Jeremy L. Berg

Lectionary Reflection: Mark 1:14-15

A slightly more meaty exposition than usual, but some essential Kingdom insights to grapple with here.

The ‘gospel’ many Christians have been taught has drifted significantly from the original message and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. Our preaching and evangelism is weighed down by a hyper-individualism focused on dealing with my personal sins and restoring my personal relationship with God. The goal of this gospel is mainly concerned with getting me to Heaven when I die.

This gospel lends itself to a neat little salvation package whereby sinners need only bow their heads, pray a quick prayer, pull the grace lever and, boom, fire insurance! A bookkeeping angel with big-rimmed glasses clickety-clacks on the keyboard and moves your name from the Damned column to the Saved column in Heaven’s database.

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The main problem with this version of the gospel is…well…the Bible, and Jesus’ life and teachings, and evangelistic activity of the apostles who should know better than us—they started the entire thing! We need to loosen our grip on certain beloved gospel preaching traditions—e.g., the Roman’s Road, Four Spiritual Laws, Bridge over the Chasm, etc.—that are rooted more in Reformation-era atonement theologies blended with with American consumeristic impulses aimed at mass-producing “decisions” and getting maximum “results.”

It ain’t all wrong, but it ain’t right enough.

Scot McKnight, in his King Jesus Gospel, describes how this popular gospel was perfected by the “trinity of Bills” in the 20th century—Billy Sunday, Billy Graham and Bill Bright. After studying the apostolic gospel preached in the New Testament (e.g., sermons in Acts) and the history of gospel preaching through the centuries, he concludes that this popular gospel (that many assume to be the one true gospel) was quite unheard of until the 20th century! (Watch this video lecture by McKnight where he builds his case.)

Yet one can be tarred and feathered by certain evangelicals for even questioning this version of the gospel. Oh, the irony of Protestants, whose founding mantra was scripture over tradition, who now insist on defending a beloved gospel ‘tradition’ over what the Scripture actually means by ‘gospel’ in its original context. So much for sola scriptura! 

So, what then was the ‘gospel’ Jesus announced as he launched his ministry in Galilee 2,000 years ago? Our Gospel text for the Third Sunday after Epiphany gets us to the heart of this question. 

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:14-15)

I can only offer a few big picture observations today, for there is an entire college course packed into just verse 15. In fact, I am developing such a course on “Kingdom Essentials” and teaching some of it on Sunday nights at MainStreet Covenant. Please feel free to join us if you’re in the area! This post serves as a kind of summary of key insights we’ll explore in more depth on Sundays.

If we were to ignore the meaning of Jesus’ actual message in its original context, and place our 21st century gospel message onto the lips of Jesus instead, Mark 1:15 might sound something like this: “I bring a timeless message about a place called the Kingdom of Heaven far away; repent of your personal sins and believe the correct things about Jesus so you can be saved and go to Heaven when you die.” This is not the warp and woof of Jesus’ gospel proclamation. Let’s look again at Jesus’ actual words and consider some fresh insights. 

“The time is fulfilled.”

Jesus announces “the time is fulfilled” and links his entire message and ministry up with the entire story of Israel—a long and winding story full of hopes and dreams and visions of a blessed future when God will restore the fortunes of his covenant people. They were reading Isaiah and the prophets, and waiting for God to act within history to fulfill all his promises. These promises included the return of God’s glory to Jerusalem, the reestablishment of the David dynasty, the purification of God’s Temple, confronting injustice and dealing with Israel’s enemies, and the summoning all the nations to come and worship the One True God.

Jesus didn’t drop out of the sky to deliver a timeless message about personal salvation; he came “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4) to bring about the climactic turning point in human history. Virgil, the court poet of imperial Rome, claimed that Rome was ushering in the “New Order of the Ages” (Novus Ordo Seclorum) a few decades before Jesus’ birth, and the Founding Fathers of the United States adopted Virgil’s slogan and stamped Novus Ordo Seclorum on the dollar bill, signaling that history was actually turning its great corner in the birth of this nation.

No matter how tempting it is to believe we are living at the turning point of history or that the real action still lies in some future apocalypse, the New Testament boldly claims that the New Creation was launched on that first Easter. Every life, every civilization, every king and every nation ever since is to be judged in reference to that world-altering event and is accountable to the authority of the King who was enthroned in Heaven on Ascension Day ca. 33 CE.

All of this is wrapped up in Jesus’ words, “The Time is fulfilled” or “the Time has come!” We need to understand the bigger story that Jesus is bringing to its long-awaited climax, if we are to understand Jesus and much of what he taught—not least what he means by, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” 

“The kingdom of God has come near.”

When I ask my college students what pops into their mind when they hear “the Kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven,” many picture a place called Heaven up in the sky somewhere where God reigns and we hope to go someday. This is not what Jesus is talking about. He’s announcing that “God’s reign” is showing up in a new and fresh and very real way in and through his ministry right then and there “on earth as it is in heaven.” A  more fitting and evocative translation of “kingdom” is the “empire of God,” and every Jew in Galilee would have felt the political tension hanging in the air. 

Jesus’ gospel announcement would have begged certain questions that are quite different from the sorts of questions we often bring to the topic of salvation. Questions probably not on people’s minds when the prophet from Nazareth opened his mouth include:

• If I were to die tonight and face judgment, where would I go?
• How can I have my personal sins forgiven? 
• What must I believe to be saved? 
• Can I lose my salvation? 

Jesus’ announcement, in its historical context, would have raised questions more like these:

• Who is the true Lord and Son of God? Caesar or Jesus? 
• Which empire is the true bringer of peace and prosperity? Rome’s empire or God’s empire? 
• Where do I place my ultimate allegiance? In Caesar or Christ? 
• Where does true power and authority lie? Is it the coercive power of the Roman sword? Or the disarming power of the cross of Christ? 

“Repent…”

‘Repent’ in the context of this larger kingdom-and-Israel story is more than feeling bad about your last lustful thought, your short-temper with your spouse, or your last white lie. Jesus is confronting an entire nation—Israel—that is bent on the violent overthrow of the occupying forces of Rome in the Holy Land. Israel, called to be a “light to the gentiles,” is waiting for the Messiah to come and cast those heathens into outer darkness. While God’s covenant with Abraham was for the purpose of “blessing all the nations,” the Israel of Jesus’ day was often more interested in cursing the nations—especially Rome. 

Jesus’ invitation to ‘repent’ (literally ‘change your mind’) was not just about private transgressions, but a collective summons to the entire nation to turn from its enemy-hating, nationalistic agenda to take the land back by violent means, and to instead consider Jesus’ radically new and non-violent way of being God’s people amidst the hostile nations. ‘Repent’ meant turning away from hating enemies to loving them. Turning away from seeking vengeance to turning the other cheek. Instead of casting curses down on your political persecutors, trying to pray for them instead. Instead of assuming the biggest army will inherit the land, consider the strange upside-down empire of God where the “meek will inherit the land” (Matt 5:5). Repent meant “rethink everything!”

If the Israel of Jesus’ day was getting it all wrong, might Jesus find the church of today making some of the very same mistakes? I find people–Christian leaders included–more focused on calling America to repent and return to some ideal national past, when God’s focus is on calling the church in America to be a set-apart Kingdom witness offering a Jesus-shaped critique of and alternative to the American Way on both the political Right and Left. Jesus didn’t come Christianize the Roman Empire in the first century, but formed a contrast society to shine like a city on a hill. Similarly, Jesus hasn’t called the church to Christianize the American empire in the 21st century, but to form little outposts of the Kingdom in America and every other earthly country.

“…and believe the gospel.”

What then does Jesus mean by “believe the good news”? Jesus is not inviting us to squeeze certain doctrinal beliefs about God into our brains so we can pass a theology exam when we reach St. Peter’s gates. Nor is he asking us to make a blind leap of faith against reason or evidence for God and Jesus. To ‘believe’ the gospel, or place one’s faith in Jesus and his Kingdom announcement, is much more demanding and, well, political in its first-century context.

Jesus is not just saving souls for heaven, but summoning Israelites to allegiance to their long-awaited King and Messiah. McKnight translates Mark 1:15 in his Second Testament translation as “…the Empire has come close! Convert and be allegiant to the gospel!” The King of Kings is looking for loyal citizens and allegiant disciples to turn away from misguided ways and trust the Messiah’s way of advancing Heaven’s empire as it sneaks into history in exciting yet unexpected ways. Matthew Bates, in Salvation by Allegiance (2017), emphasizes the summons to Kingdom allegiance:

The gospel is the transformative story about the career of Jesus— namely, how he became Jesus the Christ, that is, Jesus the king, Lord of heaven and earth. Jesus became the king through his willing participation in the saving events of the gospel, especially his trusting allegiance to God the Father in undertaking crucifixion unto death. That allegiance was vindicated when Jesus was raised to new life and enthroned at God the Father’s right hand. In this sequence of action, God demonstrated fidelity to his Son, his people, the world, and indeed all creation. Jesus’s enthronement is not something extra beyond the gospel, but its climax. To respond to the gospel above all means to publicly acknowledge allegiance to Jesus the universal king. On both the divine and human side, the salvation story overflows with allegiance.

Jesus is still in search of allegiant disciples today who will take serious his summons to represent and advance his upside-down kingdom society on earth. The people of God—the Church—much like the Israel of Jesus’ day is again focused on grasping after power and trying to impose “God’s will” on the culture through aggressive, abrasive political tactics and unsavory alliances and mixed allegiances. This raises the big question that every pastor should be trying to answer and address these days: Why do so many Christians get caught up in the political tribalism and culture-warring agendas of the moment?

One reason might be that the Western individualistic faith and pie-in-the-sky gospel the church has taught for so long fails to speak to earthly politics and does not summon Christians to Kingdom allegiance. While we may look to Jesus to save our soul, we look to Donald Trump or the Democratic Party to save our country. We may see Jesus as a wise pastor with good advice for loving a cranky neighbor, but we don’t submit our political ideals to him as a King establishing colonies of Heaven on earth (i.e., churches) and looking for loyal citizens willing to live by his peculiar “law of love” (see e.g., the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, etc.) 

In the absence of Jesus-shaped political discipleship among Kingdom apprentices in the American church today, masses of otherwise good and well-meaning church attenders are being coopted by the different versions of Caesar’s politics on the Right and Left, and finding their identity in a political tribe  of this earthly, temporary nation rather than being a loyal citizen of Christ’s eternal, transnational family “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9). 

My Kingdom Harbor ministry and much of my teaching at MainStreet Covenant Church is aimed at filling this vacuum, trying to provide JESUS-SHAPED TEACHING AND RESOURCES FOR KINGDOM APPRENTICES to quote the vision statement on my website. An ‘apprentice’ is committed to learning their master’s trade, and skillfully working his secrets into their own life. Jesus wants apprentices signing up for his master class in kingdom living, not just believers who prayed a prayer once upon a time in order to escape Hell. My Life Verse in this season of ministry is Acts 28:31 where I am trying to follow in the footsteps of Paul who “proclaimed the Kingdom of God and taught about King Jesus with all boldness and without hindrance!” So help me God.

Let me close with my own paraphrase of Jesus Kingdom campaign slogan found here in Mark 1:15:

History is turning its climactic corner and God is fulfilling his promises to Israel and the world through King Jesus. Change the Way you think about how God will act when he comes to reign and judge, and who will get in on the blessings. Give your full allegiance to King Jesus and become a loyal citizen of his Kingdom.

“Seek first His Kingdom…” (Matt 6:33)