The Cross and the Kingdom
What does the “kingdom of God” have to do with the “word of the cross”?
There is the old adage that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom, but later, the church proclaimed Jesus, specifically, his cross.
For some, the pre-Easter ministry of Jesus and the post-Easter message of the apostles amounts in effect to two different religions.
But that apparent disparity is pretty thin!
For a start, Jesus proclaimed himself as the messianic centerpiece, as the very king of the dawning kingdom of God. Not only that, Jesus predicted that he would be betrayed, handed over to the Gentiles, and he would even be crucified. Even so, while his mission would lead to the cross, that was not a mark of its failure, but a sign of its climactic achievement, God’s triumphant victory through his death.
On top of that, the early church never forgot the practical value of Jesus’ teaching, his words and sayings, even as they carried with them the symbols and story of his death and resurrection.
Many have rented asunder what Jesus and the apostles had kept together, Jesus’ messianic mission and a deep atonement theology.