Skip to main content

The coming of the Son of Man to be revealed


Gospel
Luke 17:26-37
When the day comes for the Son of Man to be revealed

Jesus said to the disciples:
    ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It will be the same as it was in Lot’s day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but the day Lot left Sodom, God rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all. It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of Man to be revealed.
    ‘When that day comes, anyone on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must not come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back either. Remember Lot’s wife. Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe. I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: one will be taken, the other left; two women will be grinding corn together: one will be taken, the other left.’ The disciples interrupted. ‘Where, Lord?’ they asked. He said, ‘Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.’

Short Reflection

This passage is a stark and urgent warning about the sudden and decisive nature of God's judgment. Jesus uses two well-known stories from the Old Testament—Noah and the Flood, and Lot and the destruction of Sodom—to illustrate a single point: life often looks perfectly normal right up until the moment everything changes. People were absorbed in the ordinary, good things of life—eating, drinking, marrying, working—but they were oblivious to the coming crisis.

The call of Jesus is not to a life of fearful paralysis, but to a state of spiritual readiness and detachment. The warnings—"do not turn back," "remember Lot's wife"—are powerful images against clinging to our old lives and possessions when God is acting in a new way. The paradox, "anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe," is the heart of the message. True security is found not in frantic self-preservation, but in trusting obedience to Christ, even when it means leaving everything familiar behind. The final, mysterious image of the vultures reminds us that judgment is inevitable and follows a spiritual reality as surely as scavengers are drawn to a carcass.

Question for Reflection

What in my life—a possession, a routine, a relationship, a mindset—might I be tempted to "turn back" for, causing me to miss what God is doing now? Where is Christ calling me to let go in order to truly receive and preserve my life in Him?

Short Prayer

Lord Jesus, you call us to be watchful and ready for your coming. Free our hearts from attachment to the temporary things of this world, that we may not be found clinging to a life we are meant to leave behind. Give us the courage to lose our lives for your sake, trusting in your promise that in doing so, we will truly find them. Amen.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

His name is John

Gospel Luke 1:57-66,80 'His name is John' The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.     Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. ‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘But no one in your family has that name’, and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord...
Post a Comment
Read more

Difficult for the rich to enter for God's kingdom

Gospel Matthew 19:23-30 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ‘Who can be saved, then?’ they said. Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ‘this is impossible; for God everything is possible.’     Then Peter spoke. ‘What about us?’ he said to him ‘We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way The Truth and the Life

Gospel John 14:6-14 To have seen me is to have seen the father Jesus said to Thomas: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.’ Philip said, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’      ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip,’ said Jesus to him ‘and you still do not know me? ‘To have seen me is to have seen the Father, so how can you say, “Let us see the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work. You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; believe it on the evidence of this work, if for no other reason. I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater w...
Post a Comment
Read more