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Your Kingdom Come

More than 20 years ago, I had an opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal (in Agra, India). On a clear, cool and moonlit November evening the white marble dome of that edifice glowed in full splendour. It was a magnificent sight to behold. I was awe-struck. That experience left a lasting impression upon me.

The Taj Mahal is undoubtedly a testimony to the marvels of human creativity. To the perceptive mind, however, it raises some pointed questions about the legitimacy of the way the Moghul rulers of that era used their power. It is said that in order to commemorate the death of his beloved wife and to perpetuate her memory, a Moghul king built that mausoleum. Such a priceless gift to a beloved, who had long departed, is a sign of one's capacity for human tenderness, commitment, love and devotion. On the other hand, that could also be a grim reminder of the tremendous sacrifices of those who laboured long and hard to gratify the vanities of one person. It is said that the person who designed the Taj Mahal was killed to ensure that there would be no other Taj Mahals in human history.

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The costly sacrifice of human lives as a means to dubious ends is an indication of a misuse of absolute power and authority. That was not an uncommon practice in the ancient world. Ancient kings were absolute monarchs. They had power over life and death of their subjects. For them, the value of human life was secondary to their quest for, and maintenance of, unlimited power.

Today we have models of kingship. Absolute monarchy has given way to constitutional monarchy in which the power to rule has been limited by the constraints of a parliamentary system of decision-making. Parliamentary democracy and absolute monarchy are fundamentally irreconcilable. Hence, modern monarchy has become something of a sentimental novelty; although in some instances, it has served the purpose of forging national unity.

The colonial expansion of the West had forced Asians to accept the presence and exercise of foreign powers. Foreign kings and queens replaced our own rulers. In a number of instances, prayers for and on behalf of foreign rulers were uttered in many Asian churches. That ritual points to the self-contradiction in which the Asian Christians find themselves.

In Asian history, the Japanese Emperor system illustrates what may be seen as a negative experience in kingship. The Tenno or Emperor was regarded as the direct heir of the mythical deity which created the universe. Hence he was both human and divine. The Tenno was seen as the only ruler of the whole world, conceived of as one household, and of the world to come. Such an ideology served to undergird Japanese imperialism which reached its height during the Second World War.

Shintoism in Japan developed into something more than Just a cultic religion. It functioned as the spiritual source

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and legitimation of the militaristic and imperialistic character of the Tenno system which understood itself as divinely ordained to conquer the whole world. The tragic experience of suffering and death of countless people in Asia are grim reminders of the practice of absolutizing the powers of human institutions. Some Christians in Japan have responded with a critical voice to the Tenno system. Shoji Tsutomu, until recently the General Secretary of National Council of Churches in Japan, expressed such a prophetic voice in these words:

We are called to demythologize the worship and idolatry of power by standing with those who are oppressed and victimized by these idols. One important task for us, therefore, is to establish solidarity with those people. This may once again cause us to be called "non-Japanese" (as Hi-kokumin), as many Christians were called during the war. As an example of this already happening, we can cite the Christian War Bereaved Association. This Association stated in its policy statement of 1975: "We will never forget that our loved ones were killed in a war started in the name of the emperor. We reject the emperor's participation in memorial ceremonies in publicly honouring the war dead. We are not just victims of the war but have a responsibility as victimizers, and confess our war responsibility to our neighbours in Asia." Because of this attitude and publicly expressed policy position, members of the association are often called "non-Japanese".

But it is clear who are the true Japanese. Taking the point of view of the victimized, they are actively refusing the mythology of power, and are seeking instead a way to live with other Asians. This association is one of the core groups for church renewal, challenging us with its firm determination to actively resist power

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mythologies such as the ideology of the Tenno system.¹

Such an experience may have evoked a negative attitude on the part of Asian people towards any concept of kingship. But that should not, in any way, hinder us from recognizing, understanding and appreciating the biblical meaning of the kingship of Christ.

The Biblical Understanding of the Kingship of God

"The roots of the symbol of Kingship of God," says Norman Perrin, "lie in the Ancient Near Eastern myth of the kingship of God."² An ancient Sumerian myth conceived of God as King who created the world and upheld the integrity of his subjects. The important sign of God's benevolence towards his subjects was the annual cycle of the fertility of the land. God would intervene to save his people when they were confronted with natural and human calamities.

The ancient Israelites thought of their God in much the same way as did their neighbours. Annually they celebrated the beginning of the new year as their cultic expression of enthroning God as King. This is described in many passages in the book of Psalms.

Yahweh has become King; he is robed in majesty:

Yahweh is robed, he is girded with strength.

Yea, the world is established; it shall not be moved;

thy throne is established from of old;

Thou art from everlasting (Ps. 93:1-2).

Yahweh has become King; let the earth rejoice;

let the many coastlands be glad.

Clouds and thick darkness are round about him;

righteousness and justice are the foundation of

his throne (Ps. 97:1-2).

All thy creatures praise thee, Lord,

and thy servants bless thee.

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They talk of the glory of the Kingdom

and tell of thy might,

They proclaim to their fellows how mighty are thy

deeds, how glorious the majesty of thy Kingdom.

Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom,

and thy dominion stands for all generations

(Ps. 145:10-14).

These symbolize the power of God and the way the King ruled over his kingdom. They also express Israel's hope in the coming of the kingly rule of God in which they will be delivered from domination by their more powerful neighbours.

Resistance to Roman colonial rule was a strong Jewish sentiment at the time of Jesus. Liberation from Roman colonial rule with its tax burden and the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom expressed the hope of the Jewish people in political terms. Such a hope took on a religious outlook as signified in the anticipation of the coming of the Kingdom of God as expressed in a synagogue prayer:

Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the

world that he has created accordingly to his will.

May he establish his Kingdom in your lifetime and

in your days, and in the lifetime of all the house

of Israel, even speedily and at a near time.

There is a close similarity between this prayer and that of Jesus' particularly in his petition, "Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come..." It is quite likely that the words of Jesus were an adaptation of the synagogue prayer that was widely used in his time.

Jesus and the Kingdom of God

According to a New Testament account, John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus. In Matthew 3:1-2, the preacher

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from the wilderness proclaimed the message of repentance. "The Kingdom of God is upon you"; hence you must repent. Unless one repented, the Kingdom of God would come upon him not as a fulfillment of a cherished hope, but as a judgment. In this sense, John came to be known as a prophet of doom. Following his temptation experience (Matt. 4:1-11), Jesus carried out his preaching ministry and echoed John the Baptist's theme on the coming of God's Kingdom and the need for repentance as a condition for a place in God's kingly domain in which one would find liberation from all situations of bondage.

He went round the whole of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing whatever illness and infirmity there was among the people (Matt. 4:23).

Parallel passages in Mark and Luke also speak of Jesus as preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. "Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: "The time has come; the Kingdom of God is upon you; repent, and believe the Gospel" (Mk.l:14-15). Echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah (Is. 61:1-2), Jesus spoke of himself as God's anointed one who came to inaugurate the kingly rule of God.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me;

He has sent me to announce good new to the poor, To proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind;

To let the broken victims go free,

To proclaim the year of the Lord's favour (Lk. 4:18-19).

Jesus' message was centred primarily around the theme of God's Kingdom and he communicated that in a variety of ways – through proverbs, metaphors, similes and prayers. Jesus never spoke of God's Kingdom as an abstract reality,

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but as something that touches peoples' lives at the level of their day-to-day experience.

Jesus was fully aware of the aspirations of the common people. He was one of them. To them he preached the Kingdom of God. Through them he sought to communicate the gospel of salvation to others beyond their fold. Although he was not a fanatic political revolutionary, he was fully aware of the contradictions between the existing political reality under the Roman domination and popular hope for the coming of the political Messiah. He was also conscious of His mission to awaken the people to the fact that with His coming God's Kingdom had broken into human history.

Today, in your very hearing, this test has come true (Lk. 4:21). 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.

The historical context in which Jesus preached the message of the Kingdom of God was not that of the sophisticated elites of the Jewish society. Rather, it was that of the common people. Both the custodians of institutional piety and those who controlled the levers of political and economic power shunned him. On many occasions, he was an offense to them. But his Gospel of the Kingdom of God was indeed good news to the sick, disabled, alienated and oppressed. The multitude of ordinary people (the ochlos / minjung) flocked around him (Mk. 2:12). It is not very clear why they followed him. They may have been attracted to him because of his charismatic qualities. Others may have seen in him an opportunity to realize their personal aspirations, or they may have found a true friend in him who accepted and cared about society's outcasts: publicans, prostitutes and sinners (Mk. 2:3-19). When the ruling elites criticized and attacked

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Jesus, the people (ochlos) rallied around him (Mk. 2:4-6; 3:2-21; 11:18-27, etc.). It was only through bribery that the rulers were able to incite them at the trial of Jesus. The rulers were, in fact, afraid of the people.

Jesus' message of the Kingdom was an announcement of the end of the old order and the breaking in of the new. The people (minjung) accepted that. "...This declaration gave the ochlos a new way and new hope. Jesus struggled together with the suffering minjung on the frontline of this advent. In this sense, he is the Messiah – a viewpoint Mark reflects."³

To the rulers of Jesus' day the Gospel of the Kingdom of God was subversive. It was a threat of the established moral and religious values. It was a call to a radical reordering of the power structures. It stood in judgment over the pretenses of self-righteous people. It undermined the privileged position of the ruling elite with its call to loyalty to a higher authority.

The Kingdom of God and the Church

In an address delivered at the Melbourne conference in 1980, Metropolitan Mar Osthathios, set forth the profound implications of the Kingdom of God for Christian discipleship.

We pray, Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven', and live with the motto, 'My kingdom come, my will be done in my place as it is in West Germany or USA or China or Soviet Union'. We say we have a gospel of the Kingdom to preach, and preach everything under the sky except 'Jesus Christ crucified' (I Cor. 1:23). If we at all preach a crucified Christ, he is a domesticated Christ who puts no stumbling block before our luxurious lifestyle, callous

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parochialism, and selfish denominationalism. We are deeply convinced that the Kingdom of God is abundant life on earth and our risen Christ has no nail marks on him.⁴

The danger of preaching Christ without a cross and a God without judgment has confronted the church throughout its history. That can happen when a church is preoccupied with itself instead of being obedient to the summons of costly discipleship. For instance, the early Christian church was a small and insignificant community which had to struggle for its survival. But even in its precarious situation there already was a tendency to give undue importance to its institutional structure and emerging orthodoxy. A struggle for leadership supremacy threatened the very existence of that Christian community. The confrontation between Peter and Paul over the question of apostolic authority and of the place of Gentile Christians in the church were a departure from Christ's model of self-sacrificing discipleship.

Some leaders in the Jerusalem Church claimed that they were the rightful custodians of the traditions of Jesus. That was not in keeping with the fact that it was to some women that the risen Lord appeared; and it was they who played a significant role in communicating the Resurrection story.

The fledgling church began to develop an hierarchical structure in its leadership and doctrinal authority. Quite likely, in that structure it was difficult to express the convictions of the ordinary people (minjung) arising out of their personal encounter with the risen Christ and of their experience of life in the Kingdom. The hierarchical structure of the church, which was similar, in many respects, to the Roman political system, made it less worthy a sign of the Kingdom of God. The church became a powerful political

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and religious institution after the collapse of the Roman empire in the fifth century. The all-powerful church of the fiddle Ages came to be seen as the embodiment of the Kingdom of God.

The danger of being conformed to the image of a worldly kingdom also confronts the church today. The church is called upon to carry the marks of the crucified and risen Christ and to be a sign of the Kingdom of God.

Most churches in Asia could trace their beginnings to the modern missionary movement. Called to proclaim the Good News of God's love for all, missionaries from the West founded churches in many parts of Asia. In many cases, however, the missionary enterprise was carried out under the patronage of colonial powers. In many instances, colonial rulers conferred privileges upon churches in Asia. In turn, the churches accorded moral and religious legitimacy to the practices and policies of secular institutions. Their identification with colonial powers muted their prophetic voice. They came to serve two masters. It was difficult for them to be loyal and obedient to Christ while consorting with their colonial benefactors. Instead of being on the side of the poor and oppressed, the churches found themselves in alliance with the powerful. They consolidated their privileged position in their institutions, the maintenance of which made it extremely difficult to relinquish power for the sake of following the Christ who renounced worldly power. That was a dilemma of Asian churches, and is a captivity that still persists to this day in one form or the other.

It must be said that institutions are essential to the life and mission of the church. As a community it is necessary for the church to develop structures and policies that regularize the common life of its members. Institutions

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could function as means for effectively carrying out the mission of the church. That is, they are not ends in themselves.

One of the problems confronting Asian churches today centres around the growing irrelevance of their institutions which grew out of a situation in which Asian churches were dependent upon affluent churches in the West not only in respect to the use of material resources, but also in the way they perceived their mission in the Asian contexts. The western mind contributed to the inability and even unwillingness of many Asian churches to respond creatively to the problems and challenges arising out of the changing sociopolitical realities in Asia. It has often been said that poverty causes the churches in Asia to be irrelevant. However, a cursory examination of the budget of the more affluent churches would show a myopic and inward-looking view of the church's life and mission. What is needed is a fundamental re-orientation of the priorities so that Asian churches can respond to the divine mandate that they should be channels of God's love to the larger communities in which they are situated and of which they are a part. Asian churches should move beyond a concern to maintain their institutional interests.

Another inhibiting factor in the life of the Asian churches is the tendency to be obsessed with success measured in quantitative terms. A church is seen to be engaged in mission if it grows numerically and financially. Preoccupation with worldly success has prevented Asian churches from carrying out its mission to bear witness to the values of the Kingdom out of obedience to the Lord of the church. In Asia, this would mean acknowledging the Lordship of Christ and joining him in God's mission to challenge the forces that dehumanize people. This involves a prophetic witness against all forms of oppression, exploitation and injustice and an unqualified commitment

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to the cause of peace and human dignity.

As a community, the church is called to share the love of God and to be a sign of the Kingdom. For this reason, it should be open to the poor and the outcasts of contemporary Asian societies. As Jesus sought the company of sinners and social outcasts, so must the church reach out to those who are marginalized and exploited instead of seeking the company of the rich and powerful. The Good News of the Kingdom is that God has shown his preferential commitment to the poor and powerless. In the context of an endemic culture of poverty in Asia, the church is called upon to be with Christ in His mission of liberating those who are in bondage to unjust, inhuman and sinful situations; and to proclaim by words and deeds the supreme Lordship of God in the world.

An earthen vessel, the church has its share of weaknesses that afflict other human institutions. But God has chosen it to be a sign of his Kingdom. Despite its flaws God sends the church into the highways and by-ways of life to invite people to the heavenly messianic banquet. A report on the Melbourne conference states this observation in these words:

In all these aspects of the life of the church on earth we are aware of a weakness, our divisions, our lack of wholehearted commitment and our narrow view of what the church is... We have no proprietary rights on the Kingdom, no claim for reserved seats at the great banquet. Therefore, we see the mercy and grace of God that we might be open to all those who are in the Kingdom, whether or not they are part of the institutional churches. So we pray "your Kingdom come", believing that God alone will enable the church as it is on earth to reflect the light and love of his ruling over the whole created universe.⁵

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Notes

¹ Shoji Tsutomu, "The Ideology of the Tenno System and Christian Responsibility ", CTC Bulletin, Vol.3, No.3, p.28.

² Norman Perrin, Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom, London: SCM Press 1976, p.16.

³ Ahn Byung-Mu, "Jesus and Minjung in the Gospel of Mark" in Minjung Theology, Singapore: CTC-CCA, p.151.

⁴ Your Kingdom Come, Report on the World Conference on Mission & Evangelism, Melbourne, Australia, 12-25 May, 1980, p.37.

⁵ Ibid., p.194.