Peace Amidst Convolution: A Meditation on Luke 21 for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost

And as some spake of the temple,

how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts,

he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come,

in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another,

 that shall not be thrown down.

 

…

 

And when these things begin to come to pass,

 then look up, and lift up your heads;

for your redemption draweth nigh.

 

This text in Luke 21, and its parallel in Matthew 24, record a startling discourse between Jesus and His disciples near the Temple in Jerusalem.  There were few symbols closer to the heart of the Jewish people than the Temple, even if some of those running it in Jesus’ day were corrupt.  Though it was not the Temple Solomon built before the Babylonian Captivity, it had been restored recently under King Herod’s reign, and was the center of the Jewish sacrificial system.  The Temple was where sacrifices for sins were made with the blood of animals according to the Law of Moses, and it foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice Jesus was preparing to make on Calvary for the sins of the whole world.  When Jesus said that despite the beauty of this central edifice of Jewish identity not one stone of it would escape the judgment to come, His disciples could only muster a question about when such a horrible calamity would occur, and the signs of its approach.  Jesus responded by giving them warnings about not being deceived by false teachers, about terrific suffering and social upheaval, and consolation that even as they would see these terrors, their salvation would arrive, too.

 

In a practical sense, Jesus gave His disciples a dual warning.  First, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans did happen within their generation, about 40 years after Jesus’ Ascension.  Many Christians who walked with Jesus would live to see their nation, capital city, and Temple utterly destroyed, and their people exiled to the far corners of the Empire.  Many Christians during this cataclysm remembered Jesus’ words, and when they saw the armies converging on Israel, they fled and escaped the onslaught while thousands of Jewish rebels were cut down.  Though the Roman destruction of Jerusalem was one of the greatest massacres that bloody land had ever seen, Jesus preserved His people by His Word, so that many of them escaped by trusting Him.  Secondly, there is a sense in Jesus’ warning about the final calamity coming upon the whole world.  Like the fall of Jerusalem, it would be a divine judgement upon the evil which would run its course and come to full, festering flower.  At the End of Days, it will seem that evil has prevailed, that it has corrupted and overtaken everything, and that the saints of God are abandoned to obliteration.  It is at that time that Jesus tells His disciples not to flee to the mountains, but to lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.  The final cataclysm will dwarf the regional calamities which came before it, but the totality and completion of salvation with the final revelation of Jesus Christ in all His divine glory will outshine it all.

 

There is some gritty reality baked into Jesus’ words that we are wise to consider.  Not least is the realization that there is real evil in the world, and it will do real damage.  It is not that Jesus desires evil to flourish, but in the reality of a world where people are free to either accept or reject Him, the consequences of freedom can be as bitter as they might be sweet.  Only in a universe of freedom is true love possible, so that divine love might shine through broken creatures who willingly accept the grace of their Creator, and thus receive Him as their Savior.  But also in such a universe are the heights of evil a potentiality, where fallen creatures may reject their Creator’s overtures and make of Him a terrible Judge.  Not shying away from this reality, Jesus set the frankness of their situation before His disciples so they could grow into greater maturity.  Jesus didn’t gild the lily regarding human nature, nor hide the consequences of humanity’s poor use of freedom—instead, He helped them see that He would be with them and save them through the midst of this crazy world.  Jesus didn’t offer them pleasant lies or escapism, but the promise of walking with them and leading them through every tumultuous age yet to come.

 

We would be wise to consider Jesus’ frank address to His disciples in our time, as well.  We should not be tempted to think better of human nature than it is, and to realize that human freedom apart from God can only result in ever greater atrocities.  There is no political solution to the world’s problems, no matter how fond we may regard our own camps, parties, associations, or movements.  Every attempt to build an earthly utopia on the merits of man’s impulse ends in disaster, blood, and flame.  The best political systems we have are not models of perfection, but tools of practicality, aiming to recognize the depravity of man and dividing his ability to wield power over his neighbor… but this is no solution for utopia, only a restraint upon rampant evil.  Likewise, we must not despair at the rise of evil in our age, as if somehow God has abandoned His people or has been overthrown by the kings of Silicon Valley.  Evil will rise from time to time, and God will crush it from time to time, as well.  And even if we are destined to live in the final conflict of rising evil against the Triune God, to see every terror and persecution and ravage of war, our God is still our Savior in this world and the next.  Not the final Antichrist, nor the Devil, nor the Beast of the Apocalypse, nor countless hordes of demons swarming over the fruited plains, nor tyrant states of murderous Marxists, can separate us from the redemptive, saving love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.  There is real evil in the world, and thank God He has given us a real Savior.

 

As the Church listens and learns from Jesus in these final days of the ecclesiastical year, hear again the real truth of our salvation made present in this world by Jesus and His Eternal Word.  Today there is real evil running amok around us, but there is also a real King of the Universe who has done the real work to seek and to save all who will hear Him, repent, and believe.  And to all those who will abide in Him by grace through faith, He will abide in and with them, to give them rescue, provision, and guidance in every perilous hour.  The peace we have been given through our reconciliation with God in the Blood of the Lamb outshines every terror, and the fall of every vaunted icon.  In Jesus is the rest and work and redemption of the saints, never fearful nor pollyannish, never despairing of the promise of eternal life, nor the mystery of that blessed life already at work in us now.  The stones of our temples and cities and monuments may topple, but the people whom Jesus has made into living stones shall never be overthrown in this age, nor the age to come.  He is our peace, our courage, and our strength, just as He is our faith, our hope, and our love.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.