In Matthew 11, Jesus answers John's disciples this way, "the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." [The Greek is actually a passive voice verb, so maybe, "and the poor are told (given) the good news"?]
So what good news was being preached/told/given to the poor? And why did Jesus specifically point out the poor as being the recipients of this preaching?
Let's stay in Matthew's writing and check a few things out.
Why do I pick up on "kingdom" to begin an answer to my questions? Well, Mathew 4, verse 17 says, "From that time Jesus began to preach and say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' " And I suspect that is supposed to be good news for someone. [And maybe not-so-good-news for others.]
The word 'kingdom(s)' occurs 54 times in Matthew. Thirty-six (36) of those are as part of either "kingdom of heaven" (31 times) or "kingdom of God" (4 times) or "kingdom of their Father" (once). In verses 23 and 24 of chapter 19 those two terms are used interchangeably, allowing us to see that when the Mark and Luke us "kingdom of God," it means essentially the same as "kingdom of heaven" in Matthew.
The 'Sermon on the Mount' uses "kingdom of heaven" five times. The parables of chapter 13 use "kingdom of heaven" seven times and Jesus uses it one more time - as well as the phrase "kingdom of their Father." In addition, there are four more parables that teach about the "kingdom of heaven" in Matthew.
Enough 'statistics' and facts. What does kingdom have to do with 'good news' or 'gospel'?
I'm gonna let the question hang in the air for a little while as I [and anyone else who cares to] ponder and pray and study the question. I plan to get back to it in a day or so.
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