“The time has come,” He said. “The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:15
From Rome, Mark wrote down the things he heard Peter preach with the purpose of giving a Gentile audience the Good News. He was not eyewitness to the life of Jesus but strove to preserve and share the story of Jesus from Nazareth and His impact on those He came into contact with.
Rather than begin his story with Jesus’ birth, Mark begins with John’s prophesy and Jesus’ baptism, where a voice from Heaven confirmed Jesus’s Sonship with God.
The Kingdom of God is the heart of the Good News. The Jews of Jesus’ time lived under the oppression of Rome, or the Roman kingdom. The picture these hearers were conjuring involved a person with power, status and national identity (Jewish). They were excited by the thought that their days of abuse were soon coming to an end, but the Kingdom of Heaven, or of God (they are interchangeable), would overturn the world with absolute truth, pure justice and peace using an arsenal full of love, not with a mighty army setting up an earthly reign.
The Kingdom of God is an eternal living reality, not a dusty historical episode in mankind’s past and it is at hand now and forever!
Love,
Gretchen