Discourse on the Kingdom and Other Parables

When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs.

Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Then He said to the disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

People will tell you, ‘Look, there He is!’ or ‘Look, here He is!’ Do not go out or chase after them.

For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day.

But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:

People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind.

Remember Lot’s wife!

Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.

I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other left.

Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”

Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

“Where, Lord?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart:

“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men.

And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,

yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, she will wear me out with her perpetual requests.’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to the words of the unjust judge.

Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay in helping them?

I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’

I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”