Being asked by the Pharisees when God’s Kingdom would come, he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation;
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 20. When the kingdom of God should come? or when is it to come? when will the Messias come? The Pharisees might say this in a mocking and an insulting manner, to signify that he could not be their true Messias.—The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; that it, so as to be observed; not with great marks of temporal power, as you imagine. Witham.—The Pharisees expected a Messias powerful according to this world, a conqueror, a monarch, a revenger of the injuries of Israel; one who would restore them to liberty, and bless them with temporal goods and prosperity. In Jesus, they saw nothing, which corresponded to these magnificent hopes; and therefore asked him, by way of insult and reproach, when this kingdom of God would come, which he so often talked of and announced to his disciples. He answers them, that the manifestation of the Messias, and the establishment of his kingdom, shall not be effected in a conspicuous, splendid manner. It shall be brought about insensibly, and the accomplishment of the designs of the omnipotence of our Lord shall appear a casualty, and the effect of secondary causes. You shall not see the Messias coming at the head of armies, to spread terror and desolation. His arrival shall not be announced by ambassadors, and so forth every thing in the establishment of my kingdom shall be the reverse of temporal power. Calmet.