(A.D. 27) before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem took place — and when Jesus began to preach in Nazareth, interpreting himself as the one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord had come in order to announce a year of favor (the Jubilee) — in fact referred to the entirety of his public mission of healing, freedom, and good news for the poor.
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“The Time is Fulfilled”
Jesus’ self-understanding of fulfilling these prophecies from Daniel and Isaiah are the key to teaching that “the time is fulfilled,” a component of his message that was picked up and spread by his disciples. Read the following passages and take notes.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Romans 16:25-26 | |
| Galatians 4:4-5 | |
| Ephesians 1:9-10 | |
| 1 Timothy 2:5-6 | |
| Titus 1:1-2 |
The Second Component
The second component of Jesus’ first preaching is that “the kingdom of God is at hand” or “near.” The understanding of this phrase “kingdom of God” appears only once in the Old Testament, in one of the Aramaic chapters of Daniel, which predicts: “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever” (Dan 2:44).
The “God of heaven” will set up an indestructible kingdom that will destroy other kingdoms. These other kingdoms are described in Daniel’s interpretation of a dream by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in which a statue of a man was made of various metals, symbolizing different earthly empires: Babylon was the head of gold, the Mede-Persian kingdom was the chest of silver, the Greek kingdom was the belly of bronze, and the Romans were the iron and clay legs and feet. The kingdom set up by God was a stone that turned into a mountain and destroyed the other kingdoms. This kingdom of God was in no way to be identified with any earthly kingdom or power; it was a completely different reign that would destroy all other kingdoms. Therefore, each person who accepted Daniel’s message was being summoned to a new type of citizenship and a new commonwealth of God, which is in heaven.
Jesus spoke often of the kingdom of God (though sometimes he identified it as the “kingdom of heaven,” both with appreciation of Jewish sensitivity to the sacredness of God’s Name and in line with Daniel 2:44 where “the God of heaven” sets up the kingdom). He instructed his disciples to preach about it, and he spoke many parables about the kingdom of God. From this teaching, Jesus’ followers are to learn a new identity as they live in the world as if they were no longer part of it or its kingdoms.
Stop here and read John 15:18; 17:16 in your own Bible.
The Third Component
The third component of Jesus’ first preaching was his command in the plural imperative to “repent.” His use of the plural indicates that it is directed to everyone rather than to one particular person. The verb in Greek — metanoeo — means “to turn back.” This word assumes that a person is on the wrong path and, in order to get back to the right path, must turn around, retrace the false steps, and then get back to the right path.
The ancient prophets frequently gave the people of Israel a command to repent throughout their whole history. Very importantly, the Israelites did not cover up the sins of the nation or even of the national heroes; rather, they understood that everyone is a sinner, and that all, as St. Paul brought out, “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). In Hebrew, the most typical word used for repentance from sin is translated as “turn.” This is the operative term when the Israelites built the Temple as a place for sinners to “turn” from their various sins and offer sacrifice.
Fullness of Time and Pax Romana
In addition to the more important element of fulfilling Old Testament prophecies, the secular history of Jesus’ time identifies the period as the Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”). The previous century had been characterized by Roman conquests of the entire Mediterranean Basin, sometimes through negotiations but more often through wars against pirates, various kings, slave rebellions, and especially civil wars among the Romans themselves. Octavian (Caesar Augustus) brought an end to the Roman civil wars, whose effects had extended from Spain to Greece and Egypt, and he ruled without further conquests and nearly no wars at all. During this time of general peace, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was able to spread throughout the known world, from India to Spain and south into Egypt and Ethiopia. The Pax Romana was an important part of the fullness of time. It continued until the Jewish Revolt in A.D. 66, during which Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed (A.D. 70), and the people of Israel were either killed, enslaved, or exiled.
The prophets exposed the many sins of the people and their individual kings, condemning their oppression of the poor, injustice in court, avarice, lust, and idolatry. The goal of the prophets was to evoke repentance so as to avoid various punishments, such as defeat in battle, foreign domination, and the eventual destruction of the whole nation — the ten tribes of north Israel in 722 B.C. and Judah in 587 B.C. Even after the various threatened punishments were brought down upon the people, the prophets did not gloat but offered a promise of hope for restoration and renewal.
The Fourth Component
The fourth component of Jesus’ opening message is the summons to believe in the Gospel, an old English word meaning “good news.” The Greek word evangelion meant “good news of victory,” after a battle was won. The early Christians picked up this word because they believed that their message of the arrival of the kingdom of God — through Jesus Christ’s preaching, life, death, and resurrection — meant the defeat of Satan’s evil kingdom of darkness. Once they accepted the term evangelion (or “gospel”) for Jesus’ message and wisdom, the Christians invented a form of book now known as Gospels. These are a type of biography of Jesus, yet they do not describe his physical appearance or much about his emotional state. Rather, they focus on the central “good news” that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead.
In each of the four canonical Gospels, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus form the largest section of the writing. The rest of the Gospel acts as a prelude to that central event of salvation, with an emphasis on showing how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah and on the ways that his healings, miracles, and teachings either raised people to believe in him or led them to fall into disbelief and hatred.
Simeon’s words to the Blessed Virgin in the Temple set a major theme for Luke’s Gospel, and it can be applied to the other Gospels as well:
“Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against.” (Lk 2:34)
People heard and saw Jesus, and they either rose to faith or fell in disbelief.
People did not merely stumble upon this decision to believe or not; throughout his public ministry until his ascension into heaven, Jesus challenged those who heard his Gospel to believe it in order to receive a miracle or even eternal life.
When messengers announced that a man’s daughter had just died, Jesus ignored what they said and told the man, “Do not fear, only believe” (Mk 5:36; Lk 8:50). When another father sought help for his son, with the condition, “If you can do anything, have pity on us and help us,” Jesus responded, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes” (Mk 9:22, 23).
On other occasions, Jesus commended the faith of the people who approached him for a miracle. For instance, the Roman centurion living in Capernaum expressed confident faith that Jesus could heal his servant from a distance. As Jesus passed through