Sunday Meditation: On Seeing the Kingdom

Jesus said, "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." He was speaking to a fellow (Nicodemus by name) who was having trouble wrapping his head around what Jesus was teaching.

That conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus, found in chapter 3 of John's Gospel, can serve as a reminder that, whenever Jesus' teaching seems difficult to grasp, we may be thinking with the mind of Nicodemus. However well-intentioned, we are all conditioned by our world, uncritically taking on board ways of thinking that make it hard to see at times what Jesus is talking about. This goes for people who have been "born again" as much as those who have not.

All of which puts me in mind of the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray. He starts out the model prayer by asking God, "May your kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

When that happens, and to whatever extent it happens, the kingdom of God may just become a little more "visible" to one who couldn't see it before. It's like seeing with new eyes, though maybe at first it's seeing "men like trees walking." The truth is, the world is not divided between people who can see the kingdom and people who cannot. The world is full of people with varying levels of visual impairment; none of us see with spiritual 20-20.

Except Jesus. That is the contention of Christianity. He even understood things that a spiritual teacher like Nicodemus had trouble understanding. It was the burden of his ministry to show people that the realm of God's will being done had come among them. Had, in him and through him, made its appearance: become visible. To those, at least, who had eyes to see.

I need a little more of this kind of seeing for myself. I need a little more of God's will being done in my life and a little less of my own reigning. What would that look like? It would look like fervent prayer after the pattern of Jesus, it would look like charity, it would look like righteousness (sin defeated, thrown aside, walked away from). It would look like love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. Lord, I want to see the kingdom!