Thursday, 10 July, 2014

Thursday, 10 July, 2014

Matthew 24:3 – 14 

Matthew 24 is one of the favorite Bible passages for people (particularly some TV preachers) who arrogantly prophesy the end of the world with all kinds of lurid details, which time has always proved wrong.  These false prophets find in Matthew 24 almost everything there is to know about the Second Coming; they even give its exact date, in direct violation of verse 36.  With such errors, these false prophets expose themselves and their message to well-earned ridicule.

As we look a little more carefully at our reading today, we will find its purpose is quite different from the ways it has often been misused.  Yes, Matthew 24 contains warnings, but it also contains admonishment for us to remain faithful through bad times, and it encourages us to remain faithful to Christ no matter the cost.

The passage begins with a natural question from the disciples (v. 3), “When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and the close of the age?”  The whole chapter is Jesus’ response to this question.  It’s a good question; Jesus doesn’t upbraid the disciples for wanting to know about his return and the end of the age.  Nor does he correct their misunderstanding.  Jesus had just predicted (vv. 1-3) the destruction of the Temple, which came in A.D.70, and likely the disciples were mistakenly equating this coming event with the return of Christ and the end of the age.  Instead, Jesus uses the disciples’ question to offer insight, counsel, and encouragement to them and, through them, to us.

This passage does indeed paint a dire picture of evil in this world.  False messiahs will make claims they cannot support and will lead many people astray.  There will be wars and rumors of wars as nations rise up against nations.  There will be natural disasters such as earthquakes and famines.  There will be religious persecution as the true followers of Christ are killed and hated by all nations because of Christ.  False prophets will lead many astray.  Lawlessness will increase, and the love of many will grow cold.  

It’s certainly a bleak picture.  And it sounds a lot like what’s happening in our time.  But it also sounds a lot like what happened in the first century, and like what has happened in many of the intervening centuries as well.  I believe that Jesus is not trying here to set up a list of criteria that we can check off as getting worse or better, as though God were measuring how evil the world is, and when it gets sufficiently bad will pull the plug.  

Instead, Jesus is telling his followers that God’s creation, which is indeed good, has been enslaved by evil and sin.  Jesus is reminding his followers that they are freed and called to live by different standards, God’s way of love, justice, mercy, and peace, just as Jesus himself lived.  We are to resist evil with all our strength and work constantly to demonstrate God’s reign in our lives, our church, and our society.  Then the whole world, deeply enslaved in evil, will see that there is another way to live, the way exemplified by Jesus, God’s way of love, justice, mercy, and peace.  This is indeed good news, the good news of God’s reign that Jesus calls his followers to bring to all nations.

See how Jesus confirms this through the admonitions and promises he gives his disciples in today’s reading.  In summary:  “See that no one leads you astray (v. 4).”  “See that you are not alarmed (v. 6).”  The sufferings we endure “are the first birth-pangs of the new age (v. 8, REV).”  “The one who endures to the end will be saved (v. 13).”  “This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come (v. 14).”

Even though God has freed us to live in the way of love, justice, mercy, and peace, we remain weak and imperfect in living out God’s way in our lives, often injured in our struggle to resist sin and evil.  Often our “testimony to all the nations” seems to flicker and almost go out.  We’re not the first people to suffer this way; all through Christian history, to quote an old hymn, “those who fain would serve thee best are conscious most of wrong within.”  We yearn to see the kingdom of God established throughout this world, but we know that we are too weak to accomplish this.  God must intervene to destroy evil and set this world right.  In his resurrection, Christ Jesus has already defeated evil and death.  When he comes again, his triumph will be manifest to all, and he will establish God’s reign forever.  With Christians of every age, let us cry out “Maranatha!  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

May we be faithful to God’s way in Christ.

-- Robert Kruse