Make Israel Great Again

Acts 1:6-8

Following the resurrection encounters recorded at the end of the gospels, we are told by Luke in Acts 1:3 that Jesus presented himself alive to (the apostles) after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God.

Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of God/Heaven is the primary theme of his life from his first sermon, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17), to the framing of the Lord’s prayer (Your Kingdom come…), to the cry of the thief who hung next to him on the cross, “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” Jesus outlines the Kingdom mission when he quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 at the start of his ministry (Luke 4:18-19) – most notably that the Kingdom is evidenced by Spirit empowered liberation of the oppressed and marginalized – this is where the will of the Father for the liberation of His people is manifest; the overthrow of the rule of darkness; the judgment of the powers.

In contrast to Jesus, we are shown the religious system and its representatives (the Sanhedrin) who were trying to get Israel to obey all the religious rules in order to pave the way for and be worthy of the promised messiah, who would come to restore the kingdom of Israel. The Pharisees believed that sinners were ruining everything for Israel, and that sickness, leprosy, and demonization were signs of God’s judgment against individuals, while the continued Roman occupation was further evidence of God‘s displeasure with Israel as a sinful nation. This theological framework is still very much in evidence today – that God is punishing us for our sin and that bad things that happen to us are a sign of God’s displeasure; therefore we must purge and distance ourselves, exclude, punish and cast out in order to keep ourselves clean.