Context No. 3024 of 4322 · Luke

Luke 17:22-37: in context

22He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23They will tell you, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Don’t go away or follow after them, 24for as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part under the sky, shines to another part under the sky, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26As it was in the days of Noah, even so it will also be in the days of the Son of Man. 27They ate, they drank, they married, and they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28Likewise, even as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and destroyed them all. 30It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed. 31In that day, he who will be on the housetop and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back. 32Remember Lot’s wife! 33Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it. 34I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed. One will be taken and the other will be left. 35There will be two grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other will be left.” 37They, answering, asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there the vultures will also be gathered together.”

Jesus warns his disciples about his coming day. It will not be found here or there for the pointing; it will be sudden as lightning flashing across the sky, and first he must suffer and be rejected. As it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, people ate and drank, married, bought and sold, planted and built, entirely unaware, until the flood and the fire came and swept them all away.

The warning is about readiness and about not clinging. The people of Noah's and Lot's days were not, in these examples, especially wicked; they were simply absorbed in ordinary life, oblivious that judgment was near. And remember Lot's wife, Jesus says, who looked back longingly at what she was leaving. It is a warning against a heart still attached to what God is calling us out of. The command is to hold life loosely, ready to let go, because whoever grasps to save his life will lose it, and whoever lets it go will keep it.

Is my heart, like Lot's wife, still looking back at what God is calling me to leave, or am I holding my life loosely, ready for his day?

Sources

Luke 17:32: "Remember Lot's wife!"
Luke 17:33: "Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it."
1 John 2:17: "The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God's will remains forever."