THE KINGDOM OF GOD PRESENT AMONG MEN
(Suggested Reading: Chapter 17:11-37 and Chapter 18:1-8)
In her book, The End of the Bible, Mrs. J. S. Oliphant tells of a question directed to Moses Mendelssohn— "When will the Jews become Christians?" His reply was "When the Christians cease to be Jews." (8) What truth there was in this rejoinder! I recall a Christian woman saying, "he's such a godly man— he's worth a million dollars"— all in one breath. Another man boasted to me how the Lord had blessed him— by which he meant the size of his bank account. This is all Jewish, and not Christianity at all. Wealth was a sign of God's favor to a Jew, but the Christian is blessed "with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" Eph. 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3). When the Lord unfolded the new principles of the kingdom, they came as a distinct shock to the Jews. A beggar in Abraham's bosom! A rich man in hell! They forgot that they had rejected the King when He was present so that He could not introduce a visible kingdom with earthly possessions and glory. The Kingdom of God must take a temporary form— it must become moral— with the publicly displayed kingdom postponed till a new thing the Church should come and go on and from the earth. In the meantime, the key thought in this chapter is "behold the kingdom of God is within you." "Within you" meant present where Christ then was, as well as inside those who recognized the kingdom as divine power working in and through Christ. So they were not to look for it here or there— for to do so would be to deny that the King was present. This chapter largely centers around this theme.
The Healing of the Ten Lepers—17:11-19
The healing of the ten lepers tells us of the presence of the Kingdom of God among men, because the King— Jehovah Himself— was present. It also brings into sharp focus the contrasting principles of law and grace— the former now receding because the King has been rejected, the latter now emerging as the new principle in God's dealings with man. God, now manifest in the flesh, had taken up "the law of the leper" in Lev. 13 and 14. He had provided an elaborate ritual for the cleansing of the leper and his re-admission to the camp. The leper is a figure of the sinner. He had to go outside the camp and cry "unclean, unclean," so other people would not be contaminated. His clothes must be torn so his leprosy couldn't be hidden— and his head bare— no shelter from divine wrath. In the day of his cleansing, he was to be brought to the priest.
The ten lepers here were nine Jews and one Samaritan. Now the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans John 4:99Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. (John 4:9). To humble them, therefore, all alike contracted leprosy. The meaning of the incident illustrates the characteristic teaching of Christianity— "there is none righteous, no not one" Rom. 3:1010As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10). "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23). The ten lepers stood far away from Christ, as sinners must, whether they are Jews or Gentile Samaritans. They all cried, "Jesus Master have mercy on us." It was not really the cry of faith, but of despair, of pleading. Still the Scripture tells us He is a God of mercy.
So the God who laid down the law of the leper tells them to conform to His own law. Jesus' answer was, "go show yourselves to the priests." But you say the leper could only do that if he were clean. Exactly. That is why Luke writes "as they went, they were cleansed." Obedience to the voice of Christ is what cleanses man of leprosy (sin). When the Samaritan saw that he was cleansed, he also saw who did it. Only God can cleanse a leper. So he turned back to Christ, the source of power, and with a loud voice glorified God. Then he fell down on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked Him. The Lord immediately rebuked the nine who did not return to give glory to God. They were content to return to externals, whereas this man wanted reality. The Levitical cleansing rite looked forward to Christ and His work. Now that He was present, the shadow of things must recede. Great principles emerge here— for the Jew, retention of the law and rejection of Christ; for the Gentile, "thy faith hath made thee whole." Martin Luther rediscovered this truth after the Judaizing of Christianity had returned men to the works of the law. While he was doing penance trudging up steps on his knees, the Scripture came to him "the just shall live by faith." He got up and walked down.
How God Will Eventually Establish the Kingdom of God in the World in Power—a Brief Explanation
A good teacher never teaches his students more than they can absorb at one time. He builds slowly on what he taught them previously, until gradually the subject he is teaching is clearly understood. The Lord is the Master Teacher. The great subject in which He was instructing His disciples was the Kingdom of God. They were poor students because, being Jews, they only looked at those Scriptures which spoke of Messiah dealing with their enemies in power and setting up a visible kingdom in Israel which would then be the center of glory and government in the earth. They ignored such Scriptures as the 53rd of Isaiah, which spoke of a suffering Messiah. Little did they think that God was about to set up a new thing on— earth the Church— whose tenure on earth has already spanned nearly two thousand years— and that only after the second coming of Christ for the Church would God start to work to set up the Kingdom of God in power. In the meantime, the Kingdom of God would be moral. It would be entered by the new birth John 3. Those who were born again would acknowledge the moral rule of Christ, the rejected King in their lives. Even the Apostles were not ready for such teaching.
So the Lord unfolded only parts of it now, and those parts in easy steps. In Chapter 12, He pointed out the great principles of faith while the King was absent. In Chapter 13, He told them about the government of the earth— of Israel— and of the outward form the Kingdom should take— the great mustard tree, etc. —while the King was absent. Then He showed them that the revelation of the Father's heart— the story of the prodigal son— Chapter 15 was the key to the Kingdom in its spiritual form— "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" from. 14:17. Next, in Chapter 16, He reveals a rich man in hell, a poor man in Abraham's bosom— a complete reversal of things to the Jew, who thought of God's blessing as being material riches. Now in Chapter 17, He heals ten lepers. This proves He is the King present in power. The next lesson is how the Kingdom will finally be established in the world in power. It is not a question of denying the Old Testament Scriptures which speak of that, but of when and how. The Pharisees ask the question "when?" and are only told that the Kingdom of God was present. They needed this instruction, for they were not acknowledging the King. The disciples are separately instructed as to how the Kingdom shall be established that is, by judgment. No curious particulars are given as to how the judgment will fall these are found in prophetic books, such as Revelation. But we are let into the great moral teaching that the world will be purified by the fire of God's judgment preparatory to the setting up of the Kingdom in the world.
The Coming of the Son of Man—17:22-37; 18:1-8
The Lord moves gradually into this final question of how the Kingdom of God shall be established in the world in power. He says "the days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it." In plain language, He is about to leave this world and they will look back longingly to the days when He walked with them, but will be unable to bring them back. He repeats His warning to the Pharisees (v. 21) as to false Christ’s. He knew that warning would fall on deaf ears, but to His own He says, "go not after them, nor follow them." The Son of Man was as the lightning. A brief momentary flash of lightning opens up the night sky revealing the whole countryside in a moment. Then it is gone. The darkness returns, but we remember what was there.
The Lord must "suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." "This generation" means more than the physical generation of the Lord's time. "This generation" is the generation of unbelief— "the seed of the serpent" which will be found when Christ comes back— not for the Church, but as the Judge of the living who reject Him and would resist the establishment of His Kingdom.
The Lord gives two illustrations of the conditions which will prevail in Israel when His judgment falls on it. It shall be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. The world of Noah's day was destroyed by water; Lot's world was Sodom and it was destroyed by fire. Complete judgment then— in the figures of floods of water and fire from heaven await the Jews who have returned to Israel after nearly two thousand years of unbelief and who remain that way. They are enjoying themselves— eating, drinking, marrying— and going in for this life as though there was no other buying, selling, planting, building. God will visit them with discriminating judgment v. 34, 35 just as He preserved Noah and his house and Lot. Let the godly in that day beware of the example of Lot's wife who looked back, for "whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it." This puzzles the disciples, who ask Him, "where, Lord?" His reply is "where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together." Without satisfying their idle curiosity, the Lord reveals that the executors of God's judgment will swoop down on those, be they men or women, who are moral carcasses. The judgment is discriminating in character with God's true people untouched. They will be spared to enter the world kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
God Will Avenge His Suffering People—18:1-8
The first eight verses of the eighteenth chapter carry on and bring to a conclusion the Lord's teaching we have just been considering— "and He spake a parable unto them to this end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint." The unjust judge in the parable would not render justice to a poor widow until she kept coming back to him and annoying him. To get rid of her and have some peace, he gave her what she wanted.
The meaning of the parable relates to the closing events when God's judgments are in the earth just prior to the introduction of the millennium— the Kingdom of God in power. The godly Jews in that day will be outnumbered by their wicked brethren. They will be only a remnant of the nation. Persecuted and helpless— their adversary is the Antichrist— they are compared to a widow who is the picture of complete helplessness. Their only recourse is to go to God in prayer as a righteous Judge. In the parable the figure of an unrighteous judge is given to show that if an unrighteous judge finally takes action when petitioned endlessly, will not God the righteous Judge do more so? The whole is Jewish for the widow pleads for vengeance, as the Jews will. Christians are to forgive and pray for their enemies. Still there seems to be no answer to the prayers of the godly Jews in that coming day. The heavens are as brass to their entreaties. This is because Israel must pass through "the time of Jacob's trouble" Jer. 30:77Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:7). Not until Jerusalem has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins Isa. 40:22Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:2) can God avenge Israel. Then the eagles will gather together to feast on the bodies 17:37. Although the Lord says this vengeance will be executed speedily, the godly remnant do not think so. Their prayers are in bitterness of spirit, something wrung out of them. Their anguish is given to us in some of the Psalms which has been called "the Book of Common Prayer" of the godly Jews of the future. That is why the Lord says, "when the Son of Man cometh"— not for the Church, but to avenge the godly Jews— "shall he find faith on the earth?”
May He find it now. May our prayers ascend to God at the throne of grace. While the above interpretation is the primary one, we must never forget that Luke is moral and the admonition at the opening of Luke 18 is for us, too. We are always to pray and not to faint.