¹⁴ After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

John the Baptist in his camel hair coat had preached, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.’(i) Now we see how his message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins truly prepares the way not just for the coming of the Messiah, but for the message and the moment of his appearance on the road to the cross.

The kingdom of God is not about places but about power.

‘Wherever God’s power reaches out and controls, that is the Kingdom of God’ ⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

The power of God is there throughout His creation, but as the Messiah draws close, so the power is amplified. That is at the heart of the good news. The kingdom is where God’s power is, and Christ is the very manifestation of that power.

The arrest of John in some way defines the moment. The time has come. It is a moment which calls for action. It’s time for a new Chapter. A new narrative.

‘God wants a new poetry to be written, and is calling a new people to write it. And the name of the poem is ‘the kingdom of God. This is what all Israel had been waiting for.’ ⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾

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(i) Matthew 3:2 (NIV)
(ii) David Pawson, A Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, p25
(iii) NT Wright, ‘Mark for Everyone’, p5