20 Once the Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom would come. He replied, “The coming of God’s kingdom is not something you can see just by watching for it carefully. 21 People will not say, ‘Here it is.’ Or, ‘There it is.’ God’s kingdom is among you.”
22 Then Jesus spoke to his disciples. “The time is coming,” he said, “when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man. But you won’t see it. 23 People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ Or, ‘Here he is!’ Don’t go running off after them.
24 “When the Son of Man comes, he will be like the lightning. It flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25 But first the Son of Man must suffer many things. He will not be accepted by the people of today.
26 “Remember how it was in the days of Noah. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. 27 People were eating and drinking. They were getting married. They were giving their daughters to be married. They did all those things right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking. They were buying and selling. They were planting and building. 29 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven. And all the people were destroyed.
30 “It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is shown to the world. 31 Suppose someone is on the roof of his house on that day. And suppose his goods are inside the house. He should not go down to get them. No one in the field should go back for anything either. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it. Anyone who loses his life will keep it.
34 “I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed. One person will be taken and the other left. 35-36 Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other left.”
37 “Where, Lord?” his disciples asked.
He replied, “The vultures will gather where there is a dead body.”
Read Luke 17:20-37 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In today’s journal entry, we’ll touch on one of the illogical things that Jesus tells us in this verse, and uncover something interesting about how Jesus saw life. Here’s what Jesus said that doesn’t make a lot of sense:
“Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it. Anyone who loses his life will keep it.” (v. 33)
All too often, we will read this verse, and do one of two things with it:
We ignore or discount it. It doesn’t make logical sense, so let’s not pay much attention to it.
We apply it to the subset of people who give up everything and enter the “mission field”, traveling to dangerous places in the world to spread the good news about Jesus. For those who don’t travel, they must be “trying to keep his life.”
Both of these ideas fall short. Both takes on this passage miss one important thing: the context of the verse.
The immediate context is the day Jesus is “shown to the world” (v.30), which in the broader context would mean His second coming. The next immediate context is what reaction we will have when we see it (v. 31). Jesus says to not go back, and to not pick up anything when going.
Then Jesus shares one of the shortest verses in the Bible as an example that needs very little explanation: “Remember Lot’s wife!” (v. 32)
The story of Lot and the escape from Sodom can be found in Genesis 19, and verse 26 tells the fate of Lot’s wife: “But Lot’s wife looked back. When she did, she became a pillar made out of salt.”
There is a lot of foreshadowing included in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but in this journal entry, I want to bring just one big, overarching idea to our attention: What matters most is where our heart is.
Lot’s wife looked back, not because she was looking to see if there were fireballs coming down from heaven, but because her heart was back with the life she had back there.
Those of us who are willing to lose our lives (the stuff and status we have built) when God calls us at the end of time, those will be the ones who will gain eternal life. Those whose hearts are focused on what is being lost and left behind, or those who are trying to bring baggage along will lose their lives.
Jesus’ instruction in verse 31 is clear: “Suppose someone is on the roof of his house on that day. And suppose his goods are inside the house. He should not go down to get them. No one in the field should go back for anything either.”
Our stuff only matters in the present life. Don’t trade the present for the promised life to come!
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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