Kingdom of God – Page 4

Mark 10:13-16 – Watch the Child

Read Mark 10:13-16

Were you “shushed” as a child and reminded all the time to behave? Or were you encouraged to be yourself, testing boundaries, and scraping a few knees? Jesus clearly welcomes children, and so do I!

In addition to having children of my own, God has blessed me in ministry to work with many children over the years. What joy it is to see those children grow up and teach their own children about Jesus! Sadly, I’ve encountered plenty of people along the way who would rather “shush” the child, so they are seen and not heard. That’s what we see the disciples doing in this passage.

Mark 4:30-34 – Mustard Anyone?

Read Mark 4:30-34

Jesus continues to use seeds to describe the kingdom of God. This is the third time he uses seeds in his analogies. That tells me that seeds would be something understood universally by many people. For me, when I first read the parable of the mustard seed, I had no idea how tiny those seeds were. It wasn’t until I was doing a children’s sermon years ago that I actually saw a mustard seed up close. You might just need a magnifying glass!

How fitting that Jesus would give the mustard seed such attention! Jesus was a master at making hard topics understandable. We can all picture something huge growing out of something small. Jesus says that’s what the kingdom of heaven is like.

Mark 4:26-29 – Kingdom of God

Read Mark 4:26-29

Jesus again uses seeds to make his point. Describing the kingdom of God is tricky, and we often have a hard time wrapping our heads around what it truly means. We all have a picture of what a kingdom is–from fairy tales we read as a child or seeing news reports of what’s happening in the royal families of England or other nations with that type of rule.

So, what does this parable teach us about the kingdom of God? For me, I understand it as a beautiful mystery that’s hard to explain. We should be in wonder of it! Just like we marvel at how a seed, when planted, can become something entirely different.

Zechariah 2:1-5 – Think Bigger

Read Zechariah 2:1-5

On my first read through this reading, I couldn’t help but wonder, “God, what do you want for me to reflect on?” Then I realized I needed to think bigger, just like the man with the measuring tool trying to measure Jerusalem. He was measuring what was left, as if to reconstruct exactly what was there before.

That man wasn’t doing anything wrong, but he was limiting what God could do. Jerusalem had laid in ruin for 70 years. Now the people were returning. I imagine it was something like a “homing device” calling the people back to their homeland. Zechariah’s vision speaks to just how many people. “Jerusalem will someday be so full of people and livestock that there won’t be room enough for everyone! Many will live outside the city walls.”

Haggai 2:20-23 – Chosen by God

Read Haggai 2:20-23

It helps to understand a bit of what is happening in Zerubbabel’s back story. We know from reading Haggai that he was the governor of Judah after the people returned from exile in Babylon. What I didn’t remember was that he was the grandson of King Jehoiachin, a king in the line of David (see Jesus’ lineage in Matthew 1:12).

You may recall from my reflections on Jeremiah 22 and 2 Kings 24, that King Jehoiachin had fallen out of favor with God. Jehoiachin was taken captive to Babylon in the first deportation of God’s people and imprisoned. God had promised David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 that there would always be an heir on the throne. Fast forward to the Israelites’ return from exile, and the question is now, “what about Zerubbabel?”