Luke 17-C “This Sudden Moment…Don’t Turn Back!”

S = 17:28-33 “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”

O = There will come a moment of decision when we must decide what is more important to us…the goods that are “in the house” or Jesus, our property and home or Jesus, even our life itself or Jesus. Jesus prepared his disciples, his committed followers, for the day of his departure and that day of his return. He warned that the ultimate day will come when the judgment takes place, but that before that day there would be another day in ad 70 when Roman armies would surround Jerusalem (see 21:20-24) and those that did not flee right away would never get out. This day is even more urgent than that. Perhaps, this moment of decision would come in each disciple’s life, even down to our day, as to whether we desire the deliverance that Jesus offers by faith (though we may face bitter persecution) or the goods, house and land, and life of this world over that of the next. Turning back from Christ in that moment will never bring life only a spiritual fossilization, tragic testimony to what could have been.

A = How will I do in that moment of crisis? Probably the way I do now…in all the little decisions I make each day. If I choose this life, these things, my own desires and worries over the will of Christ today then I am probably fooling myself to think that I would leave it all behind when facing its loss and even martyrdom for following Jesus. Yet if I, even now, take warning and follow Jesus then I will be eternally secure in Him. I remember Jesus said that I can only serve one master (Luke 16:13). So today, what does this mean for my life? Is there anything that turns my head and my heart back to Sodom—let it be cut off now that I may freely follow Christ my Great King!

P = O precious Lord, please set me free to follow you without bondage to my stuff and my home and even my own life. I long for your appearing. As the old song says, “may the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of your glory and grace!” May the old me be left behind like a pillar of salt as the new me runs out to meet you like a calf let loose from its stall (Mal. 4:2), rather than circling the dead things of my former false life like so many vultures.  Amen.