Thoughts From Luke - Day 77

                                                  Luke 17:22-37

Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. ²³ People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. ²⁴ For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵ But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
²⁶ “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷ People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
³⁰ “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹ On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
³⁷ “Where, Lord?” they asked.
He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”


                 So many questions about Jesus' eschatological passages in the gospels. Scholars have debated them for years and come up with three basic thought - premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism. In those three there are multiple subsets of beliefs. Those views will determine if the fulfillment of Jesus' teachings has already happened, partially happened, or will all be in the future, and what in the world does He mean by "dead body" and "vultures"? But rather than debate all that, because there are many other more qualified people doing that, I like to find what the Word of God is saying to me in this passage for today.

              The first thing it is saying to me is our wrong view about success. Jesus was the most "Successful" "religious figure" of all time and His life "ended" with a handful of followers, suffering many things and being rejected by His generation. We tend to think in terms of success as how big, how much, how popular, how desired, and Jesus, at the end was none of these except in the eyes of His Father in Heaven. He strove to please God and not men. Do we do that? Am I embarrassed to share Christ with people for fear they will reject me. Am I embarrassed to be labeled a Bible Thumper or religious fanatic? Am I concerned more with people liking me than God liking me? Our churches and pastors today would prefer to be Mega-Churches and famous and soft peddle the truth rather than speak the whole counsel of God. Jesus would be ashamed of me for this. May I seek His approval today rather than the World's.

            The second thing I see is that in light of the coming of Christ, how should we live? One thing I see is Lot's wife and the negative example there. Am I so much in love with the things of this world that when Jesus comes back, I will be wishing He wasn't because I love this world so much. I think of a Christian guy who worked till he was 65 and retired. He loved to fish, hunt, hike, and he couldn't wait to get started. The day after he retired he died of a heart attack. What a tragedy, right? Work your whole life only to retire so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and you die. That's the way everyone including Christians see it but it is totally wrong. Do you think right now as he is in Heaven he is thinking, "Man, I got gypped!"? No way! Another thing I see is to be about our business because we don't know when He is coming back. I've heard students, in love with Jesus, say, "Why should I waste my time going to college, graduate school, etc. if Jesus could come back at any moment?" Jesus says that we should work, sleep, party, etc. just as always because we don't know when He is coming. It's just that in light of His coming, we should use those opportunities with new urgency. If we are in school we should be seeking people out who are going to be "left behind". If we are partying at a wedding or something else, we should be meeting people and developing relationships in order to share the gospel. A Christian friend of mine was out fly fishing in the Smokies and I asked him how it went. He said, "Fine, except for all the tourists who kept stopping to talk to me!" Sound familiar? Sound wrong? What if fishing was the means to strike up spiritual conversations?

       Therefore, in light of Christ's imminent return, let's be bold today, not living for the world's approval but to hear the words "well done" when we come into His presence. And lets live like aliens here not getting attached to things but using them to maybe bring someone along with us when we are called up.