NOTES for Luk 17:26-37
In the description of how the Kingdom of God comes, the word "left" looks unfamiliar. It is clear that the life of humanity bears little resemblance to what we know from Jesus' words about the properties and manifestations of the Kingdom. But it turns out that the choice for us will be exactly this: either to go into the unknown, or to remain here, but now forever. Enmity, wars, grief, sickness, and death will be eternal, which will please very few people. And one has to choose one of the two.
It seems that only in this way can today's Gospel reading be understood. But the mention of Lot's wife gives us a kind of instruction about how we must leave. Why did she look back then, despite the prohibition? Perhaps it was simple curiosity: what is happening there after you have left, how do they live, how do they die, what do they cry out when fiery rain falls on them? Perhaps it was one last look at the city where she had lived her whole life, with which so much was connected: home, family, children - everything was there, and she was sorry for everything good that had been there. Or it was the ordinary human desire to experience the past one more time, to replay in one's head several times all the fights after which one still wants to wave one's fists and come out the winner. Perhaps there are other reasons as well, sufficient from our point of view, for turning around and looking at what you will never see again. But walking with your head turned back is practically impossible: even if you do not become a pillar of salt, you will break your legs, or even your neck.