Week 37 Luke 17
There’s a short paragraph right in the middle of the chapter where the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked when the kingdom of God would arrive. He replied: the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed…for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. So it looks like a) the kingdom of God wouldn’t come with a big fanfare but b) the kingdom of God was already there.
A sidenote in my bible says that in the midst of you can also mean within your grasp or within you. Hmmmm. That muddies things up a bit. In the midst of you sounds different from within your grasp (maybe not totally different…but different). But the other phrase is more perplexing: the kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom-within-you sounds like a) the Kingdom of God has come and b) the Pharisees (the people Jesus was talking to) were it’s recipients. Which is baffling and doesn’t jibe with the usually negative view in the gospels about most of the Pharisees.
To me the kingdom in the midst of you and within your grasp and within you aren’t saying the same thing.
So my question is: what do I make of it?
And my answer is: I don’t know (meaning that about all I can do is shift this phrase into the Elevated Alertness & Unanswered Inquiries column – and hope that things eventually clarify).
Note: quote from Luke 17:20-21 (ESV)