What did Jesus mean by the Kingdom of Heaven?
Whatever he meant, it's time for us to stop "waiting to die" to experience it.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven?
Throughout the Gospels Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven. He speaks of it with immediacy. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says: the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says: the Kingdom is already spread out on the earth, and people aren’t aware of it.
Some translations say the Kingdom of Heaven is near. This use of near doesn’t mean it’s coming soon, rather that it’s nearby, you just have to know how to access it.
The Invention of “Heaven”
But in the decades and centuries that followed Jesus’s ministry the concept of the Kingdom of Heaven was interpreted by later followers to be either a sky-paradise that those who worshiped Jesus would go to after they died, or a new realm that Jesus would establish on earth for himself and his followers when he returned. Or both.
The writings attributed to the Apostle Paul, active in the decades following Jesus’s death, seem to indicate some believers were convinced that Jesus’s return was imminent. But as the years passed and believers began to die (and remain dead) early Christians imagined there to be a place where those believers went in the interim while they waited for Jesus’s eventual return and reign.
This imagined place was Heaven.
Our English Bibles often end up translating all of these phrases and concepts, whether it be the state of mind Jesus was referring to, or the place that Paul imagined, as simply “Heaven.”
This oversimplification of scriptural translation, combined with poor teaching by Church leaders, has left many Christians with a life philosophy that can often be summed up as “waiting to die.”
The Impotence of our current Low-Consciousness Christianity
Among many low-conscious Christians there is little interest or intent in living a life, in the here and now, that emulates that of Jesus of Nazareth. Little interest in transforming the world around us by helping others outside our tribe. Little interest in living in harmony with nature or creating a better world for our great-grandchildren. Little interest in engaging with the other.
Today’s western Christianity is mostly impotent.
And the root of much of this impotence is a misunderstanding of what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of Heaven.
In fact I believe the misunderstanding of the Christian Heaven has perhaps done more harm than the invention of an eternal Hell.
I’ve known too many Christians personally who’ve used an excuse of Heaven (and God’s reconciliation after death) to displace their responsibilities of the present. It’s an attitude of “God will resolve it all after we die.”
This apathy manifests in many ways including a lack of responsibility for family, the suffering of other humans, the environment, and governance.
How many Christian families have you known with serious relational fractures? I’ve known of examples of Christians in ministry who don’t speak to their own kids. (I realize this sort of estrangement can happen with all sorts of people although it does seem that Christians pride themselves on being different.)
“Oh well, God will sort it out…”
Now I’ll be the first to raise my hand and say I’ve been guilty of all of the above. I have. Multiple times probably.
But it was only as I began to have a greater understanding of Jesus’s teachings and intent that I realized I had to take responsibility now.
I still wish I could do more to help our world live in harmony: with nature, with our neighbors, with our enemies, with our future. Right now I do my best to not make things worse, raise my kid, love my family and my friends, and help those I can.
It’s not enough, but I also realize we’re living in an entire society, an entire hemisphere, an entire civilization that’s built on this idea that this world and this life are just practice, and that the real stuff is mostly gonna happen one day in Heaven.
I don’t have time to get into all the problems created by our misunderstanding of the book of Revelation, but hope to so in a future post. Much of the Christian worldview and the inability to think very long term within Christianity can be blamed on our misread of this book.
The Spiritual Poverty of Christianity
I believe this current state of Christianity, with believers foregoing their responsibility and agency in this life for the hope of some future sky-paradise, can best be summed up by Jesus’s own words…
Jesus said:
If your leaders say to you “Look! The Kingdom is in the sky!”
then the birds will be there before you.
Rather, the Kingdom is within you
and it is outside of you.
When you understand yourselves
you will be understood.
And you will realize that you are Children
of the Divine.
If you do not know yourselves
then you exist in poverty
and you are that poverty.
-Gospel of Thomas
How better to describe the state of the Western Church today than spiritual poverty.
Their leaders have told them the Kingdom is in the sky. They view Jesus as the one who is to do all the work, not realizing that the Divine resides within each of us. And their religion is the equivalent of spiritual poverty.
Wow.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven?
The Kingdom of Heaven isn’t a just place we go after death.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a state of higher consciousness, which then opens us up to mystical abilities and experiences.
Some of these mystical abilities are as simple as the ability to show love to a stranger or retain joy in the midst of difficulty. Some of these abilities involve things like healing or achieving a greater understanding of reality.
The Divine resides within each of us and we can use that power to change our world. We can realize that not only are we one human species, but we are one with all of nature, and that any attempts to further separate or divide ourselves from this truth will only harm us.
We can realize that even though we exist briefly in this current form, we are part of a never ending stream of consciousness that has existed for millions, if not billions, of years, and we can do our part to live in harmony with all of creation.
Jesus didn’t intend for us to sit around and wait for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Rather, he taught how to discover this realm; a realm he referred to as the Kingdom of Heaven, available to everyone, right here, right now. And he was trying to share it with us.
Two thousand year later his words continue to try and share that realm with us…
They asked him: When is the Kingdom coming? He replied: It is not coming in an observable manner. People will not be saying,” Look, it’s over here” or “Look, it’s over there.” Rather, the Kingdom is already spread out on the earth, and people aren’t aware of it.
Gospel of Thomas 113
ps. what happens after we die? I’ve been studying the mystics and they give some pretty powerful ideas, some of which are beyond this post to explain. But whatever awaits, I’m confident it’s not the end. And besides, we’ll all end up there soon enough. Let’s shift our focus to what will happen after we truly begin to live here and now.
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After posting this morning I was excited to see this quote from Richard Rohr in my inbox:
"I believe that we rather totally missed Jesus’ major point when we made a religion out of him instead of realizing he was giving us a message of simple humanity, vulnerability, and nonviolence that was necessary for the reform of all religions—and for the survival of humanity."
Highly recommend Richard's daily meditations. You can sign up here: https://cac.org/email-sign-up/?utm_source=cm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DM&utm_content=DM_Join-Now
Preach, brother! Amen! I agree that Revelations is the worst, most harmful book in the Bible! What a great reminder to seek the kin-dom here and now! Thank you 🙏