Luke 17:20-37

New Testament for Everyone

The coming of the kingdom

²⁰ The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming.

“God’s kingdom,” replied Jesus, “isn’t the sort of thing you can watch for and see coming. ²¹ People won’t say ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘Look, over there!’ No: God’s kingdom is within your grasp.”

²² Then Jesus said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the son of man, and you won’t see it. ²³ They will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Don’t go off or follow them. ²⁴ The son of man in his day will be like lightning that shines from one end of the sky to the other. ²⁵ But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

²⁶ “What will it be like in the days of the son of man? It will be like the days of Noah. ²⁷ People were eating and drinking, they were getting married and giving wedding parties, until the day when Noah went into the ark. And on that day the flood came and swept them all away. ²⁸ And it will be like the days of Lot. They were eating and drinking, they were buying and selling, they were planting and building. ²⁹ But on the day when Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and they were all destroyed. ³⁰ That’s what it will be like on the day when the son of man is revealed.

³¹ “On that day anyone up on the roof, with all their possessions in the house, shouldn’t go down to get them. Anyone out in the field shouldn’t go back to get anything. ³² Remember Lot’s wife. ³³ If you try to save your life you’ll lose it, but anyone who loses it will keep it.

³⁴ “Let me tell you, in that night there will be two people sleeping side by side: one will be taken, and the other left behind. ³⁵ There will be two women working side by side grinding corn: one will be taken, and the other left behind.”

³⁷ “Where will this be, Master?” they asked him.

“Where the body is,” replied Jesus, “there the vultures will gather.”