The idea of the catholicity of the kingdom—the insistence that it is at work everywhere, always, and for all, rather than in some places, at some times, and for some people—is an integral part of Jesus’ teaching from start to finish. True, at the outset of his ministry it is expressed by little more than his irksome tendency to sit loose to the highly parochial messianic notions of his hearers—by, for example, his breaking of the Sabbath, his consorting with undesirable types, and his