It's Already Here (Has Been for a Long Time)
August 30, 2023
Luke 17:20-37 | I John 4:16-19
There’s a lot going on in the world, eh? If you interpret certain parts of scripture in particular ways, it might even feel apocalyptic sometimes. Rumors of wars, storms, and the like. It can feel scary.
Humans love to try and interpret the times. Signs and wonders - what do they mean? They must mean something, right?
We also prefer predictability. We don’t like to be surprised by too much and the end of the world would be too much, so Jesus…how will we know?
In actuality, this isn’t the question the Pharisees asked in today’s passage. In fact, their question is a good one - When is God’s reign coming? Maybe you’d like to know that, too. If all will be said and done, when will that be?
Jesus’ response is simpler than Christians have often made it.
It’s here. It’s already among us.
That’s good news, not reason for fear.
Just keep living. Pay attention to strife as far as it takes you toward helping those people experiencing it. But do not add to the strife by throwing fear into the mix.1
Jesus’ instructions concerning the swift nature of his coming need not instill fear, but rather readiness. If leaving behind all one’s possessions for his coming makes one fear, that person should consider why that is.
Luke 17:20-37
Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom was coming. He replied, “God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.”
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Human One, and you won’t see it. People will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Don’t leave or go chasing after them. The Human One will appear on his day in the same way that a flash of lightning lights up the sky from one end to the other. However, first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be during the days of the Human One. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. That’s the way it will be on the day the Human One is revealed. On that day, those on the roof, whose possessions are in the house, shouldn’t come down to grab them. Likewise, those in the field shouldn’t turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to preserve their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in the same bed: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”
The disciples asked, “Where, Lord?”
Jesus said, “The vultures gather wherever there’s a dead body.”
I John 4:16-19
We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. We love because God first loved us.
Prayer
God,
Keep me from fear, for I know it is a distraction from love.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
It’s a rather trivial aside, but it’s interesting that many Christian doomsayers have concocted a rapture predicated in part on this passage by which “one is taken and one is left.” Jesus specifically says it would be like the days of Noah. But who was taken and who was left with Noah? It wasn’t the righteous ones who disappeared, but the unrighteous.