Nov. 10, 2022 – Luke 17:20-25
Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. In their minds, it was a definitive time that would suddenly be fulfilled with the arrival of a triumphant Messiah King.
Jesus answered that the kingdom of God was already in their midst and that was the greatest messianic sign.
The Greek word we translate as “within” means both within you and among you. Considering the kingdom of God ‘within you’ means that the Messiah will rule the hearts and minds of individuals, creating a revolution in human hearts and converting them from hearts of stone to hearts filled with the Spirit, loving, merciful and compassionate. Considering the kingdom of God as ‘among you’ means that God Himself is present in the midst of His people in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus warned, moreover, the Pharisees not to look for the
Messiah anywhere else because he would reappear in his second coming quite unexpectedly, like a flash of lightning that “illuminates the sky from one side to the other.”
More precisely, “the Kingdom of God is already in your midst” means, in other words, that it is right in front of them, in the very person of Jesus, who is the embodiment of the Kingdom of God. He is the Messiah-King. He is the living embodiment of God’s loving power revealed through authoritative teaching, numerous healings, deliverance from the power of evil spirits and compassion for the sinner and the outcast. All these things are clear evidence of God’s reign “in their midst.”
Everyone is waiting to see God’s greatness; and He, instead, surprising everyone, comes in smallness. Everyone wants to see a God who works with power, and He chooses instead to manifest Himself through love.
For The Good Workers…
On the one hand, the kingdom of God is already here among us, and we need look no further than the daily experiences of our own lives to know and experience the power and presence of Jesus. On the other, the time of that final coming that will “wipe away every tear from our eyes” and be the end of all suffering and rejection is not for us to decide or worry about.
The doubtful question of the Pharisees is the one that so often emerges in our hearts and surfaces on our lips. We too have something to complain about because the events of life do not follow exactly what our heart hopes for. We would like to win without a struggle and fight without suffering. This is not the path laid out by Jesus.
Fr Joby Kavungal RCJ
TREZZANO SUL NAVIGLIO – MILAN