Wednesday, 4th Week of Ordinary Time

Luke 17:20-37

There’s a lot going on here in this long passage from today’s Gospel reading. The keys to understanding it come at the end of the passage, and its beginning.

“Where the carcass is, there will the vultures gather” (v.37). In the ancient world, people classified eagles and vultures together. In fact the same word was used for both. The verses before clearly are about a coming judgment. But that judgment is not referring to some universe-shattering apocalypse. The Eagle was a potent and fearful symbol of the Roman army. In Jesus’s time, many Jews, especially the Pharisees, were slowly simmering under Roman rule, building up to the explosion of 66 AD when the Jewish nation rose up in rebellion. Four years later, that rebellion ended with the Roman conquest of Jerusalem. The consequences for the children of Israel were terrible.

Their fundamental mistake was to equate the kingdom of God with a particular nation, a particular party and political platform. And of course, the Pharisees equated that kingdom with their nation, their party, their platform. And they looked for “signs to be observed” (v.20) of that coming kingdom, which of course would be their exclusive possession.

But Jesus insists that the kingdom of God is not something to be hunted, observed, then captured. “For the kingdom of God is in among you” (v.21). The kingdom of God will come to all of us, and it will come in the relationships that are created in this kingdom. It is true that with new relationships come new ways of caring for each other, communicating with each other, being patient with each other. One might call these new ways, “rules.” But the purpose of Christian life is not to learn a new set of rules, then impose those rules on others. In the kingdom of God, God is most present with us when we love each other as we love ourselves.