Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Wednesday, March 13, 2013 Read – Luke 17:20-37 Near the end of Mark’s gospel, just before Jesus is betrayed, arrested, and crucified we will hear Jesus speaking with his disciples about the end of all things (Mark 13). We will discover that Matthew follows Mark very closely at that point (Matthew 24) while Luke retains some of Mark’s sayings but edits them considerably (Luke 21). At this point in his gospel Luke pulls some of what Mark will say in that context and places it here – long before the entry into Jerusalem and the final events of Jesus’ life. One can’t help but wonder why Luke did that. We will have much more to say about that when we get to that point in Luke’s gospel, but for now it will be enough to notice that Luke wants to talk with his readers about what the coming of the kingdom means. And for Luke, more than any other gospel writer, part of the needed understanding of the coming of the Kingdom of God is to know that it comes now, in the coming of Jesus! In other words, Luke wants to emphasize that the kingdom is not just a future reality but rather that the kingdom is both a future and a present reality. The kingdom is not just something we wait for in the future but something we are to see now in the present. Luke sets the context with his own introduction – partly taken from Mark’s warning about the coming end – but mostly this is the product of Luke’s own hand. In Mark, it is the select four disciples – Peter, Andrew, James, and John – who ask Jesus how they are to recognize the coming kingdom (Mark 13:3-4). Here in Luke it is the Pharisees who do the asking (Luke 17:20). That in itself is worth noting. Luke does not share Mark’s disdain for the Pharisees. Jesus’ response is that the kingdom does not come with signs to be observed and followers of Jesus are not to be led away by speculators who say “Here it is” or “There it is.” Mark had said the same in his context – a warning about all of those who claim to know when the “last days” are upon us. Luke now picks up some words he found in “Q” – words that Matthew will add to Mark in his discourse about the last days (Matthew 24:26-28 and 24:37-41). Matthew judges these words to belong to Jesus talk about the last days. Luke understands these words to belong to the present time. Luke does refer to the last days but what he says is striking! There will be no missing of that reality – it will be like lightning flashing across the whole sky! There will be nothing subtle about the final end – no speculating and no doubt about it! But in the meantime there are events that may appear to indicate the final end – they do not! There will be suffering – all the things that so many are convinced indicate the last days – but that is not the case. Just because the world seems to be coming apart is not an indication that the last days have arrived! In fact the opposite is the real case. Who expected the flood? Who expected the destruction of Sodom? Those cataclysmic events happened and life went on as usual for those who were not aware of God’s presence. Just so, those who do not perceive that the kingdom of God has already arrived in Jesus will not know what is happening. Much is made by some of those who are “taken” at the last time – the idea built on the non-Biblical notion of a “rapture” of the faithful out of the suffering of this world. But listen to what Jesus says in Luke’s gospel. There will be those who are taken to be sure – but their being taken is not a good thing – they are little more than bodies around which eagles will swarm (Luke 17:37). What is Luke’s point? The point for Luke is that suffering is to be expected as a part of this life. Suffering does not indicate that the end is near. The end will be unambiguous – open for all to see and not some mystery that only the enlightened can grasp. In the meantime – know that the kingdom has come in Jesus. Luke warns his readers not to be led astray.