Richard Rohr describes the reign of God as an alternative way of relating:
When Jesus talked about the reign of God, he was talking about an utterly different way of relating with one another than human society as we know it. The new world order—the reign of God—is the heart of the Christian Scriptures.
The kingdom is Jesus’ message. He never describes it conceptually; he walks around it and keeps giving images of the Real. This is the classic pattern of the spiritual teacher. Only those ready and seeking will normally understand.
For example, “The reign of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and shelter in its branches” (Matthew 13:31–32). The mustard seed is very small and insignificant. Pliny the Elder, a contemporary of Jesus, writes only two things about the mustard plant: It’s medicinal, so it did have some value. But he said not to plant it because it tends to take over the entire garden. It is a weed that cannot be stopped.
Those would have been the two images on which Jesus was clearly building. He teaches: What I’m describing for you is therapeutic—it’s life, it’s healing, it’s medicinal—but it’s like a weed. I’m planting a weed in the world. What a shocking image! Jesus talks about strange things like nonviolence and living a simple life by saying they’re planted and they’re going to take over the whole garden; the old world is over.
That’s Jesus’ hope, but we have to witness what patient hope that is. He didn’t see it happen in his lifetime, when religion was highly corrupt and most people were poor, oppressed, or enslaved. Yet still, in the midst of that, he dared to announce the present reign of God! He dared to promise, “You can live the new reality right now.”
The word for that way of living in the in-between times is faith. Let’s get rid of every thought of faith as belief, as prosperity, or as a set of rules or moral guidelines. Those are fine, but they’re not what Jesus is talking about. He’s talking about the grace and the freedom to live God’s dream for the world now—while not rejecting the world as it is. That’s a mighty tension, one that is not easily resolved.
Remember this: There are always two worlds. The world as it operates is power; the world as it should be is love. The secret of kingdom life is how we can live in both—simultaneously. The world as it is will always be built on power, ego, and success. Yet we also must keep our eyes intently on the world as it should be—what Jesus calls the reign of God.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Alternative Plan: The Sermon on the Mount (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 1996, 2022), 25, 26, 42, 43–44.
Image credit and inspiration: Harli Marten, untitled (detail), 2016, photo. Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The reign of God is peace, even today, between two people and a tree at sunset.
Story from Our Community:
On my daily walk around my English village, I practice mindful listening. I hear the birds chirping, dogs barking, and creatures scurrying about. As I walk down busy roads, the natural sounds are drowned out by the noise of vehicles. This is when I say the Jesus Prayer. Both listening and then offering prayer deepen my love and appreciation for all creation, both natural and manmade.
—Trevor J.
