26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man: 27 People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

28 It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

30 It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: One will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together: One will be taken and the other left.”

37 “Where, Lord?” they asked.

Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Paul Bogg

One time at work, when I was talking to a group of Christians about the return of Jesus Christ, there was a short discussion about what that might look like. There were general remarks about how wonderful that moment will be.

In today’s passage, Jesus gives us a bit of a reality check on what that moment will actually look like. Jesus compares it to two episodes from the Old Testament: the days of Noah, when people were going about their normal lives before the flood came, and the days of Lot in the wicked city of Sodom, when people were similarly going about their business before fire and sulphur rained down. What stands out to me with those Old Testament references is that they both relate to cataclysmic events, events that result in mass destruction. But they were also events where a small group of people escaped that destruction – like in the Exodus, when God delivered Israel from the destruction he brought to Egypt.

The warning from Jesus here is clear: don’t long for or love the things that are marked for destruction. Rather, remember that Jesus has opened the way for a new and true exodus, and obey the word of the gospel that instructs and prepares you on how you can escape.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul is a member of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.