The Kingdom of God Is at Hand

Just what is a kingdom?

For those of us living in the modern world, this can be a difficult question to answer. When we hear the word kingdom, we often picture kings and queens dressed in beautiful robes, wearing crowns of gold. We imagine grand processions through crowded streets or medieval castles filled with knights and servants.

But is this what Jesus means when He proclaims, "The kingdom of God is at hand"?

The short answer is no.

So what does Jesus mean? More importantly, what does His kingdom have to do with our lives today? How does the Kingdom of God become present in our hearts?

A good place to begin is with another promise from the Old Testament. In the seventh chapter of Second Samuel, the Lord speaks to King David:

"When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you... and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." (2 Samuel 7:12-13)

One thing should immediately stand out: this is something God is going to accomplish. The kingdom is not man's achievement but God's gift. It is His plan, not ours.

By the time Jesus came, however, many people misunderstood what that promise meant. They longed for a king who would overthrow Rome, restore Israel's political power, and drive the pagan occupiers from the Promised Land.

But Jesus did none of those things.

He raised no army.

He sought no political office.

He led no revolt.

Instead, He proclaimed the Kingdom in an entirely unexpected way.

He healed the sick.

He forgave sinners.

He cast out demons.

He welcomed the outcast.

He restored broken lives.

Wherever Jesus went, the Kingdom of God broke into the world. His kingdom came not through force or violence but through love, mercy, sacrifice, and ultimately the Cross. Above all, He establishes His Kingdom through His death and resurrection.

There is another remarkable feature of this kingdom. Consider the people Jesus calls to Himself. They are not kings or governors. They are fishermen, tax collectors, laborers, and ordinary men and women. The Son of the Carpenter is not interested in a person's wealth, influence, education, or social standing.

He simply says,

"Follow me."

That invitation has never changed.

Christ still calls ordinary people into His Kingdom. He asks us to place Him above every earthly loyalty and to allow His will to shape every part of our lives.

Perhaps this is why we pray in the Lord's Prayer:

"Thy kingdom come."

Those words are far more personal than we often realize. We are asking God to reign in us before He reigns through us.

"Lord, rule my heart. Rule my mind. Shape my desires. Make me, by Your grace, into the person You created me to be."

That is the Kingdom Jesus came to establish.

The question, then, is not whether Christ is King.

The question is whether we recognize Him as our King.

Are we looking for an earthly ruler who will give us everything we want? Or are we willing to follow the King who gives us what we truly need?

That question naturally leads us to Jesus' next words:

"Repent and believe in the gospel."

For it is through repentance that we turn away from ourselves and begin to live under the gracious rule of God's Kingdom.

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The Time Is Fulfilled

Time is an important thing in all our lives. Many of us feel as if we never have enough of it. We rush from one task to another, trying to catch up, only to discover that time keeps moving forward whether we are ready or not.

The famous Pink Floyd song Time captures this struggle:

"And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking racing around to come up behind you again..."  

The song expresses something deeply human. Time seems to move faster as we grow older. The years pass quickly, plans remain unfinished, and we wonder where the time has gone.

Yet Scripture offers a different perspective. The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us:

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

The biblical view of time is not one of randomness or chaos. Time unfolds according to God's purpose. There is a season for every event and a moment appointed by God for every work He intends to accomplish.

At the end of my last post, I asked an important question: What "time" is Jesus speaking about when He says, "The time is fulfilled"?

To answer that question, we must look at the promises God made long before the birth of Christ.

The first great promise comes in God's call of Abraham:

"And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3)

This promise marks a turning point in the story of salvation. Following the Fall, humanity had wandered further and further from God. Yet in Abraham, God begins His plan to restore what had been lost. Through Abraham's descendants, blessing would come not merely to one nation, but to the whole world.

The centuries passed. Abraham died. His descendants became slaves in Egypt. God raised up Moses to lead them out of bondage and gave them His Law. Yet even Moses pointed beyond himself to another figure who was still to come:

"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth." (Deuteronomy 18:18)

At the end of Deuteronomy, we read:

"And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." (Deuteronomy 34:10)

Israel lived in expectation of this promised prophet. The people waited for one who would speak God's word with perfect authority and who would know God in an intimacy unlike any prophet before him.

The prophets continued to nurture this hope. Isaiah spoke of a coming age when God would visit His people, establish His kingdom, and bring salvation to the nations. Generation after generation waited for God's appointed time.

In his masterpiece Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI writes:

"Israel is allowed to hope for a new Moses, who has yet to appear, but who will be raised up at the appropriate hour."

The phrase "at the appropriate hour" is important. God's promises are never forgotten. They unfold according to His perfect timing.

This is what Jesus is announcing in Mark 1:15.

"The time is fulfilled."

The promise to Abraham has reached its fulfillment. The prophet greater than Moses has arrived. The hopes of the prophets are becoming reality. What generations longed to see is now present in the person of Jesus Christ.

This mattered two thousand years ago, and it matters just as much today.

The challenge for us is not simply to understand God's timing in history. The challenge is to recognize God's work in our own lives.

Do we make time for Him?

Do we allow Him to speak to our hearts?

Do we seek to know Christ, not merely as a historical figure, but as the living Lord?

The time was fulfilled when Christ came into the world. Yet every day presents us with another opportunity to respond to Him. God's time has arrived. The question is whether we are willing to receive it.

The Time Is Fulfilled: Beginning a Journey Through Mark

How should one approach the Gospel of Mark?

For me, the first thing that has always stood out is its pace. The often-repeated word "immediately" says it all. Jesus and His disciples are constantly on the move, and Jesus is always doing something. Mark does not give us the long sermons and discourses found in Matthew, Luke, or John. Instead, he paints a vivid picture of Jesus through movement and action.

But how does this sense of urgency shape our faith and our understanding of Mark's message?

I often think of the Passover and God's instructions to the people of Israel on the night of their deliverance:

"In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover." (Exodus 12:11)

There is something of that same urgency in Mark's Gospel. The Christian life is not meant to be stagnant. It is a life in motion—a heart moving ever closer to God, a life increasingly shaped by love, repentance, and faith.

In the Apostles' Creed, we profess that Christ will come to judge "the living and the dead." An older translation speaks of "the quick and the dead," where quick means alive and active. Mark presents us with that same image of discipleship: a faith that is alive, moving, and responding to the call of God.

So where should we begin our study of Mark?

I believe the first recorded words of Jesus in this Gospel provide the perfect starting point:

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15)

In this single verse, several of the great themes of Mark's Gospel come rushing together: fulfillment, kingdom, repentance, faith, and good news.

What are we to make of these words? What is Jesus revealing about Himself and His mission? What does He want us to understand about God's work in the world?

These themes will guide our journey through Mark's Gospel, and they raise several important questions:

1. What "time" is Jesus speaking about? If something has been fulfilled, then a promise must have come before it.
2. What does Jesus mean by the "kingdom of God"? How does it relate to the promises God made to Israel?
3. Why are repentance and faith the proper response to the good news of the Gospel?

These questions will serve as our guide in the weeks ahead as we walk through the Gospel of Mark together. My hope is that this study will not only deepen our understanding of Scripture but also strengthen our faith and encourage us to follow Christ more faithfully in our daily lives.

The Gospel of Mark moves quickly, and so does the call of Christ. The kingdom is at hand. The time is fulfilled. The invitation remains the same today as it was on the shores of Galilee:

Repent and believe in the Gospel.

Follow Me

 

Second Sunday after Pentecost (2026)
Epistle: Romans 2:10-16
Gospel: Matthew 4:18-23

In this week's Gospel, we hear our Lord's famous call to His first disciples: "Follow me." It is a call not only to Peter, Andrew, James, and John, but also to each one of us. It is an invitation to leave behind the cares of the world, to let go of whatever is holding us back, and to truly follow Jesus.

This is what the Sundays after Pentecost are all about: growing and maturing as fruitful disciples of Christ. It is one reason why the Roman Church wears green during this season—to symbolize the spiritual growth that should be taking place within each of us.

"Follow me." What a simple command from Jesus, yet one that takes most of us a lifetime to fully put into practice.

We are told that Peter and his brother Andrew immediately left behind their nets and their former way of life to follow Jesus. Then we hear something even more startling: James and John immediately left their boat and even their father to follow Him as well. All four men turned their lives upside down to walk with Christ and become the first disciples of our Lord.

Could it really have been that easy? Could James and John truly have left their father behind to follow this man from Nazareth?

The Gospel says yes, but it would be a mistake to think that discipleship is easy.

In today's Epistle, St. Paul gives us an important clue about what it really means to follow Jesus. He tells the Romans—and us—that discipleship is a matter of both the heart and our actions:

"For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified... They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts."

How often have we thought about doing something, only to abandon it because our hearts were never truly in it? Think about a new diet, an exercise program, or any significant life change. If our hearts are not invested, we will likely fail.

To become "doers" rather than merely hearers, we must first embrace the truth in our hearts. Someone can encourage us repeatedly, but unless we decide to act and commit ourselves fully, nothing will change.

The same is true in our relationship with God.

We can talk about following Jesus and walking with Him, but if our hearts are not fully engaged, we are merely putting on a show. We are meeting Christ halfway. One foot remains in the boat, still tangled in the nets and concerns of this world.

Here we discover one of the hardest parts of discipleship: getting completely out of the boat.

Think about Peter himself. He left the boat that day on the Sea of Galilee, but it took him a lifetime to truly leave the nets behind. In Peter, we see ourselves. He was eager and courageous, yet he stumbled and denied Jesus three times.

How often do we do the same?

Yet Peter's story does not end in failure. He repents and returns to the Lord. When Jesus asks him, "Do you love me?" Peter responds, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you" (John 21:15).

This question provides the key to today's Gospel. Jesus asks Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" It is often our love of "these"—our possessions, comforts, sins, attachments, and addictions—that prevents us from following Christ with our whole hearts.

To become faithful disciples, we must gradually let go of these things and place Christ first.

The disciples did not leave everything behind simply because they were strong enough to do so. They left because they encountered in Jesus a love greater than anything they were leaving behind. The same grace that called them is available to us today.

Let us not be afraid to step out of our boats and walk with Jesus. He is calling each of us. All we have to do is listen and answer His call with our whole hearts.