20When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. 21Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
22Then He said to the 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. 23People will tell you, ‘Look, there He is!’ or ‘Look, here He is!’ Do not go out or chase after them. 24For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day. 25But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
This text contains what is possibly the most overlooked line in Scripture.
Luke 17 vs 21 says “For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
When we think of the Kingdom of God, we normally attach it to the concept of Heaven, a distant and “other” place and time where this world has passed away and the new Jerusalem has been established. But the truth is that the Kingdom of God is now and here, the Day of our Salvation is now. Every time a neighbour is loved, a person is healed, encouragement that leads to hope is shared and the truth of the Gospel preached and experienced – that is the Kingdom of God at work. Every time we pray and pronounce peace over the world, the Kingdom of God is here. Like a lightening bolt that illuminates the dark night sky, the Kingdom of God is here.
I spent 12 years in a little town called Piet Retief in Mpumalanga province. World renowned for being the place with the second highest incidence of lightening strikes in the world. Lightening is part of life and the storms are varied and magnificent. I have seen slithers of lightening fingering through the sky that make Sydney News year’s eve fireworks look amateurish. Once I was working in a field and five fires stared around me as lightening struck the ground. I have been in storms that were so loud that you thought the house was going to fall down and I have been in silent lightening storms where the sky lights up and not a sound can be heard. Fork lightening, sheet lightening, strikes to the ground and some that run the whole length of the sky. This verse always came to mind – Just as the lightening lights up the sky, so will the day of the Son of Man be.
He is here. It is now, may today be filled with light as Jesus establishes his kingdom in your midst, in you with you and through you, loving the world back to himself.
Lightening is so full of energy and power, but we cannot harness it, cannot bend it to our wills cannot control it. All we can do is stand in awe of it and be reminded of God’s awesome power. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven.
let us pray
Thank you Father that we are in your Kingdom and that today we can live full of hope and peace and joy. May you strike our lives today with power for us to live to your praise and glory
amen.
