New Year: Luke 17-19 for Nov 4

Though Jesus has predictions of the immediate, the near-term, and the far-term, the conceptions among the followers of the far-term future are the ones that He corrected as to their timing; people were supposing them to be about the near-term future (19:11).

(Matt 19:13 - 21:22 and Mark 10:13 - 11:18 are in the same time sequence as Luke 18-19 when we read them synoptically.)

Jesus is predicting specific details of the immediate future (18:32-33), none of which are understood (18:34). He lays out the interim between now and His return by parable (19:11-27). But the interim is only one verse of the parable, 19:12. The rest of the parable is post-interim! Nevertheless, the far-term events are as highly described in prediction (17:22-37) as they are in parable.

These predictions are interwoven with ethical teaching. This is not usually characteristic of popular apocalypticism today, but it is unmistakable in the Lord's teaching. We see this in 17:32-33, the parables of Luke 18, the didactic of 18:18-27,18:28ff., punctuated by 18:30. (Don't read the converse into Luke 18:29-30!)

Short-term (18:31-33), near-term (19:43-44), or long-term (17:22-37), all of it is salted with the salt of His ethics for His followers.