In the Life of Christ
“For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.” — Luke 17:24
When I read Jesus’ teaching about His return, I hear both a promise and a warning. The promise is that Christ will come again. The warning is that I must not become so absorbed in ordinary life that I live as though He never will. Jesus does not give His disciples a date to calculate. He gives us a life to live faithfully.
Jesus warns that people will claim, “There he is!” or “Here he is!” His instruction is direct: “Do not go running off after them.” Christ’s return will not depend upon rumors, secret knowledge, or the persuasive claims of a self-appointed prophet. It will be unmistakable, like lightning illuminating the entire sky. If someone must convince me that Jesus has returned, then the event being described is not the return Jesus promised.
Yet before speaking of glory, Jesus speaks of suffering: “But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25). The kingdom comes through the cross before it appears in final triumph. Jesus does not save the world by avoiding suffering but by entering it, carrying our sin, and defeating death through His resurrection. As His disciple, I should not expect faithfulness always to provide a painless road.
Jesus compares the day of His return to the days of Noah and Lot. People were eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting, and building. None of those activities is inherently sinful. The danger was not that people were conducting business or enjoying meals. The danger was that they had organized life without reference to God. Judgment arrived while everything appeared normal.
That warning reaches into my life. I can attend appointments, pay bills, prepare meals, make purchases, and plan for tomorrow while slowly becoming spiritually indifferent. My schedule may be full while my soul remains unprepared. The greatest danger may not be open rebellion but becoming so comfortable with “business as usual” that I no longer expect God to interrupt my plans.
“Remember Lot’s wife,” Jesus says. She left Sodom physically, but her heart remained attached to what God was judging. Her backward look exposed a divided loyalty. That is why Jesus adds, “Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it” (Luke 17:32–33). Readiness is not achieved by abandoning responsibility or becoming obsessed with prophecy. It means holding possessions, ambitions, and even life itself beneath the lordship of Christ.
The statement that one person will be taken and another left has produced many competing interpretations. Within this passage, however, Noah and Lot provide the controlling images: judgment comes suddenly and makes a decisive separation. Jesus’ final image—“Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather”—underscores the certainty and visibility of judgment. Just as circling birds reveal what has occurred below, the coming of the Son of Man will leave no uncertainty about God’s verdict. Jesus’ purpose is not to satisfy every curiosity about the sequence of future events. He is calling me to be ready.
C. S. Lewis captured that urgency when he wrote, “When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.” The present is the time for trust, repentance, and allegiance. I should not wait for overwhelming evidence at Christ’s appearing before deciding whether I belong to Him.
Readiness, however, is not meant to produce panic. BibleProject describes Paul’s message to Christians awaiting Christ’s return as an encouragement to remain “faithful, hopeful, confident, and fearless.” That is a healthier picture of biblical expectation. I prepare for Christ’s return by following Christ today—loving my neighbor, forgiving those who wound me, resisting temptation, caring for people in need, sharing the gospel, and remaining faithful in the responsibilities God has placed before me.
Billy Graham summarized his calling by saying, “My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which comes through knowing Christ” (Billy Graham Memorial). That relationship is the center of readiness. The question is not merely whether I can explain a position about the end times. The question is whether I know, trust, and obey the returning King.
Jesus may return during an extraordinary crisis, or He may return while people are preparing breakfast, working in fields, signing contracts, and making wedding plans. My calling remains the same: live every ordinary day under the loving authority of the coming King. If Christ returns today, may He find me faithfully doing what He has already placed before me.
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