Originally posted by longchen:
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God
would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with
your careful observation, nor will people say, `Here it is,' or
`There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." Luke
17:20-21
Pls read with discernment. Thanks.
"The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation"...
means that Reality( or God) cannot be understood through beliefs,
concepts and thinking of the conventional mind.
Reality( or God) is totally unbounded... Therefore it cannot be
said to be here it is... There it is.
This sense of being here... that you are at a particular location
on this planet... is a sensation. All we have is sensation... That
is... we are 'not here'... we are having a [b]sensation of
being here.
Likewise, we think that we are the doer of actions... again it is
perceptual illusion of a 'you' doing things. Minus the 'you' and
'I', there is the doing only. ... which is the truth. The 'self' is
the illusion of a person perceiving the environment. Thinking
thinks that it is a thinker... but thinking is just thinking.
[/b]
..................
The first portion of the discourse is a response to the Pharisees.
They want to know when the kingdom of God is coming (on the
kingdom, see discussion of 9:57-62). Jesus explains that the
kingdom does not come "with signs to be observed, nor will people
say, `Here it is,' or `There it is,' because the kingdom of God is
in your midst." My rendering here sticks close to the Greek, for
reasons I will make clear.
The reply has caused no lack of discussion, because it suggests the
immediacy of the kingdom's presence. The question is very
practical: When will God manifest his rule and consummate his plan?
Though Judaism did not have a unified picture of the expected
Messiah's coming, in most conceptions it was a powerful and
glorious arrival (Frerichs, Green and Neusner 1987; Charlesworth
1992). A famous example of Jewish expectation is Psalms of Solomon
17--18, where a powerful Messiah rules in Israel and rescues it
from the nations. According to Jewish teaching, the arrival of
Messiah would be clear and obvious to all. The question's
implication may well be that whatever Jesus' ministry is, it does
not reflect the anticipated glory. So his ministry cannot reflect
the kingdom's presence.
But Jesus challenges the premise. The kingdom does not come "with
observation." This phrase's meaning is disputed (Marshall 1978:654;
Fitzmyer 1985:1160; Nolland 1993:852). Does it mean through legal
observation, so Jesus denies that faithfulness to the law is
required before he returns? Does it mean the kingdom comes
mysteriously? Or--most likely--is it an allusion to the apocalyptic
signs that are supposed to accompany the kingdom's coming? Jesus
argues that the kingdom's coming does not require apocalyptic
observation, since that was the normal expectation. The initial
phase of the kingdom does not come that way.
Why? Because "the kingdom of God is in your midst." This phrase is
one of the most discussed in Luke's Gospel. It is one of the few
statements of Jesus that puts the kingdom in the present. In fact,
so unprecedented is this statement that some argue the idea is
really futuristic. The idea is, The kingdom is as good as present,
since I am here. You need not miss it when it comes (Nolland
1993:853-54; Mattill 1979:198-201).
But a futuristic meaning is unlikely here. The verb that normally
takes a futuristic present is erchomai, not eimi, which is the verb
in verse 21. Thus Luke's shift of verbs in this context is
significant, as is his shift of tenses. Moreover, the verb is
placed in an emphatic position in the Greek text. More important,
the remark about signs in verses 20-21 is specifically denied if a
future sense exists, for Jesus appears to go on and enumerate the
signs! It is better to interpret this phrase as referring to the
initial coming now with a consummation to come later. Then Jesus'
reply is, "You do not need to look for the kingdom in signs,
because its King (and so its presence) is right before you. But its
display in comprehensive power will come visibly to all one day.
You will not need to hunt to find it then."
When Jesus says it is "in your midst," he does not mean in one's
heart (but so NIV: the kingdom of God is within you). Jesus is
speaking to Pharisees who have rejected him. They do not have the
kingdom in their heart. And nowhere else in the New Testament is
the kingdom described as an internal entity. He must mean something
else here.
Two senses are possible. Jesus could mean "in your grasp or power."
The kingdom's presence is related to one's ability to repent
(Beasley-Murray 1986:102-3). The view depends on substantiating the
presence of an idiom claimed also to be found in various Greek
papyri, but that reading of the papyri is challenged (Riesenfeld
1949:11-12; Wikgren 1950:27-2
. Also against this view is that it appears to be a
nonanswer. To say the kingdom is within your grasp is not to say
where it is or how you can get it--at least not very explicitly. In
contrast to such vagueness, the second possible sense is that the
kingdom is "in your midst"--that is, "in your presence." It is
present in Jesus, so he and it stand before you. You do not have to
look for it, because it is right before your face! This answer is
very much like 7:22-23 and 11:20. It also fits the time perspective
of 7:28 and 16:16, as well as the explicit declarations of current
fulfillment in 4:16-23.
Now some in challenging this reading argue that Jesus is saying he
is present but the kingdom is not. But that approach makes no sense
here. Why would Jesus mention his personal presence in distinction
from the kingdom's and then use an expression that mentions the
kingdom? The whole point is to discuss the kingdom, not just him.
The Pharisees know Jesus is present, and they know he claims to
bring the time of fulfillment, so they are asking where the kingdom
is. Jesus' reply is that the kingdom program comes with him, even
in the present.
The program of God's reclamation of creation starts and stops with
Jesus. Signs are not necessary because Jesus is the sign. As the
entire discourse shows, the kingdom has an "already-not yet"
character (Bock 1994d:193-97, 116-17). Luke 1:67-79, Acts 2:25-36,
Romans 1:2-4 with 16:25-27, 1 Corinthians 15:25, Ephesians 1:18-23,
Colossians 1:12-14, Hebrews 1:5-13, 1 Peter 2:4-10 and Revelation
1:6-8 share this two-phased kingdom perspective. Efforts to tie the
presence-of-the-kingdom language of the New Testament to the
ongoing presence of God's universal kingdom fail, since the context
of these kingdom texts is an announcement of the arrival of
something that previously was missing. In addition, efforts to
argue that Jesus rules over a spiritual kingdom now that is
distinct from the promised rule of the Old Testament also fail to
note the declarations of explicit fulfillment in the contexts in
which the statements are made (for example, Lk 4:16-23; 7:22-23;
24:43-49; Acts 13:16-41; Rom 1:1-7; Heb 1:1-2). Finally, attempts
to argue that the kingdom is present but rule is not ignore the
fact that when Jesus saves he exercises regal, executive authority
as the promised Christ (Acts 2:16-41). Since Christ is a regal
title, and since authority is a function of person and office, an
expression of rule is present, though the full coercive rule of
Jesus the King over all the creation will come in the future.
If the Pharisees had read the sign of the present time correctly,
the question would not even be asked (12:54-56). Jesus has declared
that the process of kingdom growth has started, so they should not
assume it is absent, though it has made such a humble start
(13:18-20). They need to respond to the King.
At this point Jesus turns to his disciples and elaborates on the
ultimate answer to the Pharisees' question, the kingdom's future
nature. That our attention turns to the future is clear by the
words "days are coming," a phrase that can indicate the approach of
decisive judgment (Is 39:6; Jer 7:32; 16:14; Ezek 7:10-12; Amos
4:2; Zech 14:1). The NIV renders this in the idiomatic the time is
coming. Ultimately the kingdom's manifestation will include its
powerful and coercive establishment on the earth, with total
authority over all of humanity. That period could be described as
one of the days of the Son of Man. When the Son of Man returns with
authority to vindicate the saints and exercise power on their
behalf, it will be a grand day of judgment (Dan 7). For a time,
disciples will long to see it, but it will not come. That day does
not come immediately. People will claim that it has come, but Jesus
warns that the disciples should not go to check for his arrival.
Those claims are not the real thing. When it comes, it will be
sudden and visible like the lightning across the sky.
.....................
