When we talked to my daughter’s fiance’s Canadian family on Christmas day, we asked how they had spent the day. Besides church, presents and the big meal, they said they had watched the Queen’s televised Christmas address. We Americans chuckled at this quaint holdover from an age gone by.
Yet the idea of monarchy is not at all foreign to the Bible or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact the first and primary message of our Lord when He began His ministry is found in verse 15 of our text from Mark 1:12-15, “The kingdom of God is at hand!”
We would do well to consider our own democratic prejudices against monarchy as we think about the fact that God’s work on earth consists of creating a kingdom, His kingdom in our midst.
God’s kingdom all begins in the person of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite gleanings from the early church fathers is Origen’s notion that Jesus is the autobasileia, that is, the “kingdom in person,” the kingdom in Himself. In the person of Jesus, God begins to reign in this world in the way in which He means to reign over it all. That’s exactly why Jesus can announce the nearness of the kingdom. He has brought it with Him.
Kingdoms of course have enemies. So we see glimpse of both spiritual and earthly enemies in our text. Satan of course is the adversary who tempts Jesus in the wilderness. But in verse 14 we see Jesus’ ministry beginning as John the Baptist’s ministry is brought to a close in his arrest by Herod. God’s kingdom in Jesus is planted and grows right in the midst of fierce opposition. Likewise the kingdom continues among us, despite the opposition of its enemies, both internal and spiritual, as well as external and physical.