Luke 17:20-37
Dear RTB’ers,
A few days ago I noted that one of Jesus’ messages was, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven [or God] is at hand.” Apparently He has spoken these words enough that now even the Pharisees are asking Him about it: Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them… (Luke 17:20) So are these Pharisees challenging Him or seeking to know more? A good question… Either way, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:21) In the book, Heaven, the author, Randy Alcorn, argues extensively that we are living in Heaven, that our Earth – in a glorified state – is the future Heaven. So when Jesus says that the kingdom of God is in the midst of you, He could be speaking specifically of “Heaven on Earth”. That is, His words could be taken both literally (a physical Earth) and figuratively (spiritually, within each of us). Also, He may have meant Himself, that He represented or that He was the Kingdom and they missed it, or He may have meant that He had established the Kingdom with His coming and they did not see that either. A lot of ways we can take Jesus’ words…
Jesus’ return… “For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But firs He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” (Luke 17:24-25) Clearly the disciples must have been confused with this language because He had not yet departed. Jesus had spoken often of His coming death, but it seems that this talk of His death was never really clear to the disciples. So talk of a second coming was even less clear to them. However, to those of us on “this side of History”, Jesus’ further words are crystal clear! Don’t worry about the future, about Jesus’ second coming, just be ready for it whenever it comes! It’s always an interesting discussion to talk about the rapture, the notion that “…one will be taken, the other left” (Luke 17:35b) – the idea that one of us could be walking with a non-Christian friend and all of a sudden, we’re gone! Or horror of horrors, that we’re walking with a friend and all of a sudden, THEY’RE GONE and we’re left behind!! As I said above, just be ready. “But concerning that day and hour no one knows…” (Matthew 24:36a)
Blessings!