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Theology 11 – A
Quiz #4 – Take Home Quiz on Reading 23

The Kingdom of God is the state of union and harmony of the People of God with God,
who is love. It is a vision of a society of new heaven and earth where everything is perfect and
ruled over by God, and all that is evil and harmful will be eradicated. Such a vision is manifested
when God, the Father, sent into the world His only begotten Son, Jesus, to fulfil His promises,
aspirations, and plans for the entire humanity (John 3:16-17). It was the Son’s task to accomplish
the Father’s plan of salvation in the fullness of time. Its accomplishment is the reason for his
being sent. Since the day he appeared from obscurity and entered His public life, he started
performing His three-fold mission, the prophetic, priestly, and kingly, which was anointed to him
by the Holy Spirit. Jesus proclaimed the joyful news of God and spread God’s goodness through
His saving works that link all of humanity to Him and to God. 1 By understanding the true
essence of His own mission and vocation Jesus was able to share to His people the glimpse of the
Kingdom of God full of hopes2. In His name the People of God are reminded that the loving God
is ever-present and faithful. 
Before the existence of evil, everyone and everything is in the state of perfect relationship
with God, which we can evidently reflect in the early first two chapters of Genesis. However,
after such committing the original sin, the relationship of the People to God with everything else
and with God has been slightly ruptured (Genesis 3:14-24). This damaged relationship with God
has continued as time passed by3. In fact, it was even manifested by the Israelites when they have
decided to fall under the temptations of not trusting God, committing a sin and doing acts of
idolatries4. In addition, the slaveries, misery, and oppression experienced by Israelites also
symbolized the sovereignty of injustice and evilness in the world 5. For such, with the hopes of
restoring the relationship with His people, invading injustice, and healing the poor and weak
against their oppressors, God sent His Son to proclaim the coming of His Kingdom.

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1
Cf. Brian Gleeson, “The Mission of the Kingdom of God: Ultimate Source of Meaning, Value, and Energy for
Jesus” in The Australian Catholic Record 93, no. 3 (July 2016): 327
2
Ibid., 337
3
Ibid., 330
4
Ibid., 331-332
5
Ibid., 330
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Through the simple acts of Jesus, he was able to unravel and share with the People of
God the true image of the Kingdom of God. His parables, sayings, teachings, miracles, cures,
and relationship with the People of God while he is still in the world are acts of the fulfilment of
His task in accordance with his understanding of his mission and vocation as the chosen
Messiah6. The practice of table fellowship shown by God, when he decided to eat with the
sinners, highlights his action of living out the arrival of the Kingdom of God. 7 By dining with
these people, without judging their personality and identity, but rather accepting them for who
they are, Jesus showed that in God people can receive an unconditional love even though they
don’t deserve it.8 With these simple acts of Jesus, he already showed that the Kingdom of God is
already present in the world in a real yet incomplete way. Furthermore, the metaphors, parables,
similes and stories that he featured in His teachings disclosed a picture of the state of the
Kingdom of God9. However, despite the goodness and peaceful way shown by Jesus to unravel
the truth about the Kingdom of God and let people experience it, still, His efforts are not fully
appreciated by people yet it was doubted by them 10. Not, until, he triumphed over death to save
the people from their own sins, which have led people to realize his true identity as the Messiah
“the anointed one” (Isa 61:1-2). Jesus became the sacrificial lamb as with His blood He was able
to pay the price of the sins of humanity. He never let His people down for the sake of reconciling
all human beings to God by the cross.  
The vision of the Kingdom of God by Jesus is the vision that he wanted to share with us.
Through His actions, He gave us the picture of what it feels like if we allowed God to rule over
our lives. As Andrew Hamilton has said, “the way we attend to the Kingdom of God is by
attending to Jesus”.11 Jesus, as the chosen Son of God and the only Messiah, invites us, the
People of God which includes the whole human race (Isa 2:1-5), to collaborate with Him, the
Holy Spirit and God - the Father, in fulfilling the promise of the Kingdom of God. For such, He
instituted the Church, which was prepared by the Father and outpoured by the Holy Spirit, as the
visible community over which God can communicate truth and grace to humanity. 12 Jesus
continuously sends the Holy Spirit to teach and strengthen the members and pillars of the Church
in holiness, thus, the words and sacraments of the Church are divinely inspired to proclaim the
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6
Ibid., 333
7
Ibid., 333-334
8
Ibid., 334
9
Ibid., 329
10
Ibid., 329
11
Andrew Hamilton, “A Friendly Guide to Jesus” (Mulgrave, VIC: John Garratt, 2010), 24
12
Cf. Brian Gleeson, “The Mission of the Kingdom of God: Ultimate Source of Meaning, Value, and Energy for
Jesus” in The Australian Catholic Record 93, no. 3 (July 2016): 328
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Kingdom of God. Jesus, being the main founder and head of the Church, allowed people to
receive the holiness and grace through the Church. Thus, the Church itself resembles the three-
main fold mission of Jesus, priestly, prophetic and kingly, that helps Her fulfil the promise of the
Kingdom of God. It is priestly as just like Jesus who is the altar of sacrifice, it also sacrifices
itself and the priest. It is prophetic also as it proclaims the good news of the God through gospels
and scriptures. And, lastly it is kingly as it attends to the needs of poor and the suffering. The
Kingdom of God is the model of the Church in accomplishing justice, peace, and human
reconciliation in earth, as it is the Kingdom. 13 Although the Kingdom of God is not yet fully
accomplished and will take place in the future, still as one community we can experience its
flavors, only if we choose to follow the footsteps of Jesus and live a life in accordance with our
ultimate reality. (1,007)

13
Ibid., 329