In this conversation, our Lord is answering the Pharisees’ question regarding the coming of the Kingdom of God which in their minds meant the coming of the Messiah. For centuries they had been waiting for this kingdom. In vs. 21 our Lord answers them by saying “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” He is pointing to himself being in their midst as the Messiah. What is sad about the reality of the Jews at the time is that they missed it. They thought they were waiting for it. They thought they knew what it would look like when it came. They thought they were ready for it. Yet, when it actually came, they didn’t recognize it, and they were not ready for it.
The fact of the matter is what they wanted and were waiting for was very different from what God had planned. Their religion had the form of godliness, but they were denying its power. It had become a man-made religion. They had “neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” and instead became consumed with “tithing mint and dill and cumin”. In other words, their eyes were focused on what is earthly and taken off what the kingdom of God was truly about.
Today, we are in a similar situation. We are not waiting for the first coming of Christ but His second. In vs. 22, the Lord turns to his disciples and starts to talk to them about it. He spends the rest of the passage through 18:8 basically warning them not to make the same mistake as the Jews. Hence the cautionary verse 18:8 “when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
This Sunday, we will talk about His second coming and ask, “what does this have to do with our daily life?”