In the 17th chapter of Luke’s gospel are five exception stories which, when taken together, demonstrate clearly that the actual kingdom of God is much, much different from our human expectations or assumptions. I find it somewhat disconcerting that the church today…in many of its manifestations, thinks and acts in much the same mode as the Pharisees and teachers of the Law did in Jesus time. We presumptuously declare a vision of the kingdom that stands in direct opposition to what Jesus said it would be, all the while behaving as if it is truly “the word of the Lord!
1. We are immediately and incessantly motivated to condemn wrong done to us or to the church, allowing little or no avenue for restoration. Whereas, Jesus in Luke 17:1-3 states that the kingdom model not only presents an opportunity for redemption, but also a progression from sin into righteousness through the repeated application of forgiveness…”seventy times seven.”
2. The church today is continually looking for more spiritual power… wrongly believing that “more” will make it better able to speak to the broken and fallen around them. Jesus declares that his servants have been given sufficient for all that calls for us to do. (17:5-6) That which we view from a worldly perspective as tiny and insufficient, is in reality abundance which requires only obedience and courage to manifest great things.
3. The worldly perspective of entitlement for service is a systemic infection in today’s religious institutions. However, Jesus clearly teaches that faithful service is its own reward (17:7-10) Just to be given the opportunity to serve is a great privilege.
4. Many in this world, even “church” people, will not recognize either the great blessing that they have received or acknowledge the source. (17:11-19) Only one in ten will exalt Jesus for restoration…and this will likely be the one who was outcast to begin with!
5. We desire a sign. We want to know when the “kingdom” or the last days will come. We are obsessed with the final solution, the end of things…heaven, when the kingdom is actually being made manifest right before us today. Now is the time to pay attention. (17:21) Jesus saw the craving for this end-times knowledge as an attempt to “preserve life” through human control. However, it will only result in death (17:33)
Such is the way of the church….and the scary part is that we have institutionalized these responses, even made many of them part of our sacred structures. Alan Hirsch, in The Forgotten Ways (p.51) submits that, “We have so divinized this mode of church through the centuries of theologizing about it, that we have actually confused it with the kingdom of God.” Isn’t it time for us to become the exception to the rule, the set apart rather than the one who have wrongly “always done it that way?”
