“The kingdom of God is near” – Your Character Matters!
Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3:1-12
The kingdoms we’ve heard about and read about are composed of human beings, among whom are the members of the royal family, royal army, royal navy and royal subjects. We have boundaries of kingdoms, their cities, towns and villages. Many privileges accrue to kings, queens, princes and princesses. Subjects are nobodies except decided otherwise by the royal household. The lives of royal subjects too are very much dependent on the decisions of the royal family. When today’s gospel talks about “the kingdom of God is near,” the kingdom in question must be different from those known to us, because of the absence of the elements of kingdoms we enumerated.
The preaching of John, in our gospel reading, juxtaposes our behavior with the coming of the Kingdom of God: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near” (Matthew 3:2). The “voice” that invites us to repentance cries “in the desert” not in the cities, towns and villages, but in an arid place – no animals, no trees, no human beings because the sustainer of life is absent – water! What is the wisdom of going to preach in the desert, not in the places where human beings reside? Human engagement and involvement is necessary, hence, the journey to the source of life – water – matters!
Characteristically, oases are found in deserts; they are the hope of life in deserts. The ability to conserve water is the adaptation needed to survive in deserts. How to locate oases in the desert comes in handy for desert travelers and dwellers. It makes a lot of sense for John to be dressed in “camel’s hair” because camels are used for traveling through the desert and they don’t need to drink water as often as other animals do. The leather belt around John’s waist must be a corollary of the camel’s hair. The locust swarms of the desert are good supply of proteinous food for desert dwellers, but why wild honey, characteristics of forests and not deserts, if not the preservative for the meager food available in deserts?
Jesus’ kingdom is a moral kingdom! The statement of John, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance” (Matthew 3:8), indicates the moral dimension of the kingdom of God, as opposed to the kingdoms of earth or human kingdoms. In fact, ethnicity has no place in the building of God’s kingdom, for John forewarns the Pharisees and Sadducees, “do not presume to say to yourselves ‘we have Abraham as our father’” (Matthew 3:9). The only guarantee of existence is a moral reform, because “Even now, says John, “the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into fire” (Matthew 3:10).
Well, the aridity of virtues transforms the human life into a desert, but the oasis provided by the water of baptism gives life and hope of living to a life lived in a desert – “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, [John] said to them, ‘You brood of vipers!Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?’” The fire of the Holy Spirit, when allowed to function, burns all evil passions away. The fire of the Spirit of the Lord comes in seven-fold, according to our first reading. Each of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit – “a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2) – has a specific role in the construction of the kingdom of God.
The emphasis of the first reading of today is on the power of the knowledge which comes from the Spirit of the Lord; where the knowledge of the Lord is present, there is no harm to either nature or human beings: “There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord . . . Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair” (Isaiah 11:6-9).
The admixture of these animals that live in peace, in the messianic age, may surprise us. The reality it preaches draws close to home, when we imagine Jews and Palestinians living side-by-side in the same Jerusalem in peace; the two Koreas breaking down their borders of separation; Iraqis and Iranians sitting at the same table for a meal; anglophones and francophones of Cameroon reconciled; Boko-Haram, cattle herdsmen and other Nigerians living in peace; the two Irelands dwelling in unity; Ukrainians and Russians burying their hatchet; southern American border opened to all migrants; all colors of human beings living in peace, etc. Despite our World Wars, wars of independence, racial wars, class wars, and the universities we have built, the knowledge of peace still eludes us!
Interesting, the “knowledge” of peace and concord, which is the knowledge of God, is not something hidden and difficult to learn, it only needs imitation. The knowledge of God is Jesus-Christ – “On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10). Jesus is the “signpost” presented to us for direction in our lives. To dwell in his habitation is to dwell in the “knowledge of the Lord”; to imitate him is to make the kingdom of God draw near; to live like him is to establish peace on earth. This starts in your heart and mind. Your contribution to peace is significant and indispensable for the building of the kingdom of peace, the kingdom of God.
If John was the voice of the Messiah in the past, Jesus needs our voices today to announce the possibility of peace; more importantly, when we listen to Jesus and imitate him. If Paul, in the second reading, took the good news of peace among circumcised and uncircumcised to Rome, the center of power at the time, God needs crusaders of peace and unity today to take the good news of peace to warring factions. For 800 years now, St. Francis of Assisi has taught us to pray and turn ourselves into “Instruments of Peace”. Peace eludes us because we fail to transform ourselves into instruments of peace. The power of prayer, like that of knowledge, resides in what it can achieve. Prayers and knowledge are innocuous when we cannot feel their impacts in concrete human lives.
Let us make Paul’s prayer, in our second reading, ours as well: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:4-6).
Assignment for the Week:
Spend sometime this week reading the Bible to acquire the knowledge of Christ.