Mt 22:1-14). It was also the central feature of the ministry of Jesus and an anticipatory sitting at the table in the Kingdom of God.
The Solidarity: The solidarity that Jesus extended to all sort of people is ye another indication that the Kingdom is open to all (cf. Mt 15:21-28). His solidarity was explicated by the conducts with variety of people ranging from Jews to gentiles, sick to sinners, friends to enemies. The foundation for his solidarity with all was his compassion (cf. Mt 9:36).
The Foundation of the Community of Faith: The two Church foundational utterances namely Mt 16:18 and Mt 18:17 are certainly from the post resurrectional time. Moreover it is not so easy to pinpoint the exact words of the historical Jesus. There fore we need to look into the entire Christ-event, and the entirety of God’s action in Jesus Christ. In that sense the Church becomes the seed and beginning of God’s Kingdom (CCC 569).
3. JESUS THE ULTIMATE REVEALER
Jesus perceived himself as the eschatological prophet by his Abba experience that he was sent by Yahweh to proclaim and establish his Kingdom on Earth. In the process of realization of his mission he reveals: himself through the words and deeds, and ultimately at the death, resurrection, and ascension; Yahweh as his Father; and the Holy Spirit as the consoler. Hence in him as the Second Testament attest the essential content of salvation is revealed, and at the end of time every mystery of God would be made known perfectly. Thus it is only through Jesus the Trinity is revealed, which is a clear revelation in the Second Testament.
3.1 Revealer of Himself: Death, Resurrection, and Ascension
As Jesus explained his mission often in terms of parable, he also used the same, in order to describe himself. The parable of the Sower (Mt 13:1-9; Mk 4:1-9; Lk 8:4-8) describes him as the generous gift of the Father to the humanity and to his people in particular. The imagery of the grain of wheat (Jn 12:27) pictures himself as the sign of God’s unconditional love for all the people.
The tragic death of Jesus accompanied by rejection, trail, mockery, scourging, and finally crucifixion was the outcome of his mission for he came to bring the love of his Father in a world of sin. His total commitment and the discerning the will of his Father strengthened him to accept the painful death so to proclaim his depth of love for the humankind. Since Jesus surrendered himself totally, unto death, Father glorified him immediately. This mystery of resurrection was the fundamental confession of faith of the Apostolic community (cf. 1 Thes 4:14; 1 Cor 15:3-5; Rom 10:9). “The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon” (Lk 24:34), which revitalized the believing community to serve the Kingdom in faith, hope, and love. Being obedient to the Father and having accomplished the task, he ascended into heaven meaning returned to the Father (cf. Lk 24:50-51; Mk 16:19; Acts 1:9-11) to be seated at the right hand of the Father in order to share in his Lordship over humankind and the universe until the Day of Judgement as it is vindicated. Hence this ascended Lord is the perfect Emmauel as he promised: “I will be with you always, till the end of time” (Mt 28:20), and accordingly heads the New Israel (cf. Eph 1:22; 5:23).
3.2 Revealer of the Father
Jesus with the intimacy of the Abba experience revealed Yahweh as a loving, faithful and merciful Father, who is madly in love with humanity, which are indeed a different revelation from that of the First Testament. For Jesus, Yahweh is the Good Shepherd who goes in search of the lost (The Lost Sheep in Lk 15:3-7, and The Father of the Prodigal Son in Lk 15:11-32). In other words he is the God of mercy and compassion. The Father in relation to the Son always showed his fidelity of love and exalted him from the shameful death to share in his glory in so far as he persuaded to be the Son in the bosom of his Abba by fulfilling his will. In addition, from the eschatological perspective, the Father reveals himself as the faithful God in fulfilling the promised (cf. Acts 3:18-20), and will raise the believers on the last day in his loving Son, so that all may enjoy the bliss of seeing him face to face.
3.3 Revealer of the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father and the Son (CCC 691). The Spirit, who spoke through the prophets, does not actually speak of himself (CCC 687). Jesus also does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully during his earthly life, though he alludes to the Spirit in speaking to Nicodemus (cf. Jn 3:5-8), to the Samaritan woman (cf. Jn 4:10,14,23-24), and to those who take part in the feast of Tabernacles (cf. Jn 7:37-39) (CCC 728). But it is after the glorification of Jesus, the fullness of the mystery of the Holy Trinity is revealed in the person of the Holy Spirit (CCC 244). Thus the Spirit is made known as another divine person with Jesus and the Father (CCC 243), and inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity (CCC 689). The mission of both the Son and the Spirit are conjoined and inseparable (CCC 743), for whenever the Father sends his Word sends also his Breath (CCC 689). Further more, the Father anointed the Son by his Spirit; and after the exaltation, Christ made promise of the Holy Spirit (CCC 727); and before ascending to the Father gave the Spirit by breathing on his disciples, by then the mission of both Christ and the Spirit becomes the mission of the Church (CCC 730).
3.3.1 The Mission of the Holy Spirit
Though the Gospels depict the privileged moment of the action of the Spirit in the life of Jesus, like the conception (cf. Mt 1:18-25), the baptism (cf. Mt 3:13-17; Mk1:9-11), the transfiguration (cf. Mt 17:1-8; Mk 9:2-8; Lk 9:28-36), and the resurrection (cf. Mt 28:1-10; Mk16:1-8; Lk 24:1-12), the mission of the Holy Spirit has to be seen as the conjoined in the entire Christ-event. The mission of the Spirit is very significant at the feast of the Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:2 ff; Jn 20:22 ff), which gave strength to carry on the mission of the Church, entrusted by its head to nurture the Kingdom by building up micro communities of love, where people can experience the eternal presence of God through sharing, caring, and loving. Besides these, the Spirit manifests the risen Lord to men by preparing them with grace, in order to draw them to Christ so that they may understand the paschal mystery better. The Spirit is also poured out among the members of the believing community in order to nourish, heal and organize.
4.CONCLUSION
Yahweh, who communicated his love to human beings and to the universe in various ways down the ages, expressed his optimal love by sending his only Son at a privileged time in the human history. The Son, while carrying out the mission of his Father of drawing all people into the Kingdom, in other words into himself in love, many of his own men rejected him. But being strengthened by the Spirit and by discerning the will of the Father, he surrendered himself unto death; in order to be a universal sacrament of his Father’s saving love. Hence the Father glorified the obedient Son from death and raised him to be seated at his right hand so to share his glory. This risen Lord before ascending has poured out his Spirit on the believing community so that it may be a seed and a beginning of his Kingdom, which is already and still not yet, in the world. There fore the Church has to the leaven in the world, serving the Kingdom, until the Father assume every heart into his presence, through his Son on the Day of Judgement.
G. Robert John Kennedy, III Theology, 01.08.2002
* This paper was published in the Observer 2002-2003, the wall magazine of the Theology section, St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore 575 002.
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