“The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)
Many readers of Scripture have been taught that the Kingdom of God is ” a state of grace in the hearts of men and women,” but those who (like ourselves) believe that the Kingdom of God, in its fullest development, is to be a Divine political kingdom on the earth argue that, since the words ” the kingdom of God is within you ” were addressed to the Pharisees, in whose hearts there was not ” a state of grace,” the marginal rendering ” among you,” instead of within you,” gives the sense intended by our Lord.
For our own part, however, we are not convinced that “among you” is the right translation. The following note from Ellicott’s Commentary deserves serious consideration. The marginal reading, ‘among you,’ has been adopted, somewhat hastily, by most commentators. So taken, the words emphatically assert the actual presence of the kingdom. It was already in the midst of them at the very time when they were asking when it would appear. The use of the Greek preposition is, however, all but decisive against this interpretation. It is employed for that which is within ‘as contrasted with that which is without,’ as in Matt. 23 :26, and in the LXX version for the ‘inward parts,’ or spiritual nature of man, as contrasted with the outward, as in Ps. 103 :1, Ps. 119:22 and Is. 16:11. It was in that region, in the life which must be born again, (Jno. 3 :3) that men were to look for the kingdom; and it was there, whether they accept it or reject it, they would find sufficient tokens of its power.
Other commentators give “within you” or “among you”as possible renderings, but seem unwilling to come down definitely on either side, and we are left to choose which of these alternatives seems to he the more probable.
In our view, for what it is worth, “within you ” (meaning ” inside you”) seems, on the whole, to line up best with what Jesus had just said. “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (or as the A.V. margin gives it, “not with outward show”). The Pharisees had previously asked for a “sign from heaven,” and now they wanted to know “when the kingdom of God should come.”
Jesus deprecated this attitude, which did not spring from sympathetic interest in his teaching about the kingdom, and he inferred that, as usual, they had got the wrong idea about the Gospel of the Kingdom.
“The kingdom of God cometh not with (careful, meticulous) observation (such as occupied their minds at that moment), neither shall they say, ‘Lo here,’ or ‘Lo there,’ for the kingdom of God is within you.”
If we interpret our Lord as meaning ” among you,” we seem to destroy the point of his saying, “neither shall they say Lo here, or Lo there. ” The contrast seems to be between “observability ” and ” non-observability,” and ” within you” maintains that contrast.
We can explain Jesus’ comment by saying that unless we really believe ” from the heart ” the Gospel of the Kingdom, and give the “answer of a good conscience,” we shall never “see ” the Kingdom of God. This answer was precisely what the Pharisees, speaking generally, were determined not to give, hence the rebuke for it was a rebuke to these unbelieving Jews.
“Where the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.” (Luke 17 :37)
As the record stands in Luke 17, this would appear to be a reply (perhaps an evasive reply) to the disciples’ question ” Where, Lord?” but a very similar sentence is recorded in Matt. 24 :28, where no such question appears.
It may, therefore, not be a reply to the disciples’ question, but rather a deliberate warning to them of what might happen even to those who believe in the Second Coming of Christ as the judge of all generations.
There is little doubt that by “eagles” are meant vultures, and it is well known that vultures wait for their intended victims to die, and then begin to feed on the carcasses.
Jesus seems to teach that whenever believers lose their interest in Divine things, and become spiritually “dead,” their destruction is certain to follow. The Judge is coming, and then he will pronounce sentence of doom upon all renegade disciples who have forsaken his cause “When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7). The implication seems to be that faith will almost have disappeared from the earth by the time Jesus returns, and the fact that this question is prefaced by the word “nevertheless” suggests that this well-nigh universal apostasy will come in spite of God’s declared intention to “avenge His own elect.”
We may legitimately regard these words as a prediction of the now-prevailing general apathy of men and women, even of those who once were active worshippers, towards Divine service, and it may well be that this apathy will become practically complete, and religious profession become entirely nominal, before our Lord comes again among men.
His comment that “as it was in the days of Noah . . . so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man” is probably an almost exact parallel with the words which head this note.
Incidentally, there seems no need to weaken the allusion by interpreting Jesus as asking “Shall he find the Faith on the earth?” Most people today are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,” and the few who are still zealous in the service of Christianity need to be ever on the alert lest they too should become infected by the prevailing secularism, and so help to provide a negative answer to our Lord’s question.
“They understood none of these things.” (Luke 18 :34)
Bible readers must have wondered just why it was that the disciples did not understand when Jesus told them so plainly about his approaching arrest, crucifixion and resurrection.
In the case before us, we are told that,
“Jesus took unto him the Twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again.”
All this seems to have been so explicit, so plain, that to us who can look backwards to those dramatic days, it must seem that the disciples must have been very obtuse, if not actually stupid, not to understand words which seem to us so plain and straight forward, and especially when it is so evident that Jesus intended them to understand (otherwise, why tell them at all?).
Nor was this the only occasion when Jesus told them of his approaching fate. In Luke 9 :44, we read that Jesus said unto his disciples,
“Let these sayings sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying.”
To suggest that they were not intended to understand these things about their Master is to disregard the exhortation “Let these sayings sink down into your ears,” and to render inexplicable the several conversations which Jesus had with his disciples about the events which would culminate in his death and resurrection. To us, it seems perfectly plain that Jesus told these things to his disciples so that they would be in – measure prepared, but it was all to no purpose, for they “understood none of these things.”
Undoubtedly they heard what Jesus said, and it is just as certain that they knew that they had not understood his meaning. Apparently they wanted to understand what Jesus had told them, but “they feared to ask him of that saying.” This “fear” could only have been due to the fact that they realized that they ought to have understood, and were afraid to confess that they did not understand what Jesus had been at such pains to tell them.
Their utter failure to perceive the import of perfectly plain and simple statements can, we suggest, only be explained by their being obsessed with the idea that the Messianic kingdom was about to be inaugurated, and that Jesus was the Messiah who would reign in that kingdom. Anything which seemed to conflict with this fixed idea could not be entertained.
The history of Christianity has provided more than one case of similar obtuseness, arising similarly from closed minds. We think, for example, of the Church dignitaries who opposed most desperately every endeavour to provide the people of this country with the Scriptures in their mother tongue, and of. the mortal hatred which existed between Protestants and Catholics in Tudor times, when many terrible deeds were done in the name of religion.
Perhaps there is still a certain amount of danger arising from closed minds, and we may profitably take warning from the obtuseness which arose out of the very earnestness of the early disciples of Jesus.
“The Lord hath need of him.” (Luke 19:31)
Why did Jesus ride on the ass into Jerusalem. It was not because of the distance, nor because he was physically incapacitated, apparently.
A strictly literal understanding of the record of this incident in Matt. 21 would seem to indicate that Jesus rode into Jerusalem in order to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy contained in Zech. 9. 9, but we can hardly think that that was the real reason for the ride, for we do not think of inspired prophecy as something which requires people to do thus and so, but as a Divine foretelling that they will do thus and so. The distinction is important.
We cannot believe that Jesus deliberately set out to make the prophecy come true. Rather do we think that there must have been something in the immediate circumstances which moved Jesus to ride into Jerusalem on that one occasion (when usually he walked), and so incidentally fulfill the prophecy that he would do so. It may even be that the prophecy speaks of an event still future, but of that we cannot say.
What that “something” was we are not told. There was probably some connection between the riding into Jerusalem and the crucifixion later the same week. The ride was characterized by our Lord’s public acclamation as Messiah; the superscription over the Cross likewise proclaimed his kingship over the Jews.
The Solution