The gospel Jesus preached?

So we're studying the Gospel of Matthew with the college students at church. We're in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) now but a question was raised a few weeks ago when we were reading chapter 4, one of the students raised a question that has continually come to my mind since she raised it. Matthew 4.23 - And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. The question raised was, "What was the gospel that Jesus preached?"

Today when we hear the word "gospel" we tend to think of Jesus' sacrificial death for our sin and his resurrection for our new life. But was Jesus talking about that here? It doesn't seem so, at least not directly. After all, this is very early in his ministry, right after he had called his first disciples, and therefore, he hadn't started talking about his impending death and resurrection. So what good news was he preaching then? I think we get a few clues from what he says and does around the time this is mentioned in addition to what other the other writers (Mark, Luke, John) say about what Jesus was preaching.

1. After Jesus was baptized by John, was tempted in the wilderness, and had learned that John was arrested, Jesus began to preach the exact same message John had: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (4.17). After he started "proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom" and healing all sorts of sicknesses, etc. a large crowd started following him, which leads into his Sermon on the Mount. The first words out of his mouth in that sermon is "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It is commonly held that being "poor in spirit" is synonymous with humility and/or repentance. Even if it is just humility, that is a right recognition of ourselves, which raises our awareness of our need to repent. I think it's an intentional thing that this is the first statement of this discourse. It marks the entrance of one ready to participate in living for the kingdom of God. Okay, so "humility" and "repentance" are important attitudes/actions when we talk about the kingdom. But it doesn't seem that's all there is to this good news (i.e., "gospel").

2. Accompanying Jesus' preaching the "gospel" is his activity of "healing every disease and every affliction among the people...they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them." This accompaniment can be no accident. And in case you thought that Jesus' activity of healing has nothing to do with what he preaches, then consider this...

3. Luke, in 4.15ff (right after the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness and the beginning of his ministry), tells us that Jesus went about teaching in the synagogues (hmm...sound familiar? cf. Matt. 4.23, in view currently) and the content of what he preached in Nazareth is recorded for us: "And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor'..." which is followed by Jesus' radical statement that "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." In addition, consider the other beatitudes in Matthew 5 that follow the blessing to those who are "poor in spirit" or even Luke's account of the beatitudes, those "who are poor...who are hungry...who weep...when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil..."

Objecter: So you're saying the gospel Jesus preached was nothing more than the "social gospel"?

Me: No. I'm not saying that.

Objecter: It sure does sound like it.

Me: Yes, it does perhaps, but there is something vital that is missing in the "social gospel," and that is the theological backing and reasoning for why we do things like healing the sick, releasing the captive, weeping with those who are mourning, and to what end we do these things. And this is why I put the important statement at the beginning of this post: Jesus wasn't talking about his death or resurrection...at least "not directly." But, and this is a very important "but," when we look at the Gospel of Matthew and the life of Jesus as a whole we realize that it is all intricately woven and linked. The resurrection, while not being explicitly proclaimed here in Jesus' words, is the meat and the reasoning for why we take part in this activity...this kingdom ministry of Jesus. The "kingdom" was "near," but when Jesus was raised again, it began to be "here" and was inaugurated. So the kingdom is "now" as it began with Jesus' resurrection, but it is also "not yet" as we await our own bodily resurrection. When we get that right...that one day our bodies will be raised to new life to partake in the marriage of the "new heaven and the new earth"...we realize that doing what we can to fight diseases, to pursue the cause of justice and peace in the world, to free the captive and oppressed, is not wasted or even of second-hand importance but is integral to the very kingdom of God for which we are building. We're not building the kingdom of or for ourselves, but we do these things because we know that one day God will fully restore the creation, taking these simple things we do, resurrecting them, and blessing them (& us) to enjoy an existence that is beyond what we can imagine. That is some good news!