The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth

The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is the central theological and ethical concept that Dmitri Ivanovitch Nekhludoff arrives at during his final spiritual awakening in the novel Resurrection. It represents the belief that if all men were to obey the five commandments given by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount—to not be angry, to not commit adultery, to not swear oaths, to turn the other cheek, and to love one's enemies—then the highest possible blessing for humanity would be established, and the violence, injustice, and suffering that pervade society would cease of their own accord.

The Revelation Through the Gospels

After witnessing the death of Anatole Kryltzoff and the horrors of the prison, Nekhludoff returns to his hotel room in a state of profound weariness and despair. Mechanically opening the Testament given to him by the Englishman, he begins to read the Gospel of Matthew. The words that had once seemed like "beautiful abstract thoughts, setting forth for the most part exaggerated and impossible demands" now appear to him as "simple, clear, practical laws." He sees in the Sermon on the Mount not an unattainable ideal but a set of commandments whose practical implementation would establish "perfectly new and surprising conditions of social life." The parable of the wicked servant, who was forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents but refused to forgive a fellow servant a debt of a hundred pence, crystallizes for Nekhludoff the law of forgiveness: men must forgive always, an infinite number of times, because no man is without sin and therefore none can punish or correct others.

The Five Commandments as the Foundation

Nekhludoff identifies five specific laws from the Sermon on the Mount. The first (Matthew 5:21-26) commands that man should not only do no murder but should not even be angry with his brother, and should reconcile before bringing his gift to God. The second (Matthew 5:27-32) commands that man should not only not commit adultery but should not even seek enjoyment in a woman's beauty, and if he has once come together with a woman he should never be faithless to her. The third (Matthew 5:33-37) commands that man should never bind himself by oath. The fourth (Matthew 5:38-42) commands that man should not demand an eye for an eye but should turn the other cheek, forgive offences, and never refuse service. The fifth (Matthew 5:43-48) commands that man should not only not hate his enemy but love him, help him, and serve him. Nekhludoff realizes that every deviation from these laws is a mistake that is immediately followed by retribution, and that the only duty of every man is to fulfil them.

The Parable of the Vineyard and the Meaning of Life

The parable of the vineyard provides the strongest illustration of Nekhludoff's new understanding. The husbandmen imagined that the vineyard in which they were sent to work for their master was their own, that all that was in it was made for them, and that their business was to enjoy life in it, forgetting the Master and killing all who reminded them of His existence. Nekhludoff sees that men do the same when they imagine themselves to be masters of their own lives and that life is given for enjoyment. This is an incongruity: men were sent into the world by some one's will and for some reason, and when they live only for their own joy they feel unhappy, as labourers do when not fulfilling their Master's orders. The Master's will is expressed in the five commandments, and if men will only fulfil them, the Kingdom of Heaven will be established on earth, and men will receive the greatest good they can attain to.

The End of One Task and the Beginning of Another

Nekhludoff's realization that the only reasonable meaning of life lies in fulfilling these commandments marks the culmination of his moral journey. He reflects that scarcely has he finished one task—his duty toward Katerina Maslova—when another has commenced. The new life that dawns for him that night is not a change in external conditions but a transformation of significance: everything he does after that night has a new and quite different meaning. The novel ends with the assertion that how this new period of his life will end, time alone will prove, leaving the reader with the open possibility that the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, though not yet realized, has become the guiding principle of Nekhludoff's existence.