“The time has come,” Jesus said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” – Mark 1:15

What’s the news about the kingdom? The kingdom is the “rule and reign”. What changed about the rule and reign of God on earth that he sent his only Son to announce?

I used to think that Jesus was saying, “The King has come”. He was just saying it humbly, like when he refers to himself as the Son of Man. It’s a powerful announcement. The principal just showed up in the classroom. The big boss is in town. The president has come to visit our city. The owner has come to see how it’s going.

But it’s not really news about the kingdom. Nothing changes about the governing authority just because the King changes his location. For example, Trump replacing Biden is kingdom-level news, but either one of them visiting your home isn’t. Not that it’s not a big deal, but it’s not news about the kingdom.

There’s plenty of news that came with Jesus life, death and resurrection: forgiveness for sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, eternal life, etc. Those are all extremely good news for me personally, but Jesus said he came to proclaim good news about the kingdom. What’s that news?

There’s also plenty of good about God being King. He’s sovereign over all. He loves us. He created the world and everything in it. He is worthy of all our worship. One day he’ll do away with everything evil and we’ll be with him forever. But Jesus said there was news about the kingdom. What’s new?

“The time has come,” Jesus said. “The kingdom of God has come near.”

If God wasn’t ruling and reigning here before Jesus, who was? And how did Jesus coming change that? Who’s ruling and reigning here now?

This has been consuming me for the past six weeks. Stay tuned…. 🙂