In the Green Wood: A Meditation on Luke 23, for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

And there followed him a great company of people,

and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.

But Jesus turning unto them said,

Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves,

And for your children.  For, behold, the days are coming,

in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the

wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

Then shall they begin to say to the mountains,

Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

For if they do these things in a green tree,

what shall be done in the dry?

This Gospel text from Luke 23 selected for the last Sunday of the Church year, is taken from the midst of Jesus’ passion narrative.  Already condemned by Pontius Pilate and heading toward the mount upon which He would be executed, Jesus turned to address those who mourned His fate.  Rather than giving His disciples bland platitudes about how every little thing was going to be alright, or general waves of the proverbial arm about how God has everything in control and not to worry, Jesus met them and taught them in the midst of their sorrow.  He knew where He was going and what He was about to do in order to save the world from sin, death, and hell, but He also knew the real perils of a fallen and diabolically controlled world.  Even as He made His way to His Cross to suffer and die for the sins of the whole world, He knew that His disciples would have to continue living in this world of brutality, oppression, and malice.  In order to help them understand their situation, Jesus turned their mourning for Him to what they should really lament—the suffering and abuse which would befall this world because of the evil and wickedness which pervades it.

It is customary on the last Sunday of the Church year, sometimes called Christ the King Sunday, to stop and consider the Last Things, among which is the climax of suffering and persecution which will precede the final return of Jesus.  He rightly points out that if the evil of this world is willing to persecute, slander, betray, falsely condemn, torture, and murder the Savior of the World—the very Word of God Made Flesh, who is Himself the eternal Author of Life—there is no limit to what it will be willing to do to other people who trust in Him and His Word.  Unlike Jesus, we are full of sinful desires, thoughts, words, and deeds.  We only have life because we, as dead and dried out twigs, are miraculously grafted into His living vine and thereby resurrected into Him.  While the evil one could find no just cause to slay Jesus, he has plenty of just reasons to destroy us… and throughout the history of Christ and His people, the demonically inspired hordes of this world have done precisely that.  In our own day, Islamic terrorists continue to murder Christians by the thousands, while secular humanists in various nations turn a blind and uncaring eye.  Atheistic regimes around the globe imprison, torture, and murder Christians at their pleasure, often leaving no record to remember them beside the one God Himself keeps in heaven.  The devil and his willing or unwitting devotees have been tormenting the dry wood of fallen people for centuries, making martyrs of the saints in every generation.

In the last days this persecution will hit a fevered pitch, such that mothers will curse their own motherhood and wish they were barren.  The people will cry out for the covering of the mountains and hills due to the sorrows falling down upon them at the hands of wicked men.  In those last days, evil will rise into the halls of power and influence, making one last attempt to wipe away the faithful from the earth by every brutal and treacherous means at their disposal.  In that day, all the foreshadowing anti-christs of the preceding generations will manifest as one final and horrific Antichrist, who will put his foul boot upon the throat of secular and churchly institutions, enslaving the world in his wickedness.  In those last days, the love of many will grow cold, the faith of many will fail, and there will be great apostasies and falling away where none may have been imagined before.  In those last days it will look to all the world that the persecuted remnant of Christ’s people are on their way to their final extinction, overwhelmed by the “progress” of history, so that faith in the Word of God might be extinguished from the earth.  Whether we have entered these last days already, or await them in days to come, we know from Jesus and His Word that they will be days of great mourning, weeping, and distress.

As with Christ, however, so it will be with His people.  While all the world thought  Jesus and His Word were about to be wiped off the planet at Calvary, He showed forth His victory over death and hell by His resurrection, sending the Good News of His triumph throughout all the world.  Like Jesus, His people will be persecuted, but they will rise victorious and free in Him forever, alive by grace through faith in His Word which can call His people forth even from the grave.  What the devil will believe is his final battle to seize the world away from its Creator, will turn instead into the final judgment of all evil, wickedness, and unrighteousness by Christ, the returning King of Heaven and Earth.  Together with Christ, His people will reign, free of sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil forever.  In that day all suffering and lamenting and mourning will cease, and nothing will be heard from one end of heaven to the other but eternal praise for the living Savior who gives never-ending forgiveness and life to His people.  On that day, like a blessed birth which comes after the dark throes of painful labor, there will be rejoicing, reunion, and celebration forevermore among all the saints in light.

On this day of ending, we think also on a new beginning:  the joys of salvation made complete in Jesus.  With eyes fixed on the New Creation, the Church of Christ presses forward through every adversity, every challenge, every treachery, every betrayal, every pain, and every persecution.  On her lips is the blessed Gospel of Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and hell for everyone who will repent and believe.  With Christ our King enthroned at the right hand of the Father, His Spirit working in us by His Word, and the sure promise of His return at the end of the age, His people move forward through mourning and suffering to joy and jubilation forevermore.

Have you met Christ our King, and heard His blessed Gospel which brings rejoicing into even the darkest of times and places?  Hear Him call to you today, that by grace through faith in Him, you may pass through all these fallen things temporal, such that you lose not the blessing of those good things eternal:  forgiveness, life, and salvation in His Name, given freely by the grace of His Word.  Hear Him.  Repent, believe, and live forever.  Amen.