I don’t ordinarily do this, but was moved to share this thought from noted theologian, Walter Brueggemann.  The language may be a little academic for some, but I think it’s well worth working through.  It is a reminder of how utterly different and unique the kingdom of GOD is when compared to the kingdoms of this world.

“Jesus in his solidarity with the marginal ones is moved to compassion.  Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness.  In the arrangement of ‘lawfulness’  in Jesus’ time, as in the ancient empire of Pharaoh, the one unpermitted quality of relation was compassion.  Empires are never built or maintained on the basis of compassion.  The norms of law (social control) are never accommodated to persons, but persons are accommodated to the norms.  Otherwise the norms will collapse and with them the whole power arrangement.  Thus the compassion of Jesus is to be understood not simply as a personal emotional reaction but as a public criticism in which he dares to act upon his concern against the entire numbness of his social context.”

Quoted from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers And Other Servants, The Upper Room, Nashville, TN, 1983.