Jesus was the very embodiment of the Kingdom of God; we know that for certain. Everywhere He went He preached the Kingdom, healed the sick, made the lame walk, restored sight to the blind and chased out demons: The Kingdom is all about making us whole again. Yet because of the perfidy of Men and the cunning and conniving of the evil one, Pilate sent Him off to be crucified; the Kingdom was nailed to a cross.

I’ve never said that before today; I want to argue with the assertion.

He bore our sins on that cross; our sins put Him on that cross. He was still Jesus, though. Jesus was the embodiment of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom was nailed to the cross along with Jesus… It’s almost too much to comprehend.

I still want to argue!

Jesus died on that cross; the embodiment of the Kingdom was dead. They put Him into a tomb: Rest in peace.

He did not rest, nor did the Kingdom of which He was the embodiment.

I would imagine that His disciples and those other faithful ones who had followed to the end were also in a state of confusion, and like me they probably wanted to argue with all of this: How could this be happening? But Jesus had told them all about it before it happened, didn’t He? Didn’t He tell them that He was going to die, several times in fact? Didn’t He tell them He would rise again on the third day? Why yes, He had told them about this.

And the Kingdom rose with Him.

And because of what happened on that cross, the Kingdom would soon inhabit His followers and spread across the globe; it still is doing that, and it is even within us today.

Many want to argue about this still, many Christians want to argue and say the Kingdom will come some other time.

“How could the Kingdom of God be here now,” they say, “this world is so full of evil?”

This world is full of evil, I suppose, and it always has been, but didn’t Jesus say that His Kingdom was not of this world? Yes, He did say that, and when He rode into Jerusalem on that great day long ago, His Kingdom wasn’t of this world. When He preached the Kingdom and healed and restored and chased away demons, His Kingdom wasn’t of this world. The people of His day wanted a Messiah who would deal with their enemies and improve their lives “under the sun,” but that isn’t the kind of Messiah that Jesus is… and so they turned against Him.

Will we?

It’s something to reflect upon on this Good Friday.