Email Link
Facebook
Twitter
DiggGarry Wills on Heaven's Reign
This article appears in the Eschatology issue of Trinity News , the magazine of Trinity Church-St. Paul's Chapel.
Does God’s kingdom spell the end of the world, or the beginning of something new? Is it found here on earth or in the hereafter?
If Jesus did not come to establish a church, why did he come? He said it over and over, from the outset. He brought us heaven’s reign. “The announced time is fulfilled, God’s reign impends. Turn back, and trust in the revelation” (Mark 1:15, like Luke 10:9-11). The word for “reign” (basileia) is normally translated “kingdom,” but that is a misleading term. It suggests a place or a political structure. The Christian reign is the personal presence of Jesus. On the one hand, he tells us to ask in the Lord’s Prayer that “your reign arrive” (Matthew 6:10), and the full arrival will come only at the Eschaton, the world’s completion. Yet he also speaks of it as already arrived when the Father’s love was revealed in Jesus — at first in his preaching and healings, then in his death, and then in his Resurrection. The New Order of Creation has begun.
… Yet God’s reign, though present when Jesus announced it, had not completed its triumph. The reign is a dynamic process, not a settled place or structure. It is not two things, one present and one to come. It is one process unfolding. It is Jesus himself, at first recognized by only a few, but extending his hold by fulfilling his mission from the Father. There are stages to be reached — first his death, Resurrection, and exaltation, then his final return to bring the new order to its consummation. Then the whole universe will be fully united with the Father. That is why Jesus can speak of the reign as already among his followers, yet speak as well of their future entry into it.
How does one enter into heaven’s reign? Thomas asks Jesus, “How should we find the path [to the Father]?” and he answers: “I am the path, and the truth, and the life. None arrives at the Father but through me” (John 14:6). Heaven’s reign is, simply, Jesus — finally, when the Father exalts his Son on the throne of judgment, but also now, when the Father’s love is to be found only in him. Entering into the kingdom is the act of union with Jesus….
One enters the heavenly reign by only one avenue — love. That avenue not only leads to Jesus. It is Jesus.
Garry Wills, a distinguished cultural historian and critic, is the author of over 30 books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg and the best-selling Why I Am a Catholic. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale and is the recipient of the 1998 National Medal for the Humanities. His recent book, What Jesus Meant (Viking Adult, 2006) provides the basis for this article.
To receive a free subscription to the print edition of Trinity News, send your mailing address to news@trinitywallstreet.org.
Please note that in doing so, we may use your email and mailing addresses to inform you of special parish events and resources available on this website.
