Interruptable
This week's study is on Luke 17:26-35:
These verses come as part of a conversation Jesus is having about the way things will be when he returns to earth. Jesus isn't going to take a select few of us aside and tell us his timetable so we can have tv shows and youtube channels about it. We're not going to be standing behind him watching him return, saying "Told you so" to the people who missed out. (People actually think that stuff!) There have been numerous times in history when people have put on their capes and gathered on top of some hilltop waiting for the time their deranged cult leader told them Jesus was supposed to show up. It doesn't work that way!
So how does it work? Luckily Jesus tells us. It's going to be life as usual, until suddenly it isn't. Most people's last days on earth are like that. Everything is precisely normal, until suddenly a car runs a red light and mows them down, or they go to sleep and never wake up, or they're watching their best friend get married and suddenly a cluster bomb tears them to shreds. The end of Christian civilization will be just like every other day, until suddenly it isn't.
God told Noah when it was time to get in the ark. He told Lot when it was time to get out of Sodom. Up until that point, it was life as usual. Nobody was going around saying "Precisely at such and such a time, our world will end." It wasn't Donnie Darko! It was a surprise! And when that time came, Noah had to be ready to pack the boat and seal it up, and Lot had to be ready to move. It will be the same for us.
Jesus gives us some instruction on how to act when the time comes, the same as he did for Noah and for Lot. He's not going to leave us hanging. It isn't some cosmic prank. He says (paraphrased) "you're going to be doing your thing, and then suddenly *blam!* Jesus time!" Everything will be precisely normal until then. You may be playing video games, waiting for a bus, falling asleep in church, cooking bacon, getting married, sitting hooked up to machines in a hospital, going on vacation, or even watching TV. There will be no warning, but you have to be ready to be interrupted.
You could be up on a roof, or out in a field, or getting dinner ready, or laying in bed. Anywhere. But wherever you are is where you've got to be. There's no last minute cramming. There's no sentimentality. It's Jesus time! That's what you're there for and nothing else. You're not whipping your phone out and texting your friends, or trying to tweet one last selfie of you and the host of angels before you're whisked away to where there's no signal but Jesus. All through life until that point, we have to live life, but at that crucial point all that's left is us and Jesus. And that has to be enough or we'll miss out.
Are we ready to do that? Jesus warns us about Lot's wife. She was uncertain. She was still attached to the place she left. Part of her wanted to go back, to live a bit longer in the place it was time to leave. God didn't drag her along. He turned her into a pillar of salt!
But don't we all have a bit of hesitancy to completely leave everything behind? We want to pet the dog one last time, get the picture of the baby, have one last beer, watch that tv episode that's still on the DVR, tidy up the table, make sure the stove is off, get changed, call into work, eat the leftovers so they don't go to waste, etc. There's always something. But as a wise woman once said, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" If you miss the moment, you miss Jesus.
But how will we know? Life is consuming. We get tied up in what we're up to. How can we know for sure that it's Jesus and that it's time? It's not like we've got a practice round or a secret signal we've been taught to watch for. But in a way we do.
Don't we already have to be ready to be interrupted in the moment by the Holy Spirit? We've all had those experiences where were going about our stupid business when suddenly "it's on." We're supposed to do this, or that, or pray for this or that, and we just kind of know it. If we miss the moment, can we go back the next day and do it then? No! We can't do it any more than we can make an appointment with someone to pull them from a burning building. When you're in that moment in that place, there's only one thing to do.
In the time we have left, which could be fifty years or fifty milliseconds, we should live our lives, but also be ready to be interrupted by God. When he arrives, whether it's to ask us to express his love to someone or to come and whisk us away, we need to be ready. If we have to take a call first, or ask permission from someone, or get a bite to eat, it may already be too late.
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 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.
“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
These verses come as part of a conversation Jesus is having about the way things will be when he returns to earth. Jesus isn't going to take a select few of us aside and tell us his timetable so we can have tv shows and youtube channels about it. We're not going to be standing behind him watching him return, saying "Told you so" to the people who missed out. (People actually think that stuff!) There have been numerous times in history when people have put on their capes and gathered on top of some hilltop waiting for the time their deranged cult leader told them Jesus was supposed to show up. It doesn't work that way!
So how does it work? Luckily Jesus tells us. It's going to be life as usual, until suddenly it isn't. Most people's last days on earth are like that. Everything is precisely normal, until suddenly a car runs a red light and mows them down, or they go to sleep and never wake up, or they're watching their best friend get married and suddenly a cluster bomb tears them to shreds. The end of Christian civilization will be just like every other day, until suddenly it isn't.
God told Noah when it was time to get in the ark. He told Lot when it was time to get out of Sodom. Up until that point, it was life as usual. Nobody was going around saying "Precisely at such and such a time, our world will end." It wasn't Donnie Darko! It was a surprise! And when that time came, Noah had to be ready to pack the boat and seal it up, and Lot had to be ready to move. It will be the same for us.
Jesus gives us some instruction on how to act when the time comes, the same as he did for Noah and for Lot. He's not going to leave us hanging. It isn't some cosmic prank. He says (paraphrased) "you're going to be doing your thing, and then suddenly *blam!* Jesus time!" Everything will be precisely normal until then. You may be playing video games, waiting for a bus, falling asleep in church, cooking bacon, getting married, sitting hooked up to machines in a hospital, going on vacation, or even watching TV. There will be no warning, but you have to be ready to be interrupted.
You could be up on a roof, or out in a field, or getting dinner ready, or laying in bed. Anywhere. But wherever you are is where you've got to be. There's no last minute cramming. There's no sentimentality. It's Jesus time! That's what you're there for and nothing else. You're not whipping your phone out and texting your friends, or trying to tweet one last selfie of you and the host of angels before you're whisked away to where there's no signal but Jesus. All through life until that point, we have to live life, but at that crucial point all that's left is us and Jesus. And that has to be enough or we'll miss out.
Are we ready to do that? Jesus warns us about Lot's wife. She was uncertain. She was still attached to the place she left. Part of her wanted to go back, to live a bit longer in the place it was time to leave. God didn't drag her along. He turned her into a pillar of salt!
But don't we all have a bit of hesitancy to completely leave everything behind? We want to pet the dog one last time, get the picture of the baby, have one last beer, watch that tv episode that's still on the DVR, tidy up the table, make sure the stove is off, get changed, call into work, eat the leftovers so they don't go to waste, etc. There's always something. But as a wise woman once said, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" If you miss the moment, you miss Jesus.
But how will we know? Life is consuming. We get tied up in what we're up to. How can we know for sure that it's Jesus and that it's time? It's not like we've got a practice round or a secret signal we've been taught to watch for. But in a way we do.
Don't we already have to be ready to be interrupted in the moment by the Holy Spirit? We've all had those experiences where were going about our stupid business when suddenly "it's on." We're supposed to do this, or that, or pray for this or that, and we just kind of know it. If we miss the moment, can we go back the next day and do it then? No! We can't do it any more than we can make an appointment with someone to pull them from a burning building. When you're in that moment in that place, there's only one thing to do.
In the time we have left, which could be fifty years or fifty milliseconds, we should live our lives, but also be ready to be interrupted by God. When he arrives, whether it's to ask us to express his love to someone or to come and whisk us away, we need to be ready. If we have to take a call first, or ask permission from someone, or get a bite to eat, it may already be too late.
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