The Persistent Widow
Luke 17.20-37: 20 Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come visibly, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 Men will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
37 “Where, Lord?” they asked.
He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”
The Coming of the Kingdom
Jesus is speaking in the first verbal exchange to Pharisees, who are waiting for the coming of the Messiah’s reign promised in the Old Testament but who refuse to recognize that it is coming near in the ministry of Jesus (and John the Baptist). Jesus begins by telling them that they will wait in vain for a kingdom whose appearing can be infallibly recognized by purely empirical observation. That does not mean that the reign of the Messiah will be totally invisible; on the contrary, it will manifest its presence and its power by visible, dazzling signs. But merely seeing with physical eyes these observable signs will not necessarily lead the observer to conclude: “The kingdom is here!”
In other words, a measure of divine revelation will be necessary to discern the coming of the kingdom, and this revelation must be received by faith. (The works of God in history are always an event that can be seen, plus a word of explanation that can be heard.) And that is just the problem. The Pharisees have closed their ears to this revelation. God had sent John the Baptist and Jesus to proclaim to Israel the good news that the reign of the Messiah was at hand. Jesus was performing visible signs that “signified” the same message.
How did the Pharisees react to the message? John 3.11: 11 “You people do not accept our testimony.” As long as they remain deaf to the voice of God speaking to them through his inspired messengers, the unbelieving Pharisees will never see the kingdom, no matter how hard they look with their physical eyes. They do not how to interpret the signs of “this present time” (Luke 12.54-56) because they do not listen to God. It is only with the eyes of faith that the presence of the kingdom can be seen in an objective historical event. (For those who believe in the word of God, the fall of the Roman Empire is a result of the kingly authority that Jesus exercises over the world; for unbelievers, it is the result of political, economic and sociological factors.)
That brings us to the statement of Jesus in Luke 17.21: 21 The kingdom of God is within you.” The great majority of French Bible scholars and versions prefer the alternative translation (in the notes of the NIV): “among you”, that is within or in the midst of the Jewish community. To me, that reading fits the context of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels much better. To the question “When will the kingdom of God come?” Jesus replies: “First of all, you will not be able to see the kingdom without faith. But already, for those who have eyes to see, the kingdom has come into the midst of Israel.” By that, Jesus implies that the Pharisees can this very minute observe and ascertain its presence. All they have to do is believe his preaching and discern the meaning of the signs they are seeing.
In what sense Jesus, who manifestly considers the coming of Messiah’s reign to be a still future event, can affirm that it is already present? Well, the kingdom is present in the sense that its imminent arrival is already being heralded in Jesus’ preaching and works, especially the healings, miracles and exorcisms he performs. Luke 11.20: 20 “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” Jesus does not mean that his reign has been definitively established by these limited acts in favor of selected individuals. But they are the promise, the token, the guarantee, the sign, the prelude of its imminent arrival.
Thus Jesus invites the blind Pharisees to discern right here and now the presence (in advance) of the kingdom in his own ministry among them, to adhere to him in an act of faith, and to prepare themselves spiritually to accept what is coming. The sun has not yet risen, but its light is already visible on the horizon.
The Day of the Son of Man
The expression “day(s) of the Son of Man” (Luke 17.22, 24, 27, 30) no doubt parallels the “day of the Lord” that is used so often by the prophets to designate the different acts of God in the history of the nations (Isaiah 13.6. 9; Ezekiel 30.3; Joel 1.15; 2.1; Obadiah 15; Zephaniah 1.14ff; Revelation 6.17; 16.4). In his “day”, the Lord manifests his power in history to punish his enemies and to give victory to his people.
In the Old Testament, these manifestations of royal and judicial power over the world are reserved for God; the New Testament attributes such interventions to the Messiah. Beginning at his ascension, when he is enthroned at the right hand of God (Mark 14.62), the resurrected Christ will begin to exercise the royal authority that the Father will give him over the world. The intervention dealt with in our present text corresponds to the historical judgment of the unbelieving Jewish theocracy. The main act of that judgement will be the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. Jesus is not dealing here with his final coming to judge the world at the end of time.
The longing that the disciples will have to see this day of reckoning come (more quickly) can be explained by the great persecutions that they will suffer at the hands of their unbelieving countrymen (Luke 21.12, 16-17). They will go around bent over, downcast, crying out to God day and night, until their Master comes to deliver them and grant them justice against their persecutors (Luke 18.1-8; 21.28). In the meantime, they will have to be patient and persevere in their faithfulness (Luke 21.18-19; James 5.7-8).
Warning about That Day
Jesus warns his disciples to not let themselves be taken in by false rumors about the appearing of the Messiah, as if his coming is to be some secret event. There will be false Messiahs claiming to be the long waited liberator, and this propaganda will come from their followers among the Jewish extremists (Matthew 24.23, 26-27; Mark 13.21; Luke 21.8-9). The warning, then, concerns a specific historical situation: the religious and nationalist ferment that will agitate the Holy Land during the years preceding the siege of Jerusalem (Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 6, 5.14). The danger of being led away concerns directly only the Jewish Christians in Palestine before the Jewish-Roman War of 66-70.
In any case, the intervention of the Christ will be so evident that there will be no need to scan the horizon and search out the hidden corners of the land. His coming to judge Israel will be, for those who have eyes to see, a spectacularly clear event. That is the meaning of the image of the lightening which lights up the sky (Luke 17.24). When Jesus comes against the holy city, no one will be able to miss it.
The judgement of Jerusalem will have as a necessary prelude the passion and rejection of the Messiah by “this generation” of Jews. The suffering of the Messiah is not just a chronological point of reference, but the very reason that the people will be judged: they did not want that kind of Messiah to rule over them. Luke 13.34: 34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Matthew 22.7: 7 “The king was enraged. he sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (Luke 19.41-44; 21.22-23; 23.28-31; Matthew 21.41).
That Day Compared to Past Judgements
Jesus next compares the grave events that threaten the Jewish theocracy to two great judgments of the past: the flood and the destruction of Sodom. In all three cases, God strikes the “world” (2 Peter 2.5-10) of the guilty generation. The parallels, it must be admitted, suggest more a local historical punishment than the universal judgment at the end of the world. In fact, it is the end of a world rather than the end of the world.
What is the point of the comparison? Jesus emphasizes first of all the certainty of the judgment. The phrase “and destroyed them all”, which closes each of the two examples, reminds us of the threat which also keeps coming back like a refrain: “You will all perish in the same way” (Luke 13.3, 5).
Next, Jesus underlines the inexplicable heedlessness of the guilty ones, who were taken completely by surprise when the two divine judgements fell upon their world. They had no idea of what would happen (Matthew 24.39). In the same way, the contemporaries of Jesus refuse to take into account the judgement that is suspended over their heads like the sword of Damocles, even though there is no lack of signs to warn them of the coming wrath (Luke 12.54-56).
Taken as a whole, the paragraph is an exhortation to be watchful (Matthew 24.36-44). Vigilance is necessary not only because the disciples do not know the exact date (the day and the hour) of the coming judgment, but also because of the heedless unbelief that will reign among the Jews of that time (2 Peter 3.1-13). Jesus invites his disciples to be watchful and ready, to not let themselves be contaminated and lulled into a false sense of security by the carefree attitude of their contemporaries. Just like Noah and Lot, they will escape disaster only by being ready, when the time comes, to follow the instructions that the Lord will give them to save their lives.
In this context, the “revelation” of the Son of Man (Luke 17.30) is not to be understood as a visible, bodily appearing. As is often the case in Scripture, the word refers to historical events that will clearly manifest his royal power.
The glory of Jesus as Messiah-King and Son remained veiled during his earthly ministry by the humiliating and suffering life that he willingly assumed. The revelation of this glory is accomplished first of all in his death, resurrection and ascension (which John calls his glorification). But his glory is also revealed in the events which affirm his power as messianic king, which reveal him as the sovereign Lord of the universe and Master of destinies. The destruction of Jerusalem is (along with the fall of Rome) one of the most important of these special historical events reported in Scripture. The verse makes perfectly good sense outside of any idea of the end of the world.
Orders to Flee
The instructions given by Jesus to his disciples (Luke 17.31-33) again concern the judgement of Jerusalem and would make no sense at all in the context of the end of the world. For Jesus tells them to flee the land of Judea without the slightest hesitation or delay or turning back.
The orders of Luke 17.31 express hyperbolically the necessity of fleeing immediately, as is clearly shown by other texts where these same instructions are applied to the siege of the holy city. Matthew 24.15-21: 15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.”
Luke the non-Jew translates this prophetic imagery. Luke 21.20-22: 20 “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.” Here then are the orders: As soon as the signal is given, that is as soon as the disciples see Jerusalem invested by a Roman army, they must leave the city as soon as possible and take refuge outside of Judea.
The fate of Lot’s wife (Genesis 19.24-26) is to serve as an example not to follow. It is true that she leaves Sodom to escape the divine wrath that will destroy the wicked city, but she remains too attached to the life she has left behind. Lagging far behind her husband, she turns around and perishes in the catastrophe that she could have avoided had she only follow the orders of the Lord. When God’s judgment begins to fall on Jerusalem, the disciples must also leave everything behind with no turning back: their homeland, their family, their friends, the houses, their possessions, their culture, everything that had been their life in Judaism. Anyone who cannot bring himself to say good-bye to all of that will find himself caught up in the horrors of the Jewish-Roman War.
In harmony with the context, the saying of Luke 17.33 encourages the disciple, in order to save his life, to flee Judea rapidly, to be ready to leave behind him not just his belongings but his whole former life. It must be understood that even Jews converted to Christianity still had strong feelings of attachment to their country, their holy city, their beloved temple, the customs of their people. But an excessive attachment to these things will lead the disciple to his ruin.
How are we to understand the double image of Luke 17.34-35 in relation to the day of the Son of Man? The most common opinion is that this is the end of the world (more specifically, the “rapture”) and that the one who is “taken” represents the people destined to go to heaven. The one who is “left” represents those who will be abandoned to the sad fate of the world. This explanation is not without serious difficulties. In fact, the whole context of the Gospels indicates that the subject here is the judgement of the Jewish world of the first century.
This messianic judgment will effectuate a selection, a sorting out among the Jews of that generation: some will be taken, the others will be left. Everything leads us to believe that the Jews who are “taken” are the ones who will lose their lives in the ruin of Jerusalem. In the Old Testament prophecies of judgment, to be “taken” (or “cut off,” “carried away,” “swept away,” “caught up” “dragged off” “uprooted”, etc.) most often means to be carried away by the overwhelming scourge, the plague that punishes (Isaiah 9.14; 28.19; 40.24; 52.5; Jeremiah 6.2, 11; 9.20; 12.3, 14; etc.). The example of the flood points us in that direction. In the parallel text of Matthew 24.9, Jesus says that the flood “came and took them all away.”
In contrast to being “taken” is being “left”, which can only mean, if we refer to biblical usage, being spared by the judgment and becoming a part of the faithful “remnant”. We read of the flood: Genesis 7.23: 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. Very often in the prophets, the word “remnant” becomes a technical term referring to the small group of privileged Jews who escape the destroying avenger and inherit the messianic promises (Romans 9.27; 11.5). Thus, the Jews who adhere to the Messiah will be “left”, that is spared by the Jewish national disaster. With their place confirmed in the kingdom, they will form the “new Israel”, separated definitively from the Mosaic theocracy destroyed in 70.
The Place of Judgement
In Luke 17, the disciples do not yet know where this judgment is to take place because Jesus unveils this secret of the kingdom only progressively. His proverbial answer about the dead body and the vultures expresses a simple idea. Where will the judgment take place? Where there is good reason for it. God’s wrath will spill out where it is deserved, that is on Jerusalem, the murderer of the prophets and of the Messiah, the persecutor of the saints.
The Parable
Luke 18.1-8: 1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
This parable serves as the conclusion to the teaching Jesus has just given to his disciples about the judgment that he will carry out in 70 against the corrupt and rebellious Jewish theocracy. It concerns more specifically the period of persecutions which will strike the disciples of Christ in Palestine before the ruin of Jerusalem. The Jewish Christians will be abused and oppressed by their Jewish countrymen hardened in their unbelief.
For the disciples, this will be a time of great stress and constraint as they wait painfully for the day when the Lord will come deliver them and grant them justice against their persecutors (Luke 21.12, 16-17). Luke 17.22: 22 “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.” They will call to Jesus and ask him to intervene on their behalf, but his intervention will be a long time coming.
As to the teaching of the parable, we can notice first of all that it is built upon a contrast and an a fortiori (“how much more”). If, for a petty reason, a corrupt judge ends up giving justice to a woman he doesn’t even care about, how much more will the just God vindicate his beloved elect against their adversaries? God will hear the cries of his people (here the Palestinian church of the first century) and will come to their aid.
Further on in the Gospel, Jesus will present the ruin of Jerusalem as a deliverance of the disciples. Luke 21.28: 28 “When these things begin to take place [the surrounding of the holy city by a Roman army], stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” By punishing their unbelieving persecutors, God will grant justice to his oppressed chosen ones.
In Luke 18.8, Jesus announces that God will intervene “quickly” (Gr. en tachei: “soon”, “promptly”) in favor of the persecuted saints. Now, there seems to be a contradiction between the chronological nearness of this judgment and certain elements of Jesus’ teaching: the disappointment of the disciples longing in vain to see one of the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17.22); the repeated pleas of the widow who keeps coming for a long time before the judge; and even the exhortation to not give up (Luke 18.1). The reason for this apparent discrepancy is that the punishment of the Jewish theocracy is scheduled for a relatively near future: before the end of the generation of Jesus’ contemporaries (Luke 9.27; 21.32; Matthew 10.23; etc.).
We can, in this case, understand that the wait will seem long to the Hebrew disciples, especially in light of all the hostility that will have to endure from the Jewish theocratic establishment. They will need to be patient until this coming of the Lord. James 5.7-8: 7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the fall and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.
And yet, the judgment that they implore will not take long in coming; it will come only too soon. That no doubt will be what they feel when they see their whole former existence in their beloved mother country completely wiped away.
The last phrase of Luke 18.7 has been very diversely translated. (The NIV’s rendition—“Will he keep putting them off?”—has very little to recommend it.) The King James—“though he bear long with them”—is much closer to the Greek text, which says literally: “and he is patient with them”. In the Bible, the verb macrothymeô, applied to God, means: “to forbear with longsuffering”, “to be slow to anger”, “to restrain righteous wrath”, “to postpone a deserved punishment with a view to repentance”. The patience of God postpones wrath, not deliverance. In what sense can it be said that God shows patience toward his chosen ones? Normally, it is their adversaries who need God’s patience.
The solution seems to be found in the meaning given here to the word “elect” (compare Matthew 24.22 and Mark 13.20). This term includes not only the Jews who already accept the Messiah but also the Jews who will possibly be converted before the execution of God’s judgment on their nation. The “slowness” of God in avenging his elect is designed to give the unbelieving Jews time to repent. This is how, for example, the persecutor Saul of Tarsis will benefit from the patience of God.
The apostle Peter, addressing the elect (2 Peter 1.10), uses the same language about the same divine judgment that will fall upon unbelieving Judaism. 2 Peter 3.9: 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient [Gr. macrothymeô] with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (Compare Revelation 6.9-11.) God wants the conversion of the unrepentant Jews, not their destruction. But for that, he needs the perseverance of the oppressed judeo-christian saints through their suffering.
After drawing the lesson of the parable, Jesus issues a personal challenge to his disciples: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” The Greek work translated “earth” (Gr. gè) means: “ground”, “earth”, “land”, and is often used in the Bible to designate a limited territory, especially the land of Israel, the promised land (Luke 4.25; 12.49, 51 ;18.8; 21.31, 35; 23.44). This is visibly the meaning of the Greek phrase epi tès gès in Luke 21.23: 23 “There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people.” In the globally Jewish context of the Gospels and, more specifically, in relation to the purely national (and not universal) catastrophe that is invariably the subject of Jesus’ teaching, we should read “in the land” rather than “on the earth”. From a purely lexicographical point of view, both translations are equally possible.
The parable promises, therefore, that God will not fail to vindicate his oppressed chosen ones “in the land”. But will they remain faithful til the end? The times that will precede this coming of the Messiah will be difficult. Jesus is afraid that the disciples, when they see that the Son of Man is taking a long time coming, will give in to discouragement, lukewarmness and even apostasy. Matthew 24.10-13: 10 “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
It is precisely because the times will be so hard that the disciples must “always pray and not give up”. This second verb (Gr. encaceô) means: “to weaken”, “to lose heart”, “to grow weary”, “to fail”. The idea is to not be discouraged by the pressures of the present situation. The lesson of the parable is not essentially about the power of persevering prayer, but about the need for a commitment that will stand firm and hold out until the end of the trial, in spite of the extended effort, in spite of the slowness with which the Lord intervenes.
Please note: the promise of this coming does not depend on the prayers of the faithful. On the contrary, the expression “when the Son of Man comes” (Luke 18.8) assumes that he will come in any case, whether the chosen ones pray or not. Prayer is not the prerequisite condition for his coming (even though the prayers of the disciples can influence the exact moment of his coming, in order to facilitate their flight, Matthew 24.20), but rather for their staying faithful and not giving up the fight. Luke 21.36: 36 “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”