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Gospel: Luke 17:20-25
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”
Then he said to his disciples,
“The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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There are a few passages in the New Testament that we might call “difficult” to understand. For several reasons, this is one of them.
All Jews live in expectation. Their religion is built upon the promise that God will come and visit his people. This is what the Pharisees are questioning Jesus about today: When is God coming?
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The answer Jesus gives is two-fold.
He says both, “The kingdom of God is among you.”
And, “Do not go off, do not run in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes…so will the Son of Man be in his day.”
There’s a sense of both already and not yet.
The kingdom of God is already present because Jesus is standing in their midst. But we are also living in a state of expectation, because he will come again.
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There’s a third point that makes this passage worth contemplating today.
Some scholars not only translate Jesus words as, “the kingdom of God is among you,” but also, “the kingdom of God is within you.”
Meaning, you and I occupy that “in between” time, when we’re called to build up God’s kingdom gesture by gesture. The Lord is already within us. But now we expand his kingdom in the most ordinary of ways – in charity, by forgiveness, through a prayer spoken on another’s behalf.
Whatever you do today, do it for the glory of God.
Help to build up his kingdom gesture by gesture until he comes again.
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Image credits: (1) Got Questions (2) Hearing From Jesus (3) lastapostle