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!
There are a lot of great ideas in this passage that we could choose to highlight, but for this journal entry, I will focus on an idea that is a little baffling to me. It is found in Jesus’ words as this passage opens:
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. People will not say, ‘Here it is.’ Or, ‘There it is.’ God’s kingdom is among you.” (v. 20-21)
“God’s kingdom is among you.” This phrase can be baffling if we think about it long enough. The Pharisees are expecting a coming kingdom, but instead they are faced with an already present kingdom – one that they don’t see.
In other places, John the Baptist, Jesus’ disciples, and even Jesus preach that God’s kingdom is “coming”, but here we read in Jesus’ response that it is already here. At least to me, this makes me wonder if one way of defining God’s kingdom is simply anywhere where “Jesus” is. Perhaps we could broaden it to be anywhere that “God” is – so that it includes God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
We also could broaden this approach even further, since Paul calls the church “the Body of Christ”. (1 Corinthians 12:27)
With this framework, I could easily wonder: Do I miss seeing God’s kingdom around me as I live life? Do I ever miss opportunities to be a part of God’s kingdom because I am not paying attention to what God is doing? Would I live any differently knowing that I can be a part of God’s kingdom today?
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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