Did we miss it?

AM Psalm 18:1-20 • PM Psalm 18:21-50
Jonah 3:1-4:11 • Acts 27:27-44 • Luke 9:18-27

Our gospel passage today ends on a line from Jesus that brings me up short: “Indeed, truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” We can read this as a declaration about Christ’s return to earth before the physical death of those first listeners. And from there perhaps find ourselves asking, “But those original listeners are long dead…what does that mean for the kingdom? Has it already come and gone? Is there hope of witness to it for us?” 

My instinct is to read this as a prophetic statement. Not the kind that claims to predict the future, but the kind that cries out from the margins to the mainstream, “a different world is possible.” If Jesus speaks truth when he says “some of you here will witness the kingdom before you die” then the kingdom is knowable before earthly death. As true for his first listeners as it is for us now: The kingdom was always there, is always here, awaiting our notice.  

In his children’s book The Minpins, Roald Dahl famously wrote, “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” Perhaps to witness the kingdom, we must first believe it is possible.

Written by Emma Mitchell

Emma Mitchell is currently completing a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Washington Regional before beginning her work as Minister of Children, Youth, and Families at Trinity Cathedral, Little Rock.