After today there’s just one more Sunday left in the Church year. And after all of those weeks where we focused on Jesus’ miracles and parables, things take a decidedly darker turn in today’s Gospel lesson. All of a sudden we hear Jesus talking about all kinds of disasters like wars and earthquakes and famines. He’s talking about people doing terrible things to other people, about great distress and calamities. He even looks around the great Temple of Jerusalem and prophesies that it will be so totally and utterly destroyed that not a single stone will remain on top on another.
It is one thing to talk about wars and famines and all those other terrible events – but those who heard Him talk about the destruction of the Temple probably thought that Jesus was just plain out of His mind. After all, the project to remodel and rebuild the Temple had begun almost 50 years ago – and it wouldn’t be completed for more than 30 years into the future. I’m not sure that mere words can fully describe how large and majestic the Temple really was. Some historians argue that it was more impressive than many of the so-called ancient “seven wonders of the world,” and at various times upwards of 10,000 highly skilled workers were involved in the construction. At its highest point it stood 15 stories tall, and since it sat on top of a leveled-off mountain it probably looked even taller and more majestic. The stone building blocks were enormous in size – some single stones were said to be 35 feet long or even longer – and large areas were covered with expensive woods, precious metals and elaborately woven tapestries.
So when Jesus said that not a single stone would rest upon another – well, that was just plain crazy talk. No way that could ever happen. The closest example I can think of in modern times would be the World Trade Center in New York. Even after the airplanes slammed into the Twin Towers on 9/11 and set them on fire – and as we watched in shock and horror on our television screens – did any of us actually think that those great and powerful buildings would actually collapse? No, we didn’t. We just couldn’t imagine something like that happening. But then we saw the South Tower collapse. And then the North Tower collapsed. All that was left was a grotesque, terrible, burning pile of rubble. Total destruction. The same thing would happen to the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Just like Jesus said.
Since people didn’t think that the Temple could ever be destroyed, it wasn’t something that they ever worried about. Sure, they were used to wars and famines and earthquakes and all kinds of disasters – but then, so are we. After talking about the destruction of the Temple, Jesus talked about the end of the world – Judgment Day – another topic that doesn’t interest most people because most people just don’t think about it all that much. Sure, there’s the occasional end-of-the-world disaster movie and some people still believe that the world is going to end in 2012 because that’s when an ancient Mayan calendar ends. The millions who read Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind books and others like them get all excited about the “end times,” but their excitement mostly focuses on fictional events that are based on wrong understandings of the book of Revelation – and they focus not so much on Judgment Day, but on what they say will happen before Judgment Day.
In the minds of many people – probably a majority of people alive today – talk about Judgment Day is simply irrelevant. Mention Judgment Day and either peoples’ eyes start to glaze over in boredom or they think about some nut job standing on the corner in a long robe and holding a sign that says “The end is near.”
As far as most people are concerned, there are better things to worry about than something like Judgment Day. Things that really affect us, here and now. Like, will my son or daughter return home safely from the war in Afghanistan? Will I find a job? Will the bank foreclose on my home? With a limited fixed income and ever rising prices, will I have to make a choice between eating … or heating my house … or buying the medicines that the doctor says I have to take every day? Doctor’s appointments, tests in school, expensive car repairs, family troubles, aging parents, problems on the job – who really has time to worry about something like Judgment Day? It’s just not important in people’s everyday lives.
So when we read words like those of today’s Gospel lesson, we really need to pause for a moment and wonder: what should be the response of the Church to these kinds of attitudes? What should we think when people are either too busy to think about Judgment Day – or just plain don’t think or worry about it at all?
Well, here’s what I think: this is one time when every sinner of this world pretty much gets it right. I agree with them. Most of the time I don’t think about Judgment Day, either. Home, family, writing next week’s sermon and Bible Class, visiting people who are ill or homebound, taking care of the endless details of what we call “church business,” planning special Advent and Christmas services, followed early next year by special Lent and Holy Week and Easter services – on most days, Judgment Day just isn’t on my radar, either. It’s not something I worry about.
But while I think the world is right in not worrying about Judgment Day, I also think that they are right for the wrong reason. Most people don’t worry about Judgment Day because they think it will never happen. Christians, on the other hand, don’t worry about Judgment Day because we know that it will happen. And we know what will happen when it happens. We know that Jesus has already taken care of everything. He has prepared a place for me – for you – for each and every one of us – with Him in heaven.
Often when Jesus told a parable, He began by saying “The kingdom of heaven is like” – and then he told the parable. Whenever Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven, he wasn’t talking about some future place or some future time. In Matthew chapter 4, when we read of Jesus’ first recorded teaching, He begins by saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The word “kingdom” is a pretty good translation of the original Greek, but the word “reign” – spelled r-e-i-g-n – is a better translation here. Whenever you hear the words “the kingdom of heaven” or even “the reign of heaven,” Jesus is referring to the reigning of God – the rule of God – that is already taking place. Not later – here and now. And for all eternity, including and following Judgment Day.
The terrible events and things Jesus talks about in the Gospel lesson today have been happening for thousands of years and are still happening today. “Nation will rise against nation” – when do we not have some kind of war being fought somewhere in the world? “Earthquakes and famines and pestilences” – how about the famines taking place today in the Sudan and other parts of Africa, the floods that have left millions homeless in China and Pakistan, or the earthquakes and cholera outbreaks that plague the people of Haiti? Jesus said that “they will lay their hands on you and persecute you” – just two weeks ago 37 Christians were killed and another 56 were wounded when Al Qaeda terrorists attacked a Catholic church in Baghdad.
The end times are not some future time or event. Not later – but here and now. Jesus will return in judgment. But that’s not a cause for worry. It’s a cause for celebration.
In the first few hundred years of the Church, it wasn’t unusual for converts from pagan worship to Christianity to wait to be baptized until they were near death. It’s almost like they were testing God – playing a game of chicken – but when you try to play games with God, it’s a sure thing that you’re going to be on the losing end of things. This same idea applies to nonbelievers who think that they’ll have one last and final chance to make things right with God if and when Jesus actually does return in glory. That’s a losing game, too. When Jesus returns – “coming in a cloud with power and great glory” as Luke writes in our Gospel lesson – it’s going to be too late for any and all unbelievers. Their fate has been sealed. There will be no second chances, no do-over’s, no last-minute chance for repentance before it’s too late. They should have worried about Judgment Day, but they didn’t. And their eternal fate in hell will be assured.
But now listen again to these final words of our Gospel lesson, these words of promise and comfort. Jesus says: “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Our redemption – our Savior – is coming to replace our sick and sinful bodies with glorified, eternal, perfect bodies. Our Savior is returning to raise from the dead all who have died before us and all who will die before Judgment Day. Our Savior – our redemption – is drawing near.
So if you are not worried about Judgment Day, if you really don’t give it much thought, then that’s perfectly fine. The kingdom of heaven is here – because our Savior Jesus Christ is here. That is our life of faith, both now and in the blessed eternity that Jesus has prepared for us. We know that the best truly is yet to come. Because no matter what may happen to us today, our salvation is assured. It is the promise that Jesus Himself makes to us. “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
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