Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§12.4 The Kingdom of God
ter was about to return, the thief about to break in, the midnight shout was already
heralding the bridegroom's coming?
Dodd pressed the point to support his thesis of 'realised eschatology', that
is, that Jesus 'saw in his own ministry the supreme crisis in history', a crisis 'created
by his own coming, rather than an expected crisis in the more or less distant
future'. 247 But this pushes the point too far: true, the parables do not envisage a
crisis 'in the distant future', but neither do they imply that the crisis has already
happened or is already happening. 248 The repeated command to 'Keep awake'
would be redundant if it referred only to a time (a coming) that was already past.
It could function only as a figure of savage irony: 'Keep awake! But it's already
too late!'. The more natural reading is to hear warning of a crisis indeed, a crisis
whose coming is certain, and not only certain but imminent, though finally unknown
as to date and time. Above all, now is the time to keep awake and watchful
for what may happen at any minute.
What the expected crisis would be in real life is not indicated, but the imagery
is consistently of being caught out unprepared, with the implication of great
loss. So the coming of the kingdom here is consistent with failure in the final
trial, being found wanting in the final judgment. At any rate the sequence of material
confirms the strength of the strand of imminent expectation within the Jesus
tradition.
h. The Kingdom as Imminent
One of the most influential of the earlier treatments of the subject has been that
of W. G. Kümmel. 249 Kümmel drew particular attention to 'the pressing imminence
of the end' in Jesus' preaching, that is, of the final consummation, which
he identified with the coming of the kingdom. The imminence of the kingdom is
clear enough in the engiken, engys material and 'parables of crisis' reviewed
above. 250 And Kümmel throws in the parable of the unjust judge for good measure
(Luke 18.2-8). Luke has presented it as an encouragement to persistent
prayer (18.1). But Kümmel draws particular attention to the end of the parable —
247. Dodd, Parables 165; the parables 'were intended to enforce his appeal to men to
recognize that the kingdom of God was present in all its momentous consequences, and that by
their conduct in the presence of this tremendous crisis they would judge themselves as faithful
or unfaithful, wise or foolish' (174).
248. Cf. Jeremias' modification of Dodd's position, summarized in Proclamation 138-
39.
249. Kümmel, Promise ch. 1 (particularly 54-64); also 'Eschatological Expectation in
the Proclamation of Jesus', in Robinson, ed., The Future of Our Religious Past 29-48.
250. Kümmel, Promise 19-25, 54-59; 'Eschatological Expectation' 32-35.
431