The Gospel also points out that the baptism signalled Jesus’ entrance in public ministry. He does it by preaching a message of repentance, by proclaiming the Kingdom of God, by curing the sick and by calling Peter, Andrew, James and John.
We are familiar with the scope of Jesus’ public life. In the last few decades ever since the Church entered the “modern” world, the proclamation of the Kingdom took centre-stage but with a more temporal twist. Values such as justice, peace and love have become critical. As the world shrunk, the global village grew more conscious of how unequal the post-war, post-industrial society had become. There were nations of great wealth and prosperity that occupy Europe and North America mostly. Whereas a large swarth of the global south remained undeveloped and trapped in poverty. Such a picture seemed to run contrary to the revolutionary vision of the God of Jesus Christ. The idea was that God had intended a world of justice and equality. The outcast, the poor and the underprivileged who were the focus of Christ’s love should now be the preferential option for the Church’s ministry. Through social and political change, those marginalised and deprived of their rights will be brought into the fold of the Kingdom of justice and equality that Christ had come to establish.
In a manner of speaking, this project of liberation also blends in with a mindset which sees societal inequalities as both a challenge to be solved and after a Pelagian remedy is found, it becomes an oblation to be offered to God. We are technologically capable, inclined and driven to engineer society believing that we can achieve a perfect state of human existence.
Would a perfectly structured society be an indication that God’s Kingdom has been established? Look at this country. We possess first-world facilities and yet we operate with a third-world mentality. The ideology that changing structures politically and socially will transform the human person is naïve. Even our cousins down south know this. They too have first-class infrastructure much better than ours. But what is the price of maintaining this perfectly functioning society? Intimidation or fear through hefty fines. When they visit us, a few throw rubbish out of the cars. The point here is not a criticism of the need for political or social change nor is it a rebuke of our cousins. The question is where transformation should be located.
Christ did care for the poor, especially the oppressed and marginalised. Yet, of the four descriptions that marks the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, two of them revolved around the human person in his spiritual being. As important as it is to ensure that all are equally treated, the Gospel message is spiritual because man’s primary need is spiritual. Why? If the poor needs liberation, so too the rich. Everyone needs salvation. Remember, a couple of weeks ago, at Christmas, both the Kings and the Shepherds visited the Christ Child. The preferential option for the poor is not meant to discriminate against the rich who also need to be saved by Christ.
In the curing the sick, notice that on numerous occasions, Jesus had to contend with the forces of evil. As it was then, sickness was a sign of sin and thus, those who were sick were considered to be sinners. In many cases, they needed forgiveness but more than that, they also needed deliverance from the oppression of evil spirits. Both healing and deliverance occupied 2/3 of His ministry while preaching took only about 1/3 of his time suggesting that Jesus’ work was deeply spiritual. For instance, even as He came down Mount Tabor after the Transfiguration, He was immediately confronted with the possession of a boy whom the disciples themselves could not cure.
Satan tempts, oppresses or possesses. We seldom think of this but Satan is hell-bent on destroying the salvific work of Christ. When we focus on the liberation of man, a danger is to reduce the goal of emancipation to a merely material plane. When we restrict the progress of the Kingdom solely at the level of social or political, we tend to neglect how Satan works. He is present in our material world. Matthew 12: 43-44 tells us that the Devil upon leaving a person will wander around looking for a place to rest and finding none, it returns to its former host.
In other words, Satan even though a spiritual reality works through his human slaves. Social structures are not evil in themselves but they are only so because of evil that resides in the hearts of men. The Prayer to St Michael the Archangel acknowledges that there is a cosmic battle taking place in the human heart. The proclamation of the Kingdom was a deeply spiritual enterprise as Jesus sought to cure the sick and also deliver souls from the influence of Satan. Everyone here knows how difficult the conversion of heart is. As the Pauline dilemma in Romans 7: 15 reminds us that “we do not do the good that we want to do but the evil that we hate is what we do”. We also know this perversion of the heart as we are sinners who need Christ’s redemption.
In summary, Christ’s ministry is basically to free us from Satan’s power so that we can cooperate in establishing the Kingdom. In terms of vocation, some understand the call of the disciples mostly in terms of social justice and presently, there is also a push towards environmental justice. Both the establishment of a fairer society and the conservation of the environment are expressions of discipleship. But, at the heart of discipleship is the task of conversion. The Kingdom is more than material fulfilment or even environmental protection. The Kingdom begins here on earth but it has an end. The goal is to be truly liberated from sin, to worship God and so to gain eternal life.
