Jesus Christ performed countless miracles throughout the Galilean ministry. These ranged from feeding large multitudes of people to raising the dead. He performed these miracles not to go against the teachings of the priests, as they claimed, but to fulfill prophesy from the Old Testament and also to demonstrate to the Jewish community the true meaning of the Kingdom of God. There are many stories where Jesus explained features about the Kingdom of God. However, this essay focus on the three stories of Jesus and the Jewish ruler, the story where Jesus taught about serving others and finally the story of the widow who gave everything she owned as offering in the temple (Humpal, 1997).
The story of Jesus and the Jewish ruler teaches that in the Kingdom of God those who come first in the world will be last in the Kingdom and the last in the world will be first in the Kingdom of God. The Jewish ruler was very wealthy and had a lot of riches of the world. If he desired anything, he could easily purchase it. However despite his social status on Earth, he had no knowledge of the Kingdom of God. Scripture from the Bible says that Jesus taught his disciples that it is difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. That is because the rich love their money and their lavish way of life. Jesus implored the Jewish ruler to give all his possessions to the poor and follow him.
But, he was not willing to leave his many worldly possessions. Jesus went ahead to compare the difficulty of a rich person gaining entry to His Kingdom to a camel entering the eye of a needle. He said that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then it would be for a rich man to go into the Kingdom of God. What Jesus was trying to teach his disciples is that the Kingdom of God does not consider a person's social status, but rather God looks at the heart.
The other important thing Jesus taught his disciples is about service to others. At one time, Jesus washes His disciple's feet despite their protests. The Bible in this story says that one has to be a servant in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus demonstrates this by washing feet, the dirtiest part of the body after a long day of walking around town in saddles preaching. The Kingdom of God is very different from life on Earth. In this world many people, if not all, eagerly attempt to gain a reputation for being great. Everyone wants to be great and famous; great jobs, nice cars, a lot f money and so on. In the Kingdom of God the servant will be the greatest. The teaching in this story is that one must put others ahead of oneself. People should stop being self-centered and selfish. People have to serve others if they wish to be great in the Kingdom of God (Gower, 1987).
The last story is about the widow who gave everything that she had. This also teaches one about the Kingdom of God. When Jesus pointed out this woman to his disciples, He wanted to teach them that the Kingdom of God is not about wealth or material possessions. Instead, it is built upon people giving all that they posses to God. The story goes that there were some Pharisees, all who were filthy rich, who pompously and openly offered great sums of money in the temple treasury. There was also a poor widow who only gave two small copper coins humbly and secretly. Jesus then went ahead to tell his disciples that the widow had given more than any of the Pharisees for she had given everything that she owned. On the other hand, the Pharisees had only given large sums to show off their great riches. The teaching here is that one must give to Jesus from the heart instead of giving to impress others (Smith, 1988).
In conclusion, Jesus was always trying to teach his disciples and the Jewish people in general about the Kingdom of God and what is required of them. The few examples discussed here assist one to learn that in the Kingdom of God one must not be greedy, we should learn to serve others, and learn to treat all with humility like Jesus did.
