When Jesus Comes: A Meditation on Luke 19 for the 1st Sunday in Advent

And when he was come nigh,

even now at the descent of the mount of Olives,

 the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God

 with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;

Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord:

peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

 

And some of the Pharisees

from among the multitude said unto him,

Master, rebuke thy disciples.

And he answered and said unto them,

I tell you that, if these should hold their peace,

the stones would immediately cry out.

 

The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem recorded in Luke 19 is a fulfilment of the Old Testament prophets to whom God granted vision to see the first coming of the Messiah centuries before.  It is an event marked by both faith and unbelief, by misunderstanding of some and active resistance by others.  Jesus’ disciples, together with the crowd who had traveled with Him and seen His miracles on the way to Jerusalem, lined the way with shouts and thanksgiving for the coming of the Messianic King.  The Pharisees were appalled by this spectacle, but were powerless to stop it.  The crowd seemed to think this coming of the King would usher in a physical overthrow of the Roman occupation and restore the fortunes of Israel, while the Pharisees seemed to think Jesus was a threat to civil and religious order that would bring about their destruction.  Few, if any at this point, understood that Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem would culminate in His betrayal, crucifixion, and death, and perhaps none other than Jesus Himself knew that His victorious Resurrection would usher in His Kingdom without end.  Jesus was indeed fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies of His first coming, but the people were confused, even as they either lauded or derided Him.

 

This should give us some pause in our presumptions about understanding Biblical prophecy.  The people of Israel had roughly 500 years to ponder the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah; nearly 1000 years to consider the messianic prophecies of David in the Psalms or Solomon in the Proverbs; and over 1500 years to weigh the prophetic writings of Moses.  The scribes and scholars, Pharisees and Sadducees, and everyone taught to read and hear the ancient Scriptures across many generations, still didn’t fully understand what Jesus was doing when He came the first time.  Looking backward from after the Resurrection, with the benefit of Jesus’ teaching and His Apostles’ inspired written witness, it is easy to sit in judgement upon the ignorance of 1^st century Judea having not connected all the threads of the Prophets.  But in reality, fallen human beings are notoriously thick headed and hard hearted when it comes to trusting God’s Word, and this flaw in our fallen nature showed up even as Jesus approached Jerusalem, just as it had when Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, or preached in Galilee.  Like all our ancestors before us, we are slow to hear and to see and to understand what the coming of Jesus means.

 

We know that in just a few weeks, we will celebrate the first Advent of Jesus, to whom holy angels and humble shepherds sing their praises.  We also know that Jesus’ birth on that first Christmas was for a purpose far beyond the dusty streets of Bethlehem, which would be shown forth just 33 years later on Calvary.  The disciples, including Mary, didn’t have to understand all the details and implications of what was happening, they just needed to trust the Word of the Lord.  And as they did, they beheld the Word of the Lord made flesh and dwelling among them, full of grace and truth.  Whether it was the crowds that lined the road approaching Jerusalem with palm branches and their own clothes shouting hosanas to the Son of David, or those who gathered near the manger on that first Christmas, or those who huddled in fear during the early morning hours of the first Easter, the challenge was not to fully understand everything which God was doing, but rather to trust Him in all that He said and did.  The trouble with fallen human beings reading prophesy, is that our darkened minds don’t often fully understand it until after it happens.  But empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can still trust and believe the Word of God, even when we can’t fully comprehend it.

 

Likewise in our day, we look forward to the second coming of Jesus.  We know from what He has told us through His Prophets and Apostles that He is coming back, that He will gather together His people from every corner of heaven and earth, and that He will usher in the New Creation where sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil are forever put away.  We know that the mystery of His Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection will be fulfilled and complete in that Day, as His people join Him in His eternal victory over every enemy of the human race.  We know that despite the turbulence and tribulation that will precede His second coming, Jesus has already secured for us a life without end that no one can take away from us.  We know that no matter how dark our days may become, no matter how the devil and his minions wail or threaten or lie or deceive, that nothing can separate us from the light and love of God in Christ Jesus our Savior.

 

So what is left for us to do, but to be faithful in His Word until He comes, rejoicing in the grace of His salvation accomplished for us through His first Advent?  We need not try to fill in the gaps of our understanding with assumptions and presumptions about all the intricacies of His second Advent, because we know from both the prophecies and testimonies of Scripture that it will be far more magnificent than we can imagine.  What we do know is that He is coming again, and as He came before, He will bring salvation to His people that no enemy can overthrow.  In this hope we prepare our hearts and minds to believe all that the Prophets and Apostles have testified by the power of the Holy Spirit, that when He comes again, we might sing with His faithful people of every age, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord:

peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!  Amen.

 

 

The Sure Promises of God: A Meditation on Mark 13 for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation,

spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not,

(let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house,

neither enter therein, to take anything out of his house:

 And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.

But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.

 For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved:

but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:

For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders,

to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

 

But in those days, after that tribulation,

the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,

And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds,

from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender,

and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:

 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass,

 know that it is nigh, even at the doors.

Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no,

not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house,

and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work,

and commanded the porter to watch.

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh,

at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

 

The second half of Mark 13 finishes the apocalyptic vision which Jesus gave to His disciples regarding the end of the age.  It aligns with the apocalyptic visions of Daniel, Ezekiel, and the other Old Testament Prophets, as well as with the visions of the end times recorded by the Apostles throughout the New Testament.  While biblical apocalyptic literature is sometimes intentionally obscure in details which people often want to know, it is inescapably clear in its primary revelation about Jesus.  For instance, in the passage above, the times of the end are left opaque, as is the identity of the abomination of desolation, or the various false Christ’s who will come, or the nature of the dark wonders they will perform to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.  But what is absolutely clear is that Jesus will abide with His people by His Word and Spirit unto and through those dark times to preserve His elect, that He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and that at His Second Coming all the dead in Christ will rise, gathered together from every time and place to join those still alive on the earth in the great Resurrection.  From the complimentary witness of the Prophets and the Apostles, we also know that when Jesus comes again, all evil will be judged and imprisoned forever in the Lake of Fire, while all the saints will enjoy the New Creation purged of all its dross unto ages without end.

 

With the clear promises and testimony of Jesus’ saving Word, particularly regarding the end of time, we should examine ourselves when we feel somehow abused or mistreated for not being given all the details we seek.  What God has not revealed or not made clear, He has left obscure for His own reasons and in His own wisdom.  When we challenge God’s wisdom in what He has revealed, accusing Him of not giving us the knowledge we want, we reveal in ourselves at least two primordial sins:  pride, and unbelief.  Pride, because we think from our own vantage point as finite humans that we understand better what should be revealed and when, in order for the universe to move properly toward its conclusion; and unbelief, in that we are not content with the sure promises of God, but hope to manipulate the details unrevealed to our own advantage.  Do we really think that given all the forces in the universe, both good and evil, those entities seen and unseen, both present and yet to come, that we could determine the right combination of revealed vs unrevealed details which will both guide the faithful and confound the enemy?  Do we really think that if we could individually better guess the times and the signs of the end, that we could run a little faster than our neighbor, gather a few more resources than the one who didn’t see it coming so clearly, and somehow dodge the coming calamity?  It is a pride and unbelief which plagues not only the people of antiquity, but the people of our age, and likely will continue among people until the end.

 

But what does it mean, when Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.  Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.  In English this may seem difficult, but no so much in Greek.  While the specific generation of Jesus’ time did in fact see a certain culmination of some of these events (the darkness and earthquake at Jesus’ crucifixion, the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 AD, the destruction of the Temple, with resulting slaughter and forced diaspora from Judea of the surviving Jews, etc.,) the Greek word for generation also points to a grouping of people.  In this case, generation also includes the continuing people of God gathered to Jesus by His Word and Spirit.  In this sense, the people of God who had always lived by grace through faith in His Word, from the Garden of Eden, through the Flood with Noah, Mount Sinai with Moses, Mount Carmel with Elijah, the Babylonian Captivity with Daniel, the fall of Jerusalem in the Apostolic era, and the saints of every age since, would continue to endure until all the things Jesus prophesied were fulfilled.  This also harmonizes with Jesus’ other teaching that the gates of hell would not be able to resist the Church, and that He would be with His people until the end of the age.  And in fact, this has been true—at no time in human history has there ever been a gap in the testimony of Jesus, or the preservation of His people against all the enemies and hordes bent on destroying them.

 

That’s a promise worth meditating on.  Since the Fall of man until our own age, for over 5,000 years of recorded history and into the mists of time before that, the earth has never been devoid of God’s saving Word nor of the people who clung to it by grace through faith.  There have been times when there were more of those people on earth, and times when there were fewer; times of persecution and times of resurgence; times of missionary zeal into the hearts of darkness, and times of bunkering into monastic arks; but at every time, God’s Word and His people have endured.  There has never been a time when the generation of God’s people has been left without a remnant, and by the grace of God there shall never be a time to come where God’s Word of promise will fail.  This generation—our generation—of those saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, will not pass away until everything Jesus has promised has been fulfilled.  He has been the Eternal Word from everlasting to everlasting, and all who gather to Him shall never be put to shame.  He promised to seek and to save the lost, which He has done, and continues to do, through His preached Word and Sacraments; He promised to be with His people through every calamity, carrying them through death unto eternal life; He promised to give His people His victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, by giving them His forgiveness, life, and salvation won for them through His Cross.  And He has promised to come again at the end of time, when the full roster of the saints will be complete, to usher in the Resurrection and the New Creation in a Kingdom that will never end.

 

At this turning of the season and the turning of the church year, may our hearts and minds return to the sure promises of God, that we might know the boundless riches of His grace already given to His people, and the surety of His Kingdom come.  Let go the pride and unbelief which would seek to know what God has intentionally hidden, and cling instead to the crown of life given to all who will repent and believe in Jesus, whose robes are washed clean from sin by the Blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  Rest in the sure promises of God which cannot be undone by any tumult or tragedy in this fallen world, not even by that last calamity of tribulation when divine judgment shall fall upon a wicked world, and the elements shall be dissolved in unquenchable fire, so that a new Heaven and a new Earth might be made our home in God’s eternal Kingdom forever.  And as Jesus commanded, let us watch, not in fear but in hope, knowing that our Savior has come and shall come again, just as He has promised.  All glory, laud, and honor, be to you, our Redeemer King—to whom to lips of saints and angels, our sweet hosanas sing.  Amen.

 

 

Lest Any Deceive You: A Meditation on Mark 13 for the Season of Pentecost

And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him,

Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!

And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings?

there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple,

Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign

when all these things shall be fulfilled?

 

And Jesus answering them began to say,

Take heed lest any man deceive you:

For many shall come in my name, saying,

I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars,

be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be;

but the end shall not be yet.

For nation shall rise against nation,

and kingdom against kingdom:

and there shall be earthquakes in divers places,

and there shall be famines and troubles:

these are the beginnings of sorrows.

 

But take heed to yourselves:

for they shall deliver you up to councils;

and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten:

and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake,

for a testimony against them.

And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up,

take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate:

but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye:

for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son;

and children shall rise up against their parents,

and shall cause them to be put to death.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake:

but he that shall endure unto the end,

the same shall be saved.

 

The times in which the disciples walked with Jesus in Judea were turbulent, and about to get more so.  The Jewish people at this time lived under Roman occupation, which meant their freedoms were severely curtailed, and Roman leaders both local and distant, with the reinforcement of foreign troops and opportunistic Jewish vassals, set the terms of everyday life.  The Jewish people were broken up into ideological factions both religious and political, and all along the spectrum from quietist to fanatical.  The Pharisees and Sadducees angled for political and religious influence under the authority of Roman governors; zealots fomented rebellion from Rome and yearned for national autonomy; religious non-conformists established the remote desert Essene community as a repudiation of both Rome and the corrupted Jewish temple system under Roman domination; the average daily people wondered what all this turbulence was precipitating, and the disciples of Jesus wondered how the Messiah was going to set everything right.

 

It is in this unsettled context that Jesus taught His disciples not to look for stability in this broken and convulsing world.  Jerusalem would fall, and with it, all the grand artifice of Israel’s history up to that point.  There would be wars, famines, plagues, and persecutions, with intrigue and betrayal shedding blood within governments and even within families.  This beginning of sorrows would not be the specific sign of the end of the age, but they would be indicative of the movement of the world toward the end of the age.  As turbulent as the disciples perceived their current times with all the fractiousness of political and religious controversy, Jesus’ prophesy of the fall of Jerusalem would be realized within a generation, as would the persecution of His people from the martyrdom of St. Stephen down to the modern day.  And indeed, what Jesus foretold has absolutely come true for the Church in every age, with ebbs and flows in various times and places.  These wars, famines, pestilences, and intrigues of centuries past have rocked local villages to whole continents, and in the last century enveloped the globe not once, but twice.

 

Our times and places are experiencing similar turbulence, even if the characters and details differ.  Politics local, national, and global bring conflict and calamity; intrigue mars our institutions both secular and ecclesiastical; there are wars and rumors of wars, plagues and pestilences, and malevolent opportunists taking advantage of people everywhere they can.  But the message Jesus offered His disciples so long ago, and which He speaks to us today, is not a message of fear or despair, but rather of hope and grace.  The storms of life in a fallen world would rise and fall, with broken people doing awful things to each other, even as God would work throughout history to call all people to saving faith and repentance by His Word.  Some would accept this saving Gospel in Jesus Christ unto everlasting life, and others would reject it in order to embrace the deadly lies of the evil one.  This dynamic of fallen people free to respond to the grace and mercy of God would result in a world full of conflict and calamity, as the darkness struggles vainly to overcome the light of Jesus.  The devil and his demonic horde can do nothing but wail, threaten, and deceive others into destructive paths, while the Eternal Word of the Living God continues to seek and to save all who will trust in Him.

 

This is the comfort of the saints, even as our tumultuous world moves inexorably toward its end with the final return of Jesus.  The saints are not preserved from the pain and suffering of this fallen world, but instead are saved through and in the midst of it.  Jesus did not flinch in passing through the suffering and death of this world that He might secure our salvation through His Cross, and He encourages His people not to be cowed by the ravings of evil in their own times or places.  Jesus has already conquered sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, and freely given to us forgiveness, life, and salvation by grace through faith in Him.  While the saints may continue to suffer in this world even as our Lord suffered, we persevere in the certain hope that Jesus has the final Word in all things, and that the dark voices of deception will eventually be silenced forever in the fiery prison of hell.  Until that Day when Lord returns, it is our calling to remain faithful to Him and His Word, even as Jesus prayed to the Father not to remove His people from the world, but to preserve them from the evil one.

 

Here is the peace which passes all understanding even as the world around us convulses, and faithless people scramble in fear desperately clinging to one lie after another.  The saints, enduring hardship and strife in the certain hope of redemption in this world and eternal life in the world to come, become living testimonies to the power and love of God which no evil can destroy.  Everywhere the love of God reaches down and transforms a heart into one of faith, He fills it also with hope and love that shine brighter than any darkness can overcome.  Each soul born from above by Water and Spirit, grafted into the Vine of Jesus Christ by grace through faith, is another victor over all the powers of darkness, made one with the whole Church of Christ, and becomes part of the bullwork against which the gates of hell cannot bear to resist.  The followers of Jesus are not taken from this world until their work here is done, and their testimony in their own time and place against the devil’s lies is complete.  Each Christian will indeed bear their cross, but each Christian will also shine forth in the borrowed light of their Saving Lord, in each place made a reflective beacon to all who would come to eternal life in Jesus.

 

So be of good cheer, dear Christian, no matter how wild or crazy the world may seem.  There’s no disease, deception, or malevolence than can separate us from the love of Jesus in this world or the next.  And beyond our mere preservation, we are made to be living witnesses to the redemptive love and mercy of God, shining forth in the darkness, and sending the forces of evil skittering away as they see in us the image of Jesus—who to us is our unconquerable Savior, yet to the hosts of evil their inescapable Judge.  And though we be hated by all kinds and types of wicked men for the sake of Jesus’ name written upon us, we know that He is working in all His people to sustain them through the trials of this life, with a salvation that never ends.  Glory be to God our Savior, whose Word cleaves the darkness, and secures in Himself all who put their trust in Him.  Amen.

 

 

Children of God: A Meditation on 1st John 3 for the Remembrance of All Saints

Behold, what manner of love

 the Father hath bestowed upon us,

that we should be called the sons of God:

therefore the world knoweth us not,

because it knew him not.

 

 Beloved, now are we the sons of God,

and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:

but we know that, when he shall appear,

we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him

 purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

 

St. John’s first epistle covers a lot of theological ground in chapters one and two which lead to this wonderful declaration at the top of chapter three; the full deity and humanity of Jesus, the path of truth, light, and life versus lies, darkness, and death, and the pivotal relationship between faith and repentance which receives all God’s good gifts of grace in Jesus Christ.  The opening verses of 1^st John 3 are the result of everything Jesus has done for a sinful and broken world, bringing Justification by Grace through Faith in Him alone to every heart that would repent and believe in Him.  Thus Jesus and His Eternal Word is the only sure foundation of the Communion of the Saints on earth and in heaven, which is the Church of Christ in every age, and unto ages of ages without end.  This is the great love of God poured out to the world in Jesus’ Vicarious Atonement, which declares every faithful heart forgiven and free from the eternal consequences of our own personal evil, making certain the final defeat of all evil at the end of time when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead.

 

The verses which follow require careful reading lest their meaning be lost, along with the wonderful comfort John preached to his readers in Jesus Christ.  Chapter three makes a strong statement about how everyone who has the hope of Jesus in him, will purify himself even as Jesus is pure, then proceeds to explain that concept by discussing sin in the life of people.  In English translation the nuance of John’s original Greek can be missed, perhaps leading one to think that purification—the complete and total removal of all evil as a mark of salvation—is a work Christians must accomplish to either receive or maintain their eternal life.  As evidenced in various times and places in the history of the church, this can lead to variations on the heresy of Pelagianism, or “Works Righteousness,” where a person is deceived into believing they earn their own salvation apart from, or in partnership with, Jesus.  Not only does this promote a twisted kind of personal idolatry and hypocrisy in the life of a person, robbing Jesus of the glory due only to Him as the only Way, Truth, and Life of all mankind without whom no one can approach the Father, but it offers the soul a losing proposition which can only end in despair:  the demonic whisper to just be perfect, and you’ll be worthy of God’s love.

 

In John’s original Greek text of chapter three, it harmonizes perfectly with his preceding chapters, by noting that people saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, have hearts that continue to resist sin, versus the hearts which give up the fight and continue unrepentant in sin.  The faithful and repentant heart always returns to God in sorrow for sins committed in thought, word, and deed, things done and left undone, receiving the joy and consolation of the Gospel that Jesus forgives such sin for the sake of His sacrifice for us on His Cross.  Thus the faithful Christian continues in grace to resist sin, whereas the unfaithful apart from grace continue in sin without repentance.  As St. John would say, a faithful Christian cannot continue in sin because the Holy Spirit indwells him, driving him to recognize his sin, repent, and return to the grace offered through Jesus.  A mark of those without the Holy Spirit and apart from any true fellowship in Jesus, is a commitment to continue in sin without repentance—a kind of living death which rejects the Word of Jesus, and by default rejects His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Every Christian of every time and place has found this to be true in their own soul, that on this side of eternity every person must either resist evil by the grace and power of Jesus received by faith in Him, or succumb to evil apart from Him.  One is the path of eternal life, the other the path of death and hell.

 

This is the same fight that all other Christians have fought before our time, and all future Christians will fight after our time.  The saints in light today, who enjoy the full and eternal presence of Jesus and rest from their earthly labors, didn’t become pure by their own works, but by the grace of Jesus Christ earned through His unique work on the Cross.  They fought the good fight of faith, hearing the Word of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, continued daily to turn from evil and embrace the good throughout their earthly lives, and the blood of Jesus purified and made them holy, even as Jesus is and remains holy.  No saint in heaven has saved himself, for the purification which grants them access to the eternal Kingdom of God is the sacrificial work of Jesus alone.  And as those saints closed their earthly eyes in faith, passing from death to eternal life, they opened them in the full reality of what Jesus had already won for them, now and forever pure as He is pure, and looking forward with all creation to the resurrection of all flesh in a world without sin, without end.

 

While the good fight of faith against unbelief has been won by those saints who went before us, those purified saints in light continue to pray for us and cheer us on in our own continuing battles here on earth.  With them, we have the sure promises of the Word of Christ which endure for all time, even as heaven and earth pass away, or as our earthly breath finally gives out here in this veil of tears.  With the saints in light we have the wonderous love of God poured out upon us, declaring us His sons and daughters by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone; with them, we have been bequeathed His Holy Spirit to empower us to lives of faith and repentance, struggling toward beauty and virtue.  And with all those saints in light, we too shall one day close our eyes in this world only to open them in the next, beholding the Savior who has done everything for us, singing His praises in that glorious fellowship forever more, and cheering on the saints yet to come.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.