Remember Lot's wife

 

 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!'  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."  Then He 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.  And they will say to you, 'Look here!' or 'Look there!'  Do not go after them or follow them.  For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.  But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.  

"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:  They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.  Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:  They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.  Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.  

 

"In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away.  And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.  Remember Lot's wife.  Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.  

 

"I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed:  the one will be taken and the other will be left.  Two women will be grinding together:  the one will be taken and the other left.  Two men will be in the field:  the one will be taken and the other left."  And they answered and said to Him, "Where, Lord?"  So He said to them, "Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together."

 

- Luke 17:20-37 

 

Yesterday we read that as He went to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.  And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"  So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."  And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.  And he was a Samaritan.  So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed?  But where are the nine?  Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"  And He said to him, "Arise, go your way.  Your faith has made you well."

 

 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; now will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!'  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."  My study Bible comments that the kingdom of God is a spiritual reality which is present within the Christian believer and within the community of the Church.  Within you, it says, can also be translated "among you" or "in your midst."

 

Then He 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.  And they will say to you, 'Look here!' or 'Look there!'  Do not go after them or follow them.  For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.  But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation."   Jesus emphasizes the suddenness and completeness of the day of His return, even as He is warning the disciples of His coming Passion and rejection.

"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:  They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.  Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:  They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.  Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed."  My study Bible comments that this warning not to be preoccupied with worldly matters applies both to believers and to parishes.  

"In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away.  And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.  Remember Lot's wife.  Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."  This latter statement is one which we read many times from Christ in various forms.  In teaching about who will enter the Kingdom, He said, "There are last who will be first and first who will be last" (Luke 13:30).  When He taught that each must take up one's own cross, Jesus said, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it" (see Luke 9:23-26 for context).  Here, His teaching reflects this similar idea that our lives must be led by our faith in God, and a willingness to let go of what stands in the way of where our faith would lead us, even to our ideas of who we are or who we must be.  Hence, the example of Lot's wife (see Genesis 19:15-26), which is tied to the judgment of God.

"I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed:  the one will be taken and the other will be left.  Two women will be grinding together:  the one will be taken and the other left.  Two men will be in the field:  the one will be taken and the other left."   My study Bible comments that Christ's second coming will entail a sudden revelation of judgment.  One will be taken to heaven and the other left for eternal condemnation.  The separation of the saints from the wicked will occur on "the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (verse 30, above) and not, as some speculate, at an event that occurs before this return.

And they answered and said to Him, "Where, Lord?"  So He said to them, "Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together."  My study Bible tells us that the body refers to Christ, while the eagles refer to the angels and the saints.

Christ uses this memorable phrase in today's reading, "Remember Lot's wife" (referring to the story of Lot's wife who looked back, and became a pillar of salt; see Genesis 19:15-26).  According to St. Cyril of Alexandria, "To resist the temptation to look back is what it means to lose your life in order to save it."  There's another phrase to which St. Cyril refers us in commentary on this passage, asking us to remember that Christ also said, "No one that puts his hand to the plough and turns back is fit also for the kingdom of heaven" (Luke 9:62).  St. Cyril comments, "It is our duty to maintain our religious exertions without wavering and to persevere in them with undaunted wills or else we may suffer the kind of fate that befell the woman at Sodom."   St. Cyril was Patriarch of Alexandria in the fifth century (from 412 to 444), a time when the city was at its height and power of influence within the Roman Empire.  He played a decisive role in many controversies of the time, which continue to be studied.  But it seems to me that it is important that we look at his commentary and think about how it applies to us today.  What does it mean to put our hand to the plow, and not to look back?  What are the ways in which we might place our faith and trust in Christ, but then be tempted to turn away, to look back, to see things in our earlier lives which we have discarded in following the path of Christ and wistfully turn to what we left behind?  Some early commentators suggest that what is left behind and looked back upon are possessions we may have given away in the spirit of charity, for example.  Perhaps, in terms of today's phrases and concerns, we might have left a particular element of a "lifestyle" behind us.  Perhaps we seek to be less materialistic than we used to be, or we've changed our goals in life to reflect less of a concern with what everybody is doing, or what everybody else thinks of us, and more of a concern with where God seems to want us to go instead.  It seems to be clear that in the midst of all of this discussion of the end times, of Christ's second coming and sudden judgment, Christ is asking us once again to be prepared to pay the price, but with a deeper sense of conviction than before.  He seems to be suggesting that for every generation and every believer, these questions and challenges will come upon us, but we must be prepared to stay the course, and to remember how important that is, and how much depends upon it for our lives and our salvation.  There's another interesting commentary on this passage by St. Ambrose, in which he points out that Christ says He will return at night:  "I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed:  the one will be taken and the other will be left."  St. Ambrose explains this by suggesting that Christ's return will happen "at night" as it will be the time of darkness because of the Antichrist.  We contrast with the various times Jesus refers to His return as "the day."  This is particularly true of Christ's statement, "For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day." The brilliance of this flash of lightning shining out of one part under heaven to the other part is a sign of the illumination which Christ brings, and that He is, in fact, the Light (see John 1:5, 9).   In this perspective, just as John has written that Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness but the darkness did not comprehend it, so Christ's return will be the sudden illumination and flashing of that light shining in the darkness for all, at once, and for the fullness of time.  But for now, we must again return to our present circumstances:  where we are, what our own lives are about, where we find our current struggle for faith.  As we once again keep in mind that, at this stage in Luke's Gospel, Christ is now firmly on His way to the Cross, bound toward Jerusalem.  With that understanding, these issues take on even starker juxtaposition.  Christ will be judge of all; He is in fact the Light, that true light that will shine for all -- but for now we may find the darkness at times daunts us and shakes our faith, and so we need to remember and to consider His words.  Whether we are St. Cyril in Alexandria of the fifth century, or St. Ambrose in the smaller and less influential Milan of the fourth, or we find ourselves in our own particular kind of struggle with the darkness we find in our own times and places, let us remember Who is the true light, and Who tells us -- warns us -- to remember Lots' wife, and not to look back but forward, despite the struggle.  Let us remember who we are, and Whose we are.