November 9: NOW…AND THEN….
And when the Pharisees had demanded of [Jesus] when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, “The Kingdom of God cometh not with outward show.” Luke 17:20 (KJ21)
Jesus employed an incredibly powerful arrangement of words to enlarge our small human thinking. Blaming others for our predicaments is the oldest human strategy for evading personal responsibility. In this setting, the Pharisees believed and taught that an earthly, military overthrow of the dreaded Romans would be the ultimate solution to all of their problems.
Ironically, they were in the ideal position to see the repeated pattern of the captivity of God’s people under various pagan regimes as the result of their own repeated pattern of disobedience to God. Are we any different?
Early on, Jesus’ disciples were caught up in the selfish, worldly mentality of “us” against “them” that the religious leaders had propagated. But the first coming of Jesus onto the world stage was for the preparation of hearts. The Savior’s mission included a correction and enlargement of the perception of God’s own character, indeed a new revelation to many! Jesus walked the earth as the complete embodiment of God’s kingdom: living a life of perfect obedience to the Law of Love. This eternal, unchanging Law is the very law that modern preaching is casting aside…a false message which, in effect, is “snatching the rug out from under” those listeners who accept the message.
Jesus continued: “Neither shall they say, ‘Lo, it is here!’ or ‘Lo, it is there!’ For, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.” (v.21)
How compassionately the Savior conveys a grain of hope, even to the openly resistant and rebellious! Having been created in the image of God, there is implanted in each of us an ability to recognize the beauty and truth of that which was uttered from His mouth and written in stone by His finger at the mountaintop of Sinai!
The next two verses, by a great contrast, affirm both the glorious arrival of the Messiah who will truly overthrow all of His spiritual enemies when He comes again, and the humiliating, humbling, and essential payment of the price of sin on our behalf. It is this part of the mission that brings about the first “overthrow,” which occurs within the hearts of individuals who heed His call.
And He said unto the disciples, “The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.” In other words, right now you do not realize the greatness of your present privilege of seeing your God veiled in humanity. But later you will look back with longing for these times of walking and talking with Me. “For as lightning that lighteneth one part under heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall the Son of Man be in His day [of coming in glory].” (vv.22,24)