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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
For various reasons, many of us may have breathed a sigh of relief when the presidential election results finally came in this past week, while those same results prompted others to take to the streets in protest: two different reactions to one and the same event. We also find two different reactions to the same events in today’s Gospel Reading: the destruction of Jerusalem with its Temple and the End of this life as we know it cause confusion and fear in some, while others, us who believe, are exhorted to settle our minds, endure, straighten up, and raise our heads because for us the End means “Gained Lives and Completed Redemption”. Thus our theme as we reflect on today’s Gospel Reading is “Gained Lives and Completed Redemption”.
Jesus spoke the words of today’s Gospel Reading after He had entered Jerusalem as a King to be praised and before He would leave Jerusalem as a criminal to be crucified. In and around Jerusalem’s Temple there was talk of sacrificial offerings and glory, some that would last only for a time, and others that would last forever. Jesus was asked when the Temple would be destroyed and for a warning sign of its destruction, and Jesus answered with what, to us sinners, may be confusing teaching that, at times indistinctly, addresses both the destruction of Jerusalem with its Temple and the End of this life as we know it. In the Gospel Reading’s twenty-four verses there are at least ten commands, a number of which no longer apply to us, since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple decades after Jesus spoke these words.
So, for example, Jesus’s commands to know that the desolation of Jerusalem had drawn near when the city was surrounded by armies, for those in Judea to flee to the hills, for those inside Jerusalem to depart the city, and for those out in the country not to enter the city—those commands really do not apply to us. But, Jesus’s commands not to be led astray or go after false religions, not to be terrified by wars and tumults, and to settle our minds on a daily basis, and His commands to endure, to straighten up, and to raise our heads at the End of life as we know it—those commands do still apply to us. How are we doing with those commands?
Do we let false teachers or preachers and our own ideas about what is right lead us away from Jesus and the true faith? Do the ongoing conflicts and instability in the world terrify us? Are we overly concerned about what we will say when we are persecuted after being betrayed by parents, siblings, other relatives, and friends? Do we patiently endure all that God permits us to face? If the sun, moon, and stars in the sky were shaken and the sea and waves roared as a result, would we be perplexed and faint with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world, or would we straighten up and raise up our heads? In all likelihood we all fail in these ways, just as we fail in so many others, for we all are sinful by nature. Even we who repent and believe continue to sin! Apart from such repentance and faith, our sinful natures and actual sins of thoughts, words, and deeds would mean for us death now in time and torment in hell for eternity. The Lord’s judgment of the world in righteousness and of the people with equity, of which we sang in today’s Psalm (98), and the sentence upon the arrogant and evildoers we heard of in today’s Old Testament Reading (Malachi 4:1-6) are real and will come, just as Jesus’s prophecy about Jerusalem and its Temple’s destruction, the Lord’s vengeance and wrath on their faithless rejection of Jesus, came true. Yet, as God leads us to repent of our sin and to trust Him to forgive our sin, He forgives our sin and we receive “Gained Lives and Completed Redemption”.
Perhaps you and I can remember being told by a parent, teacher, or someone else to stand up tall: head up, shoulders back, chest out. Good posture has its reasons and seems all the more difficult to maintain today when we are often hunched over our electronic devices. But, the “straightening up” in today’s Gospel Reading is not about physical posture as much as it is about being elated or exalted. The raising of our heads likewise is more about the sure and certain hope of eternal life that we have because the God-man Jesus Christ came into the world, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose from the grave in order to redeem us from our sins. Jesus is the true Christ, Who came near, was arrested, persecuted, betrayed, tried, condemned, and patiently endured all—all for us and for our salvation. By grace through faith in Him, not a hair of our heads, much less the rest of our bodies, will perish eternally; instead, we gain our lives and have complete redemption now, even if we do not yet fully experience it.
Some of you may have heard about the “supermoon” we will have tonight and tomorrow night: the year’s biggest, brightest full moon, appearing some 15-percent larger than average, because the moon is at its closest point to earth in its orbit, the closest full moon in 68 years. Yet, the “supermoon” is hardly a sign of the End. We can search so desperately for what we might want to be signs, that we overlook or under-appreciate the signs and miracles that God gives us. For Jesus’s sake, God forgives our sins through the Reading and preaching of His Word, with that Word and the water of Holy Baptism, with that Word spoken by our pastors in individual Holy Absolution, and with that Word and the bread that is Christ’s Body and the wine that is Christ’s Blood of Holy Communion. God’s Word and Sacraments are not only signs of His favor towards us on account of Christ, but they are also His miraculous means of bringing us to faith in Christ, forgiving our sins for Christ’s sake, and preserving us in that faith in Christ and so also in eternal life in His Name. Again, we have that life and redemption even now as we wait to experience it fully.
Today’s Epistle Reading (2 Thessalonians 3:6-13) in part describes what our lives should be like while we wait for the End of time as we know it and so to fully experience the life and redemption we have for Christ’s sake. And, today’s Gospel Reading tells us how our personal relationship with Jesus Christ might impact our other personal relationships, how, like Christ before us, we will be arrested, persecuted, betrayed, tried, and condemned but also bear witness in the process. And, He, Who bore witness before Herod the king and Pilate the governor, gives us a mouth and wisdom which none of our adversaries ultimately will be able to withstand or contradict. Jesus says plainly that we will be hated by all for His Name’s sake, and some of us will be put to death, but not a hair of our head, much less the rest of our bodies, will perish eternally. By our patient endurance, a fruit of the faith that is itself a gift of God, we gain our eternal lives, or perhaps first we live to see the signs of the End and straighten up and lift up our heads as our full and complete redemption comes with our Lord in His final coming in a cloud of God’s power and great glory.
We may have gotten as our president-elect the candidate that seemed less-hostile to religion, but his election will not keep from coming true in time our Lord’s prophecy of increasing persecution leading up to the End. All but the final, most catastrophic signs already have largely been observed. Like the exiles of the Old Testament, the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in the New Testament was a preview of the End of time as we know it. The arrival of that End is beyond our control, but, by God’s grace, we live every day before that End in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and so we receive “Gained Lives and Completed Redemption”. The Spirit and the Bride say “Come”, and let the ones who hear say, “Come”; He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon”; Amen, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:16, 20)
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +