Luke 17, The Coming of the Kingdom of God

We are getting to the end of Jesus's teachings before arriving in Jerusalem.  Luke seems to collect here a bunch of sayings, not clearly related (at least to me.)

Luke 17:1-4, Be serious about kingdom living!

Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,' forgive him."

Citizens of the new kingdom need to be caring and unselfish; in that compassion, they forgive those who are not a caring.

Luke 17:5-6, The faith of a mustard seed
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.

A strange answer!  The mustard seed was very small (imagine a sesame seed on a hamburger bun) and yet supposedly we can do great things with just a little bit of faith. Yet I'm not sure how that allows us to uproot mulberry trees! The emphasis may be on our belief being genuine; it is not an issue of "size" of faith.

Luke 17:7-10, Servanthood
"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, `Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, `Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?

"So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"

Don't do your duty so that people can thank-you!  Do it simply because it is your duty!

Luke 17:11-19
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

Those healed from leprosy were to go to the priests for verification.  Jesus does not seem to tell the ten that they have been healed but instead tells them to go to the priests, as if they were.

Luke emphasizes that the grateful man is foreigner, not a Jew. The sick Samaritan went to a Jewish priest for confirmation that he had been healed (by the Jewish Messiah.)  God is clearly at work among the Gentiles and foreigners!

Luke 17: 20-25, Rejected by this generation
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, `Here it is,' or `There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

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.  Men will tell you, `There he is!' or `Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. 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.

But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

The kingdom of God is growing among the Jewish people, spreading out from their Messiah (the "Son of Man".)  Sometime soon, the Son of Man will suffer and be rejected by "this generation" and after that he will leave.

Luke 17: 26-37, The days of Noah are coming
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 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.

"It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

"It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.

"Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it  I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left."

"Where, Lord?" they asked. 

He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather."

In Noah's day (or Lot's day) life went on, with people engaged in the trivialities of life.  No one was prepared for the catastrophe's that suddenly occurred.  When the Son of Man is revealed, in the catastrophes that occur there, people will similarly be unprepared.  At that time they should focus on the Son of Man, not irrelevant things like their possessions or goods.

This passages parallels that of Matthew 24. Some early Greek manuscripts of Luke add a verse 36, "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left."  Apparently this doesn't appear in the earliest manuscripts and was most likely added by a copier who was aware of the parallel passage in Matthew 24.  (See Matthew 24: 40.)

It is not clear (to me) which parts of this passage in Luke 17 (or Matthew 24) apply to the first appearance of the Son of Man as Messiah (culminating in his crucifixion and resurrection and later destruction of Jerusalem) and which parts apply to a later return, still to come.