NOTES for Co2 4:5

All Christian history is in many respects, if not chiefly, the history of preaching. But one must admit that this preaching was far from successful in every age. Why is this so? Many have tried to answer this question, and the answers often contained a fairly deep theological analysis of the issue, which, however, did not always lead the authors of such studies to an unambiguous answer. Meanwhile, finding the answer would not be difficult at all if we only thought seriously about whom and what we preach, about what and about Whom we witness. What did Jesus Himself preach during His earthly ministry? A new religion? A new morality? A new theology? No. He preached only one thing: the Kingdom, which, in His own words, "has drawn near." And on earth He left not a community of preachers of a new religion, a new morality, or a new theology, but a community of people who, abiding with Him in constant communion, would become residents of that Kingdom whose nearness He testified to, in order to carry this Kingdom further into the world. Christians are witnesses of the Kingdom in which they live and of the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. Of course, Christians can testify to other things too. They can quite well tell the world, for example, about their discoveries in the field of theology, or about their reflections concerning morality, or about their political ideas inspired by reading the Torah or the Gospel. They can also tell the world about that new religiosity which has grown on Christian soil over the last two millennia. But in speaking about all this, it is important to realize that such witness is not properly Christian witness, not because it contradicts the Gospel, since a Christian cannot and must not allow such a contradiction by definition, but because it has no direct relation either to Christ or to that Kingdom whose nearness He spoke of. And today most people do not need new ideas and concepts. They need the living risen Christ. And the Kingdom that He brought into the world.