Like a murder of crows, the Pharisees (did they all wear
judges’ black?) continue to flock after and shadow Jesus and the disciples on their way to
Jerusalem. Always listening, always probing, they are recording and speculating
for one eventual purpose: to wrest control of the crowd from Jesus’ hands and
use it to their own ends.
Played correctly, they may parlay this fickle crowd into a force of Freedom Fighters and free Judea from Roman occupation. “We invited them in, we can kick them out,” they assure one another. How sad that their reasons for killing Jesus never rise above this empty (and doomed) quest for political power.
Played correctly, they may parlay this fickle crowd into a force of Freedom Fighters and free Judea from Roman occupation. “We invited them in, we can kick them out,” they assure one another. How sad that their reasons for killing Jesus never rise above this empty (and doomed) quest for political power.
“Fine then,” say the Pharisees with all the exasperation they can muster, “if you know so much, tell us this: when will the Kingdom of God come?”
It’s a rude question on many levels, but the Pharisees have never split hairs about being nice or polite. It must have aggravated Jesus that they were so willfully, stubbornly blind to everything going on around them. Isaiah, were he here, would shout at them in recognition, “The blind see, the lame are healed, the poor have Good News preached to them!”
All of this leads us to wonder: Just what kind of Kingdom are the Pharisees waiting for anyway? Could it be that they are focused on creating a world where they have all the luxuries of Rome plus their religious and political independence – at any cost?
Jesus, as the elephant in the room, tells the Pharisees: “Behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
The Pharisees, for their part, simply scowl and go back to muttering among themselves.
This isn’t an unusual day by any means. In fact, all in all, it’s just another day at the office for Jesus. He and the disciples have this routine down pat. As a group, they have a genuine bond and real camaraderie and will, one day, look back at this time with genuine fondness and nostalgia.
“Get ready,” says Jesus, “because the days are coming when you’ll look back and wish you could relive a day like this – but I won’t be here. People will urge you to go here or look there in search of Me. But that’s completely unnecessary. When I return, it will be obvious to all – like a lightning strike across the sky (and just as swift).”
Jesus briefly returns to what is becoming a familiar theme: His death. The disciples (prevented by the Spirit from truly hearing and understanding) probably rolled their eyes at this, but there’s an important message here, one that helps set our expectations for the future.
Like the days of Noah and Lot, so shall the days of the Son of Man’s return be, Jesus tells the disciples.
That tells us, first and foremost, that things will be very grim indeed from the church’s point of view before Christ’s return. There will be very few righteous people on the earth, for one. And just as Noah and Lot were divinely delivered from sudden, complete destruction, so those few righteous will be snatched from the fire to come.
To the world, the end will be just another ordinary day. There will be no debates or saber rattling leading up to the event. There will be no build-up or anticipation – it will not be a foregone conclusion of current events. It will be swift and sudden. There will be no time to take stock or to consider what will be lost to the fire. Lot’s wife will stand at the resurrection to accuse us of looking back in longing at the things we left burning. Don’t look back, warns Jesus, leave that life behind and save your soul. It’s all you have anyway.
