Roadkill

Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” “Where, LORD?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” Luke 17:35-37

In Luke chapter 17, verses 20-37, Jesus talks about his second coming. I don’t think the Pharisees or his disciples, who are listening, comprehend that yet. They still think he is going to come with his kingdom then and there and release them from Roman oppression.

I’ve always wondered about this part of Luke, especially Jesus’ enigmatic statement at the end:

“Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” Luke 17:37

The Pharisees ask him “when?” When will the Kingdom of God come? The disciples ask him, “where?” Where is all this going to happen? Jesus doesn’t answer them as they want, because they are focused on the physical world, on time here on earth and things they can see and touch. But Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation,” but rather, “the kingdom of God is within you.” The Kingdom is outside of place and time.

The “when” will happen when your heart is right with God. The “where” will be there in your heart. He warns them that if they keep looking to find the kingdom – relief from the Romans, freedom, prosperity – here on earth they will be fooled by false Christs. It’s not going to happen like you think it should or how you would like. “But first he [the Son of Man] must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25).

He tells (Luke 17:26-28) of how in Noah’s day and in Sodom’s day the people were focused on the kingdom of the earth – eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building – right up until the end, and were caught unawares. I think maybe that is the “dead body” Jesus is talking about – the kingdom of this earth. And the people who feed on that death – whose “life” comes from those things only – are the vultures. In contrast Jesus said that he was the Life.

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. John 6:53

Finding your life in the things of this world is like feeding on roadkill at the side of the path to true Life. The ones who are looking down, focused on feasting on the roadkill will be left to it. The ones who are looking up, focused on Him, his Life, his coming, will be taken. But the “where” and the “when” really don’t matter to them because Jesus and his Kingdom are already there in their hearts. Let’s allow him to pry our love and focus off this earth. Let’s look up.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:2-4

When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Luke 21:28

 

 

Image by Larry Lamsa, Road Kill – Dining on Deer https://flic.kr/p/exeqos

Put in and Drop the Anchor

For this reason we must pay much closer (earnest, exceeding, more abundant, more frequent) attention to what we have heard (hold it in our minds, bring our ship to land, put in at safe harbor), so that we do not drift away from it (glide by, carelessly pass, let it slip our minds). Hebrews 2:1 (NASB)

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  Hebrews 6:19 (NIV)

Only hold on (seize and hold fast, don’t let go, keep carefully and faithfully) to what you have until I come.  Revelation 2:25 (NIV)

 

 

Image: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Kathleen Gorby [Public domain]

Missing Him

When I awake, I will be fully satisfied, for I will see you face to face. Psalm 17:15b (NLT)

To see him face to face! To look into his eyes of pure love, like unending pools of liquid gold. Purer than anything here on earth. How I long for that. The Hebrew word translated satisfied in the above verse is saba or sabea. It means to be satisfied, sated, fulfilled, surfeited. When I awake, open my eyes and look into his, I will be satisfied, sated, fulfilled, surfeited. David wrote:

For He satisfies (saba) the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Psalms 107:9 (NKJV)

We all have longing souls, whether we know it consciously or not. We long to see him face to face. C.S. Lewis famously wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”[i] Frederick Buechner also wrote about this longing for, or missing, God.

“Each of us … carries around inside himself, I believe, a certain emptiness—a sense that something is missing, a restlessness, the deep feeling that somehow all is not right inside his skin.  Psychologists sometimes call it anxiety, theologians sometimes call it estrangement, but whatever you call it, I doubt that there are many who do not recognize the experience itself, especially no one of our age … Part of the inner world of everyone is this sense of emptiness, unease, incompleteness, and I believe that this in itself is a word from God, that this is the sound that God’s voice makes in a world that has explained him away.  In such a world, I suspect that maybe God speaks to us most clearly through his silence, his absence, so that we know him best through our missing him.” [ii]

Missing him. Yes, we are all missing him. So much of life is waiting, looking forward, to the thing that we hope will finally satisfy. Finally fill the emptiness. The Christian knows we are waiting for, looking forward to, his return. Missing him. Like the bride we are supposed to be getting ready, preparing for that day. In traditional Jewish wedding customs, the couple was betrothed for one year.[iii] The groom would go back to his home to prepare a place for his bride (John 14:2-3). And they would be apart and missing each other. But he would leave a gift as a pledge of his love (John 14:16, 27). The bride would use the time to prepare for the wedding day, to prepare herself and her wedding garments (Revelation 19:7).

But they missed each other. They were longing for the wedding day when they would see each other again face to face. And so are we longing for his return. And nothing else can fully satisfy. And do you know that the passionate heart of the Bridegroom is missing and longing for you too?

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God (see the Face of God)? Psalm 42:1-2 (NIV)

There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. — Oswald Chambers, The Discipline Of Disillusionment

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:17 (NIV)

[i] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

[ii] Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark

[iii] Read more about Jewish wedding customs here http://www.messianicfellowship.50webs.com/wedding.html

Image, picture of my daughter in her wedding dress, by Nathan Dillon 2019. All rights reserved.