In all four Gospels, then, there is no dumbing this down: this is the coming of the kingdom, the sovereign rule of Israel’s God arriving on earth as in heaven, exercised through David’s true son and heir, the ‘Messiah’. The kingdom comes through his death. The fact that the kingdom is redefined by the cross doesn’t mean that it isn’t still the kingdom. The fact that the cross is the kingdom-bringing event doesn’t mean that it isn’t still an act of horrible and brutal injustice on the one hand, and powerful, rescuing divine love on the other. The two meanings are brought into dramatic, shocking
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