Today's Devotion
Friday of Easter 6, May 15, 2026 - Luke 17:20-37
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Jesus corrects the misunderstanding of the Pharisees – a misunderstanding shared by many – that the prophetic “kingdom of God” would be a political revolution and a re-establishment of the earthly state of Israel. For in seeking worldly glory, they missed the real power of the kingdom of God: victory over sin, death, and the devil, and eternal life through the cross of the Suffering Servant (Isa 52:13-53:12), whose atoning blood restores communion between God and mankind. When seen in this light, all the talk of the rise and fall of governors and kings and Caesars – and all temporary worldly politics – shrinks into nothingness by comparison.
But even after three years of preaching, teaching, working miracles, and fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament, and even after His crucifixion, death, and resurrection, and even after two thousand years of God’s transformative kingdom on earth – there are still those (including some Christians) who reduce the kingdom to either worldly politics or into a puzzle to figure out when Jesus is returning to re-establish His kingdom on earth.
Jesus will return. We will enter eternity, whether through death or by His coming again in glory. Jesus will re-create the material world – including our very bodies – so that His kingdom will be a very real, material, physical kingdom. But this in no way negates the fact that the kingdom is already here “in the midst of [us],” among the church, where Jesus is present in His Word and Sacraments.
Our Lord does warn His disciples of what is coming in the future. For in addition to being the Son of God (John 3:16), and God the Son (Heb 1:8), in addition to being our Great High Priest (Heb 4:14) and “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 19:16), He also holds the office of Prophet (Acts 3:22). And our Lord prophesies of the future fulfillment of His kingdom (that is already in the midst of His church) by warning them not to be fooled by charlatans and false prophets. Instead, He points them to the cross.
The kingdom is coming to save everyone. But in their pride, most poor, miserable sinners will refuse the cure. Though God so loved “the world” in its universal, cosmic sense (John 3:16), nearly all of the people of the world love other things than God. The gate is narrow, and few find it (Matt 7:14). The cross is the power of God unto salvation, though the world sees it as folly (1 Cor 1:18).
So let us heed our Lord’s warning about chasing after lurid assertions and sensational headlines about this
“prophet” and that “sign.” Let us look to the most unlikely event in history: the death of God Himself at the hands of the very men He has come to save. For “where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thank you. We need to be reminded of the idolatry in the world as well as the idolatry in our old sinful nature and put it to death through the precious gift of forgiveness in Christ, our Lord and Savior.