A study of the Gospels will quickly reveal that, for Jesus, physical healing was never enough. Take the story of the woman with the bleeding problem who touched Jesus’ cloak and was healed. My friend and colleague, Siu Fung Wu, says that
“if we read about healings and exorcisms in the Gospels in the light of the woman’s socioeconomic context, we would realise that in almost every case someone was restored from impoverishment and social exclusion to physical wellbeing and fullness of communal life.”
This was the breaking in of the kingdom. But if you want a simple analogy of what the breaking in of the kingdom of God means, and of our role and God’s role, get this from Siu Fung’s 8 year old son:
“It’s like baking something in the oven. You have done everything you have to do, and then you put it in the oven. When the time is right, you take the food out and the job is now fully done.”
Isn’t that fantastic? Out of the mouths of babes comes such wisdom. I can honestly say that, of all the analogies of the kingdom vision that I have read from such eminent scholars as N.T. Wright and Ben Witherington, I have never heard it stated as simply as this.
