Untitled Sermon (16)

Forgiveness was an eschatological blessing; if Israel went into exile because of her sins, then forgiveness consists in her returning: returning to yhwh, returning from exile.

N. T. Wright

The simplest solution (not that New Testament scholars usually opt for the simplest solution) is that Jesus himself believed that he was the agent of this strange return from exile, and that he lived and acted accordingly.

N. T. Wright

And Jesus told the story to make the point that the return from exile was happening in and through his own work.

N. T. Wright; Michael F. Bird

All this is evidence, of course, not only that many Jews of the time believed in a continuing exile but also that they were indeed thinking in terms of a continuous history.

N. T. Wright

We cannot be satisfied here, for we are exiled from the glory land and compassed with infirmities. We await with expectation the summons, “Rise up and come away.

Charles Spurgeon