The Concise Oxford | huh?

Luke 17:20-37

Every once in a while I stumble across a passage in scripture that really confuses me. And if I’m busy (which is too often the case) I make an empty promise to myself that I’ll go back to the passage later and try to figure out what is being really being said.

Other times I will read a passage and feel that it doesn’t quite line up with my own theology of grace, forgiveness and redemption. When this happens I usually convince myself that I must be misreading what Jesus is saying. Surely He couldn’t possibly be putting around such judgemental ideas? So I quietly forget that passage and go back to making my composite picture of who I want Jesus to be.

Well, Luke 17:20-37 is one of those passages. I’ve been working through Luke as part of my Lent discipline this year, and when I read this section I had no idea what in the world was going on. The only concrete thing I could initially grab onto was that faith continues to be a mystery for us. However, as I made a commitment as part of my Lenten discipline, I have continued to read this book and take the time to dig a little deeper and try to figure it out.

I started with context. We know that from roughly chapter 8 of Luke onward, Jesus is on his march toward Jerusalem with his rag-tag group of disciples following, becoming more and more confused as time went by - but still following him because they knew he was special. They believed in their hearts that he was the Messiah, even if they had little clue as to what this really meant.

From this point on, one confrontation after the other ensues with various authorities. Jesus is constantly battling the Israelites (via the Pharisees) or Caesar or Herod or Pilate. Warnings shots are fired across the bow of Jesus and his band, to dissuade them from continuing on their journey. The Pharisees are building their case against Jesus by tempting him and continually attempting to trap him in his interpretation of the law. Pilate butchers a group of Galileans in the temple to show how serious he is. In spite of the mounting opposition to his journey and the inevitability of suffering and death waiting, Jesus refuses to stop. He is on a mission and nothing and no one can stop him.

As he walks, Jesus not only refuses to pay attention to the warning threats hurled at him, he actually fans the flames of their ire by saying things that he knows will infuriate them. He refers to himself as the ’son of man’, which he knows is a title reserved only for Ceasar’s use and is punishable by death if employed by anyone else. He refers to Herod as a ‘fox’ (not a kind descriptor) and tells his messengers to pass the word to Herod that he has no power over him. He refuses to pay heed to Pilate’s death threats.

So an inevitable collision looms. The tension mounts and the threats increase in intensity. In light of this, Jesus steels his confidence and starts sounding freakier as the days progress. He knows time is very short and he has some more to say and do before his time is up.

As the end of this passage, in language very apocalyptic and extremely confusing because of this, Jesus launches into his heaviest talk about the kingdom ever.

I can understand why there is some much speculation around the end times and the so-called rapture. It takes the wisdom of a sage and knowledge of a rocket scientist to even attempt to decipher what Jesus is really trying to say. As sages and rockets scientists are rare, too many of us have translated these kinds of passages in our own way, reaching conclusions out of ignorance, without truly bothering to dig under the surface of this stuff.

So we popularize such perspectives in the Left Behind series of  books and films, and a myriad of ministries (Jack Van Impe, to name but one) each trying their level best to scare the crap out of us every day by pointing to various signs and omens in order to accurately predict the end times.

As you may have figured out by now, I myself carry some baggage from aspects of my own church heritage. I participated in far too many bible studies in my little rural evangelical church trying to predict the end of the world. I was required to identify myself as a ‘pre’, ‘post’ or ‘mid’ tribulation guy. I was pressured to label myself either a Calvinist or an Armenian/Wesleyan. I took every opportunity I could to explain the four spiritual laws to anyone who would give me the time of day because of an urgency implanted in me - I needed to get them saved and free them from the confines of this evil planet as fast as I could as time was short!

Until very recently, I still believed that heaven was a slice of a pie in the sky and that the earth and all that was in it was doomed for destruction and decay. I believed I would be one of the people who would get taken away at the time of the ‘rapture’ into heaven and eternal bliss so that the earth could be left void of anything good and evil would reign supreme on this planet. I had a nice, neat packaged systematic theology that had no grey areas in it.

That all changed when I started hanging out with people on the streets. It was here I got my first real glimpse at what the kingdom might actually look like. It was here I got to re-discover Jesus in a tangible way. It was here that I learned (the hard way  that theology can’t be done in a safe and sterile petrie-dish like environment like churches and seminaries so often are. It was here that my world was turned upside down, or if you will - right side up!

So what is this passage saying? I still don’t know. But I think it is hinting at a few things:

1.    The kingdom is at hand. It is near. Jesus is the Kingdom and the Kingdom is Jesus. And it isn’t some place in the sky that we’ll go to later on after we die. It is here, now. And if we look close enough we might even get to touch it. I no longer want to be the one who gets snatched away. It seems as though that’s the group that’s in trouble. I want to be left behind on earth, where all things will be made right.

2.    There is some urgency. Part of my knee-jerk reaction to my past is to leave behind the evangelism piece of my faith. And while I’d certainly never do most of what I once did in terms of evangelism, it seems clear that part of my responsibility as a student follower of Christ is to get the word out somehow, in any way, that Jesus is the kingdom - that he is near, that he is here, and he is coming. He has offered us forgiveness, salvation, redemption, but we need to make a choice to hold on to it. And so does everyone else. Jesus doesn’t mince words in this passage. Time is short and we should always be ready.

3.    Obedience to Jesus means standing against the flow of our culture. To follow Jesus is to stand up for what is right and to continue the journey towards wholeness in the world - towards Jerusalem - no matter how powerful the opposition proves to be. Regardless of the eventual cost.

At the end of it all, I feel just like one of the disciples following Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. I too am one of the rag-tag group of disciples following on behind, becoming increasingly confused as time goes by, but still following him because I know he is special. I believe in my heart that he was, and is, the Messiah, even if I still have little clue as to what that actually means.

The truth is, the blurrier my theology gets, the more in focus the Kingdom becomes.

Writer: The Concise Oxford is written by Dion Oxford who, along with his wife, Erinn, and daughter, Cate, live in Toronto, Canada and are committed to journeying alongside people in the margins of society. He and Erinn have spent a combined 30 years working amongst folks who are living on the streets of Toronto. Dion is a recovering Salvationist who currently worships at an evangelical Anglican church but still works for The Salvation Army at the Gateway, a shelter for men experiencing homelessness. He and his wife see the solution to homelessness as the church taking seriously the two great commandments of loving God and loving our neighbour. He likes to read, write, fly kites, cycle long distances, watch TV, play in his band and hang out with his friends.

2 Comments to The Concise Oxford | huh?

1. It makes it really damn hard to argue with you, Dion, when you’re actually out there living and ministering amongst the poor while I sit in the relative comfort of my living room here in _____________ .

   Having said that, I hold a different view regarding the end times.

   In the last half of the 20th century the pendulum definitely swung toward escapism in terms of a proper definition of heaven and the kingdom, but I find that when I visit sites like this one, many writers and commenters are quick to dismiss the notion of heaven as any kind of afterlife at all. (To which, I frequently quote Paul, “If for this life only we have hope, we are among all men the most pitiable.”)

   I like what you had to say about the inverse relationship between Kingdom clarity and systematic dogma. Good thought.
Jeremiah on March 26th, 2009

2. Hey Jeremiah,
   Thanks for the feedback; and the respect.
   To clarify, I do believe in eternal life in Heaven with God after death. Or better put, in the words of NT Wright, I believe in life after life after death. Our bodies will be resurrected from the dead and we’ll be made whole and fully human and we will live eternally in Heaven, which will include, enfold, and perfect earth.
   It’s just that I don’t believe Heaven is another place in the sky somewhere that we will float off to once we die, where we will live in eternal bliss and fly around as angels while playing harps and eating as much as we want to without gaining any weight.
   Dion
Dion Oxford on March 26th, 2009

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