Unearthed

It spreads like an infection or a virus.  The smallest part can work its way through the entire system.  It doesn’t happen

by simple addition.  It multiplies and multiplies and multiplies until it has fully, and finally, taken over.  It is an invasion

of something that breaks in from the outside and then completely takes over.

It may even be understood as a small seed that turns into an invasive plant. All it takes is for the seed to take root and then it grows into a large plant that is wild, spreading out of control.  It starts off insignificant and unassuming, but then becomes extraordinarily invasive, taking over everything in its path.  It towers upward and then spreads outward, growing profusely, replicating, and preventing anything else around it from taking root.[i]

Some may even understand it as yeast that is put into a batch of dough.  All it takes is for the single-cell of yeast to be put in a moist environment and fed some sugar for it to begin multiplying rapidly.  It doesn’t take long for this small amount of yeast to multiply and spread until it is completely worked through the dough.[ii]

These images capture the essence of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is an invasion.  It is an infection.  It is one small part breaking into the larger system, disrupting it, and taking it over.  It is that which is with-out, breaking with-in our time/space reality and progressively and completely transforming it.  It is heaven breaking into the created order and destroying the works of Satan until heaven and earth are finally joined together as one at the coming together, the consummation of all things through Jesus Christ. 

The Kingdom of God comes to life in Jesus.  It is Jesus breaking into the kingdoms of the world, disrupting them by embodying the Kingdom of God with His life, death, and resurrection so His followers, who look and act like Him in everything they do, can continue to spread this Kingdom infection through their words and actions.  The sole purpose of this invasive and offensive action by Jesus is to displace the ways, workings, and conventions of the kingdoms of the world with the Kingdom of God.  It is God’s plan through Jesus Christ and the working of His Spirit to renew, heal, mend, and restore that which is fractured and broken by the devastation of sin.  It is an offensive action to turn the kingdoms of the world completely upside-down, turning hate to love, violence to peace, injustice to justice, weeping to joy, fear to faith, and self-centeredness to selfless sacrifice.

The invasion of the Kingdom of God in Jesus is a full-on assault and overthrow of Satan and the powers and principalities of evil in this world, so as to establish the Reign of God throughout the entire created order.  This Kingdom invasion is a complete toppling and overthrow of a rogue, fly-by-night kingdom that has worn out its welcome.  It is a new reality that has broken into the tired, old, worn-out, predictable ways of the world and is replacing them with a new and higher way that offers love, healing, hope, and life to the fullest. 

Quite literally, it is heaven breaking into every dimension of our world like an infection, like an invasive plant that is taking over and growing wildly, like yeast that is multiplying and multiplying and multiplying until it has worked its way through the entire batch.  It is the in-breaking and uniting of that which had been separated and fragmented.  It is the great marriage, the great uniting, the great consummation of the two, heaven and earth becoming one…even in you.