Jesus said, “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised…good news is being preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:5 NLT).

Here Jesus describes a 3-dimensional kingdom where:

The rejected find acceptance. Listen: “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear.” These particular people had no status or value; they were society’s rejects. But what others see as trash, God sees as treasure.

Death is powerless. Jesus could say, “The dead are raised,” because He personally unlocked death’s prison, turning every funeral into an Easter celebration. In 1899 two men died: evangelist D. L. Moody and political leader, Robert Ingersol, an agnostic. A biographer characterized their deaths like this: “Ingersol died suddenly. Public response to his passing was dismal. But Moody awoke on his last winter dawn and said, ‘Earth recedes, heaven opens before me! If this is death it is sweet’.”

Mercy replaces justice. Why did Jesus say, “Good news is being preached to the poor?” Because membership in God’s kingdom can’t be purchased. You don’t get in by doing enough, but by admitting that you could never do enough. That’s why Paul writes: “By grace you have been saved…not by works” (Ephesians 2:8-9).