Luke 17: The Redeeming King Returns to Judge and to Save

Introduction

Silas, who has been at Église Saint-Lazare for a little over seven years, admits he approached this text with apprehension. Just two chapters after the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 17 speaks of the end times and the final judgment, a topic he calls "sensitive and uncomfortable" in the church's series on following the footsteps of the Savior.

He could simply say: don't worry, everything will be fine. But that would be a facade. Deep down, we are not at peace. Health worries, loneliness, the country's economic future, anxiety about the environment or about security sometimes keep us awake at night. Despite advances in medicine and living conditions, "our anxiety does not go down." Will I be able to pay my rent next month? Will she recover from this illness? Why do so many people not have enough to eat?

Our thirst for justice and rest has been the same for thousands of years, and we are powerless to bring order to our hearts and to our world. "But Jesus can. He is even the only one who can." In this passage, he gives us a glimpse of history, from Genesis to the end of time: the story of a redeeming King who returns to judge the sin of the world.

Outline of the Message

1. A Story of Redemption Since Genesis

Since Genesis, humanity has inflicted the suffering of sin on itself and on all creation, because it turned away from God's will.
God hears the cries of agony of his creation. Jesus reminds us that he too has been at work since Genesis for redemption, the buying back of this creation.
He promises that a day will come when he will judge sin and we will be free of it. And he warns that he alone is sovereign over this plan of redemption.
Silas announces three aspects of this return: the kingdom is already among us, Jesus will bring redemption to completion, and above all he will save us from a judgment that seems so fearsome.

2. The Kingdom Is Already in Your Midst (v. 20-21)

The Pharisees ask when the kingdom of God will come. Israel has lived under Roman occupation for a long time. It humiliates the people with its military presence, imposes forced labor, and divides society between collaboration and opposition.
They remember the height of the kingdom, when David brought the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem and Solomon built the first temple. If the God of Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon is so powerful, why are they so wretched?
Many read the prophecies of Isaiah, Joel, Amos or Zechariah about the day of the Lord. They hoped that on that day God would free them from the Romans and restore Israel. Hence the calculations and the demand for signs.
Jesus shatters these preconceived ideas: "The Kingdom of God doesn’t come with observation. [...] for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." The promised King, a descendant of David, is here; so the kingdom is here.
If the kingdom of Israel was great at its height, it was because God was with it. Here, God himself is present in the flesh. Just before, the healing of the ten lepers had already shown his power over the consequences of sin, namely illness. But the Pharisees did not understand why one of them fell at Jesus' feet to praise God: citizenship in the kingdom begins with faith, when you recognize who Jesus really is.
The Pharisees hoped for revenge on Rome; Jesus offers far more: the possibility of knowing God. Even today, God acts by giving his Holy Spirit to anyone who wants to receive him.
If you know you are not a citizen of this kingdom, Silas encourages you to do your own investigation: read the Gospel of Luke and pray. "It's simple." Come to God with your questions, your preconceived ideas and your doubts, and see how Jesus answers them.

3. The Day of the Son of Man Will Be Like Lightning (v. 22-30)

The suffering behind the Pharisees' question did not disappear when the kingdom arrived. We know this well, 2,000 years later. That is why Jesus then turns to his disciples: "The days will come, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it."
Jesus takes up the Old Testament phrase, the day of the Lord, but he speaks of the day of the "Son of Man," a prophetic image from Daniel 7:13 that he often uses to describe himself. In this way he declares that the day of divine judgment belongs to him.
Verse 23 echoes verse 21: people will tell you "Look, here!" or "Look, there!", but do not go. Jesus warns his disciples, and us with them, against the urge to search and to calculate, the same urge the Pharisees had.
Lightning shines from one end of the sky to the other. Even if you don't see it, its light illuminates everything; even with your eyes closed, you end up hearing it. There is no point looking for what will be impossible to miss: there will be no need for "an international inquiry or chatty editorials" to explain it.
As for the signs, in the days of Noah and Lot, people ate, drank, married, bought, sold, planted and built. "There is truly nothing new under the sun." If the signs boil down to that, there is no point searching for them: the day will arrive suddenly.

4. At the Center of the Passage, the Cross (v. 25)

In the middle of this speech about a day still to come, Jesus slips in: "But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." That day is very close to him: it is his Passion, his death on the cross.
The two accounts from Genesis shed light on this choice. With the flood, God judges the sin of the whole world but preserves a faithful remnant: Noah, his family and a few representatives of creation.
For Lot, we have to go back to the covenant with Abraham: through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Abraham believed the Lord, who counted it to him as righteousness. When God pronounces judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham intercedes, and Lot and his family are saved: one of the first examples of that blessing.
Lot is far from the last person blessed by God through Abraham, because Jesus is a distant descendant of Abraham. By announcing his death, he announces that he will take upon himself the sentence that was ours. Through faith in him, we become descendants of Abraham. "God looks at the pierced hands of his Son and remembers," and he counts our faith to us as righteousness.
The sacrifice of Jesus is the central point of the story of redemption: it is what allows the citizens of the kingdom to be part of the faithful remnant. If God had given in to the Israelites' desire to defeat the Roman occupation, how would we be saved today? "We don't know better than God how creation should be saved."
The disciples, who did not see the day of the Son of Man in their lifetime, remembered these words after the death and resurrection of Jesus. They were comforted in persecution. We can be too: the Risen One has the power to bring redemption to completion.

5. Remember Lot's Wife (v. 31-33)

By verse 30, the atmosphere is already heavy: the flood "destroyed them all," the fire and sulfur from the sky "destroyed them all." Silas mentions this year's disasters, in Crans-Montana or, more recently, in the Himalayas. He does not say they are judgments, but they make the prospect of judgment feel more real.
The one who is on the housetop must not come down to get his belongings. Our material possessions have an immense hold on us. Silas says that before falling asleep, he sometimes imagines a fire in his building: in all his scenarios, he always has time to go and get his violin, even though all safety training says not to. Do we love Jesus more than our possessions, or will they be a stumbling block on the day of judgment?
"Remember Lot's wife." In Genesis 19, the angels take hold of Lot and his hesitating family and order them not to look back. She turns toward the burning city and becomes a pillar of salt.
We feel empathy for her: she leaves her home, her comfort, the whole life built in Sodom, and leaves behind those who were to marry her two daughters. That is precisely why we need to remember her: this world corrupted by sin is deeply rooted in us.
Silas compares sin to cancer: once you have it, it becomes part of you and is terribly hard to get rid of. He saw this in his grandmother, a very energetic woman who spent her retirement running the kitchens of her church in the United States, and whom he later found worn out and bedridden after surgeries and chemotherapy. She beat her cancer, but at the price of great hardship. If sin spreads like metastases through the world, we should expect an equally difficult treatment.
"Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it." This goes against our instinct, and Jesus warns us about it because the consequences are immense.

6. A Great Separation, but Not Alone Facing Judgment (v. 34-37)

Of two people in the same bed, of two women grinding together, of two men in a field, one will be taken and the other left. No evil can remain in the presence of a perfect and just God.
People have often asked whether those who are taken are saved, or those who are left. For Silas, the main point lies elsewhere: there will be a great separation within humanity between those who sought to keep their lives and those who belong to the kingdom.
"Where, Lord?" the disciples ask. "Where the body is, there will the vultures also be gathered together" (some translations read "eagles"; Silas read from the French Colombe version, which has "vultures"). The sentence will be visible to all and irrevocable. It is a grim reality, but if we dare to hope that justice will be done on earth, God wants us to be clear-eyed about what that implies.
The warning is severe, but we do not face this judgment alone. Verse 33 is also, and above all, an invitation: to lose your life is to hand it over to him. We can place everything in his hands, from our greatest successes to our most private doubts.
Paul writes to the Corinthians: "[He] will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful." The sovereign God who establishes his kingdom on earth will also keep us on the day of judgment, however fearsome it may be. The cross shows the immensity of his love, and that love will sustain us in our sufferings today and on that day.

7. Two Things to Reflect On This Week

Do you truly thirst to see redemption fulfilled? If you have a deep thirst for justice, it is good to pursue it starting today. But do not take on a responsibility that is not yours: we will never be able to establish justice on earth. Do not make it your identity; God alone gives you that, and he alone can bring redemption to completion.
If, on the contrary, you don't really want the day of the Son of Man to come, Silas invites you to look at your life honestly: where are you trying to hold on to sovereignty over your life instead of submitting it to Christ?
Peter, who had heard these words of Jesus, writes: "The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The day of the Lord will come like a thief, just as suddenly.
But the coming of King Jesus has opened an era of grace: everyone has the opportunity to repent and become a citizen of the kingdom. Jesus sent us to make disciples of all nations, and every day that passes is one more day in which God can work through us so that others may know him.
Our brothers and sisters who do not yet believe have the same thirst for justice that we do. Let us pray that God will use us to bear witness.

Key Takeaways

The kingdom of God is already here, because the King has come. You enter it by faith, by recognizing who Jesus is.
There is no point calculating or running after those who say "Look, here!": the day of the Son of Man will be as obvious as lightning, and it will come suddenly.
The cross is at the center of the story of redemption. Jesus took upon himself the sentence that was ours.
The world corrupted by sin is rooted in us, as it was in the heart of Lot's wife. To keep your life is to lose it; to hand it over to Jesus is to find it.
Judgment is fearsome, but God is faithful: he will confirm us until the end, and the present time is a time of grace.

Personal Application

What is keeping you awake right now, and have you already handed that worry over to the only one who can bring order to your heart and to the world?
Are you a citizen of the kingdom of God? If you are not sure, what questions and doubts do you want to bring to Jesus as you read the Gospel of Luke?
What is your "violin": what possession or part of your life would you struggle to leave behind?
In what area are you trying to keep sovereignty over your life instead of submitting it to Christ?
Who around you thirsts for justice without yet knowing Jesus, and how can you bear witness to him this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Jesus mean by "the kingdom of God is in your midst"?

The Pharisees expected a visible kingdom that would drive out the Romans and restore Israel's glory. Jesus corrects that expectation: the promised King, a descendant of David, is already present among them. For Silas, you become a citizen of this kingdom by faith, when you recognize who Jesus really is.

Should we look for signs to calculate Jesus' return?

No. Jesus warns his disciples against those who will say "Look, here!" or "Look, there!" The day of the Son of Man will be like lightning: impossible to miss. The only "signs" given are eating, drinking, marrying, building and planting, as in the days of Noah and Lot. That day will arrive suddenly.

Why does Jesus say "Remember Lot's wife"?

Lot's wife looks back toward Sodom and becomes a pillar of salt. Silas understands her gesture: she is leaving her home, her comfort and loved ones. That is precisely why we need to remember her, because this world marked by sin is deeply rooted in us. Jesus invites us to hand our lives over to him rather than try to hold on to them.