Luke 17:20 - 37

In Luke 17:20 - 37, Jesus becomes a little bit mystical and a little cryptic.  This is annoying for people like me who are trying to make sense of what He says!

Jesus is in the middle of a grilling by the Pharisees, and (perhaps not surprisingly, because this is pretty much His Modus Operandi!), He turns it around into an attack on His questioners.

Here He seems to struggle a little bit.  Not with any issue of understanding; more a linguistic issue.  Basically He's saying "The Kingdom of God isn't what you seem to be expecting!"

In fact, He is waxing more than a little apocalyptic really.

The big deal about what Jesus is saying is simple enough - There is a day coming when all this wil be coming to an end.  BE READY.

There was a fad for end times prophecy a few years back; even though my experience of life is fairly limited, I'm coming quickly to the conclusion that this is just one of those things that people do, and Christians aren't immune.  After a while, it ran its course (though the "Left Behind" books are still very much available!) and people moved on to the next trend.

I sometimes wonder if in our enthusiasm not to be seen as freaks by the outside world[1], we've lost something important.  Christians throughout the History of the world have been ridiculed, lampooned even, for our willingness to believe in an end time; Scientists look at the universe and say "It just goes on."

Yet we are told in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS - the end is coming, and we are to be ready for it.

How do we prepare ourselves for an end which may not come in our lifetimes?

I think the best answer to this question must go to Martin Luther.  When asked what he would do if he were aware that the Lord would be returning tomorrow, he thought a moment and consulted his diary.

Then he replied "I'd plant a row of petunias."

The questioner was puzzled.  What significance did these flowers have?  Were they some kind of symbol? Some sort of message to the world left behind?

But when quizzed further, Luther just smiled.  "That's what I'm planning to do tomorrow.  I always live my life in such a way as to be ready for the Lord's return, even if it is tomorrow."

To me that's the greatest thing that a Christian could ever say - Living Life prepared for the Lord's coming.  I wonder how many of us could say that with any degree of honesty . . .

[1] And here, it must be said, Christians could do with a bit less freakiness.  The Gospel makes us unusual, true - there are some values and attitudes that are simply incomprehensible to the World.  However, a lot of our freakiness comes from our culture, and we need to be continually on our guard to ensure that we don't just do things because we've always done them . . .