Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

What is the relationship of Jesus’ proclamation of the reign of God to all that? If he had only thought of something that comes after death, the question would, of course, make no sense. But for Jesus the reign of God first of all means this life, this world, this history within which the rule of God is to expand. But that necessarily raises the question whether his idea of the reign of God includes anything like progress and development. Let us look once more, briefly, at the parable of the mustard seed (cf. chap. 7 above).

To interpret this parable in Mark 4:30-32, it is crucial to compare the reign of God not simply with the mustard seed but with the whole process by which the tiny seed becomes a mighty shrub. The reign of God is neither like the mustard seed alone nor like the full-grown bush but resembles the whole process from seed to shrub. Thus the parable does not speak about the reign of God in static terms; it is about the way in which it comes, the “silent revolution” of the reign of God. It speaks of how God realizes his plan, his rule, his salvation in the world. God starts small, but at the end the tiny beginning will become something unexpectedly great, in whose sheltering shadow the birds of the air build their nests.

Does that represent faith in progress? Not at all! Jesus does not say that culture or morality grows, world peace or the well-being of human beings increase. Nor does he say that people will become steadily healthier and have to work less and less. He says: the reign of God is growing.⁵ And the reign of God means that in the end God alone is Lord, that all honor is given to God and God alone is served. But at this point Jesus would say: When all that happens, then human life will be at its best. When God alone is Lord, the mastery of human beings over one another in the bad sense will cease. And he would add: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all other things will be given to you as well” (cf. Matt 6:33 // Luke 12:31).

Faith in progress, together with a mania for whatever is technically feasible and the corresponding fantasies of universal power, is not to be found in Jesus. But he does possess the knowledge that God’s salvation will succeed because it is more fascinating than anything else in the world. To that extent, certainly, the proclamation of the reign of God releases a dynamic in the world that, beyond the utopian, introduces unstoppable salvation and creates a new thing.

The Perfection of the Human

Closely associated with the faith in progress of Western utopias is belief in the perfection of the human being. That means not only the improvement of their physical constitution, which, of course, takes up quite a bit of space in the bio-technical utopias. It refers also to the human psyche with its confusions and destructive desires. Here too the modern utopia, increasingly combined with science fiction, offers a rich fund of material.

Despite all our recent experience of totalitarian societies, the optimal new human plays an astonishingly important role in current utopias. Humanity becomes more and more perfect. Many utopias even dream that the boundaries between the “real” and the “virtual” world will increasingly vanish. The individual is gradually dissolved into a constantly networked, super-individual reality until there remains only a single world-intelligence.

I cannot find anything like belief in human perfection with Jesus. Here especially his incorruptible realism is evident. He knows that human beings are evil (Luke 11:13); he speaks of this “evil and adulterous generation,” with adultery of course serving as an image for turning away from God (Matt 12:39). He speaks of the persecution and even the violent death of those who follow him and do the will of God. In the end he himself was killed. His death is the final interpretive element added to his proclamation of the reign of God (chap. 2). Without what Jesus had said about slander, persecution, and suffering, his idea of the reign of God might insinuate an almost magical success story; it could lead one astray to believe in the possibility of perfecting humanity.