NOTES for Luk 17:20-37
When asked when the Kingdom He proclaims will finally come, Christ gives a very strange answer. On the one hand, it “is not coming with signs to be observed”; it is “in your midst”; it is already growing in those who share in it. On the other hand, Jesus paints apocalyptic pictures of the end of the world, the day when the Son of Man, like lightning, “flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other.” What does He wish to say through this contrast? How can the Kingdom’s imperceptible coming be reconciled with the thunder, lightning, and rain of fire of the Second Coming? Apparently, we are seeing not merely two different images of eternity entering our world, but also two ways of life. One can live in vain, “selling, buying, planting, building,” drowning out the signs of the coming Kingdom with one’s feverish activity. Or one can already live in it—or rather, bring it into being in one’s life and in one’s relationships with people and with God, cultivating the Kingdom “in our midst.”