Setting out

Most journeys are easier with a roadmap. Especially trips to unknown destinations. The roadmap to the kingdom is an old one. The pages are partially obscured by centuries of comments from other travellers. Some are helpful, many less so. And this is no conventional map. We see tantalizing glimpses of the destination and hints as to the route, but the junction by junction directions are strangely absent. Perhaps this is because it is a personal journey. Everyone's route is different. Like a mountain with no paths, we must all pick our own way to the summit. For all the uncertainty, however, we must be assured that there is a summit and it - like the starting point - is the same for all.

In John's gospel we see the question of an early traveller:

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me..."

I have a lot of sympathy for Thomas. There is a tendency to look down on him - one of the lesser disciples. He is forever tarred as a doubter. But Thomas has two things going for him which place him ahead of many. He wants to go where Jesus is going, and he's not afraid to admit his ignorance. Over the years I have come to realise that so much of what I have been taught with so much confidence, comes from people who aren't certain, but are afraid to say so. In my journey I hope to find some answers. I hope also to admit when I don't find any. After all if it had not been for Thomas' question, we might have missed one of the deepest statements in the bible.

In an expedition to find the kingdom the only place to start is with the person of Jesus. He is more than a map, he is a guide. We find his thoughts on the kingdom scattered through the gospels. By my count there are 139 references to the kingdom of God in the New Testament of which 105 come in the gospels (and 49 of these are in Matthew). So it is with the Gospels that I will begin...