The Kingdom of God is at hand

The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand. (Luke 10:11)

It seems to me that, culturally speaking, the idea of someone saying (or perhaps holding a sign that reads), “The kingdom of God is at hand,” is associated in my mind with an apocalyptic style street preacher. Some guy with a scuzzy beard, holding a handmade sign, or maybe standing on a soapbox with a megaphone, shouting at passersby. And yet, reading the Gospels, Jesus doesn’t seem to have that Looney Tune sort of demeanor. In the passage quoted above, Jesus is giving his disciples some instruction as he sends them out to preach the gospel, the good news. In fact, it seems as if, in these instructions, he is specifically telling them not to rant and rave if people reject their message. Sure, he uses some pretty harsh language in the next verse, about how things will be worse for a town that rejects them than they were for Sodom in the day of its destruction. So there’s that.

I have thought for some time that our modern understanding of what “preaching the gospel” is has become pretty divorced from what it was at the time Jesus sent out his disciples. Most of the modern descriptions of “the gospel” that I’ve read or heard have something to do with accepting Jesus’ gift of salvation, or something along those lines. But, seeing…