“The kingdom of God is in your midst.” (v21)
Jesus is being questioned by the Pharisees, key religious leaders of his time. They are asking when the “kingdom of God would come”. This is something that Jesus taught and it was also something that scholars of the Old Testament Scriptures were looking for. A messiah was promised and each time a new prophet or popular leader emerged there was this question - is this the One?
It is interesting that Jesus uses a phrase to describe their questioning, that the kingdom of God can't be “observed”. Biblical scholars make the point that this word actually means “hostile observation”. These were “hostile, doubting eyes” and they were unable to see what was unfolding before them.
There was good reason for the leaders and influential people of Jesus’ time to doubt this was the Messiah. Here was Jesus, from the backwater town of Nazareth, a carpenter and His key followers were an unschooled bunch of fisherman and very average people. If God were inaugurating a new kingdom would it be through this lot?
Yet Jesus proclaims, the “kingdom of God is in your midst”, and the inference is, they can’t see it, probably because they look with “hostile eyes” and have a preconception of what it will look like.
God's kingdom comes through unlikely people in ways that will surprise us.
