Luke 17:20-25 - Coming of the kingdom

17:20,21

The Pharisees question may, for once, have been a genuine question, rather than one designed to trap Jesus. For Jesus frequently mentioned the kingdom in His teaching, so it would be natural for them to ask “when will this kingdom come?”. Jesus answers first by pointing out erroneous thinking. The Jews were looking for relief from the Roman occupation, Jesus is effectively telling them that it is not anything like that. The kingdom “is in your midst” can be translated as “the kingdom is within you”, or “the kingdom is among you”. There are other less likely possibilities as well. The meaning may well be a mixture of these two. The people were looking for something external, for something to be done for them, such as freedom from the Romans. What they needed, and what we, need, is change within. We need change to us, not change for us. Then the reality of the kingdom was actually among them in the person of Jesus Christ. He lives his life in complete love, trust and obedience to God, which was why He was able to do what He did.

17:22-25

Jesus now turns to the disciples to teach them about the coming of the kingdom. “The days of the Son of Man”. There are various possibilities as to what this means. It could be that the disciples would long for the day when Jesus was with them here on earth. Or it could refer to the future coming of the Lord. Given the context the latter seems a little more likely. In the future the disciples, both then and now, and at various times in history, would long for Jesus to return and bring in the Kingdom in all its fulness, but that would not happen.

Motivated by emotion, many would claim that Jesus was here or was there. We need to beware of people with idea when the ideas are not motivated by Scripture, but by the flesh. Now this can happen either because the person has evil motives, or because they are misguided, carried along by emotion rather than the Spirit.

When the Son of Man does return it will be obvious to all. No degrees in theology will be required, no prophetic insight will be required. However, before all that happens He would have to suffer and be rejected, and Christians too will suffer and be rejected.