November 17th, 2013 – Luke 17:20-30 –
Trinity 25
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
We are approaching the end of the
Church year, and that can be an uncomfortable time of year. Our Sundays deal with the end times, and we can
hear our Gospel lessons and start to get nervous, get worried about when the
end will come, worried that it will be here too quickly. And we completely get everything, everything
backwards. Every November we are called
to step away, step outside of our preconceived notions of what the Last Days
are like – and we will step away from the fear that the world tries to heap
upon us about this, and rather we will learn to look forward to the
resurrection of the dead, as we confess in the Nicene Creed. So what we will do today is look at this text
of Luke, paying careful attention to what Jesus says, and see how we as
Christians think about the end times.
Let’s start at verse 22.
And
He said to the disciples, “They days are coming when you will desire to see one
of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or
‘Look here!’ Do not go out or follow
them. Did you hear what Jesus
warns the disciples of – what Jesus warns us of? Jesus’ warning isn’t. . . you better watch
out, the scary end times are coming – oooOOOOooo. No.
The warning is it’s going to take too long – and you will have the days
where you sit and think, “I am tired Lord, I’m fed up with all the sin and
wickedness and vice I see, I’m tired of my hurts and agonies and sufferings and
I miss my loved ones and I want to go home.”
And Jesus warns the disciples that they are going to have days like this
– and He won’t have come yet.
Isn’t this so completely the opposite
of how we in America
tend to think of the end times? We in America have
been taught and trained to fear the end times.
In many ways we are no better off than the monks in Luther’s day,
terrified that God might actually come back.
The end is nothing to fear. What
is hard, what is difficult is living as a Christian in a sinful world. This world, with all its vaunted pleasures,
can be nice sometimes – but it can be mean and nasty and rough and painful the
rest of the time. And Christ doesn’t
pretend that it isn’t this way. God doesn’t
play pretend with you – He is always honest.
And yes, this life is rough – and you do have the days where you think,
“Lord, just come back already”. You
will, because as a Christian you will see the world for what it is.
And when you are hitting those points
of struggle, when things seem long and weary – what do you do? You wait on the Lord – you don’t go running
off after every fly-by-night scam artist with the latest and greatest heresy or
false teaching designed to give you everything your heart desires. You don’t go running after the cult in
Jonestown or Waco,
you don’t buy into what the quacks are shouting. You simply pray “Thy Kingdom come,” and wait
– because when Christ delivers us, it’s going to be obvious that He is here to
deliver us. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to
the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day. When Christ comes back – it won’t be
hidden, there won’t be a little secret coming where Jesus sort of sneaks around
and talks to a few people to give them the secret decoder ring. No, when Christ comes again – He will come
again and it will be right then and there.
And now we will get to some verses
that I think can cause some consternation.
Just as it was in the days of
Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
They will be eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage,
until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them
all. Likewise, just as it was in the
days of Lot – they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and
building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained
from heaven and destroyed them all – so will it be on the day when the Son of
Man is revealed. We hear this,
and man, it sounds bad. The end times
will be like the flood – who wants that!
The end times will be like Sodom
and Gamorrah – I don’t ever want to see that, I don’t want God to wipe me away
in a flood or smite me with fire and brimstone.
We hear the punishments, we get panicky and nervous and scared.
But let’s take a moment and listen to
what Jesus says. Jesus doesn’t say it
will be like the flood, He says it will be like in the days of Noah. So what happened to Noah? He was surrounded by a wicked, evil world, so
wicked God couldn’t stand it. And what
does God do for Noah – alright, here you go Noah, I will rescue you, I will
save you. You will be preserved and
these fools who do you such harm won’t even know what hit them, even though you
warn them. Come into the ark, you and
your family, and you will be saved. That
doesn’t sound so bad – being saved, being rescued from evil. What is Christ saying here? I’m going to do for you, o Disciple, what I
did for Noah – and that’s a good thing, that’s a comfort.
Again,
Jesus doesn’t say that the end times will be like Sodom
– He says that they will be like it was in the days of Lot. So what happened to Lot? He was stuck in Sodom.
He was stuck in a horrible place, people wanting to break down the doors
of his house and abuse his guests, where there’s a real chance that his
daughters will be brutalized. And so,
what does God do? Alright Lot, it’s time
to go, it’s time to get you out of there, let’s get you to someplace
better. God rescues Lot
from a wicked place. And even though Lot tries to warn the folks, tries to get them to repent
– they never see it coming. What is
Christ saying? I’m going to do for you,
o Disciple, what I did for Lot – and I will
rescue you. Be patient, endure
wickedness, and know that I will deliver you.
Don’t you see? The end times are not a curse. They aren’t something to scare you. Jesus is not the boogey-man or the monster in
the closet; we shouldn’t be scared of His coming. Rather this – when Christ comes again He will
do so to rescue you, to take you from this vale of tears unto the joys of
heaven – and that’s not a bad thing. And
still we are nervous about it. So was Lot. He dragged
his feet in leaving Sodom
– the angels had to pretty much drag him out of there. But what Christ is saying, what Christ is
teaching us is this. Don’t fret, don’t
worry about the end of times – indeed, don’t even worry about your own death –
because I am your God, and I will deliver you, for I am with you always.
That is Christ’s promise. Listen to the beginning of the Gospel
lesson. Being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, He
answered them, ‘The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor
will they say, ‘look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God
is in the midst of you.” Do you
hear what Christ is saying? The
Pharisees ask Christ – so just when is the Kingdom going to come, when are we
going to get the good stuff. And Jesus
says, “Quit looking for signs, the Kingdom
of God is here in your
midst, I am here, what more are you looking for?” This, dear friends, establishes for us how we
as Christians approach all things. This
shows why we can be bold and confident even as life grows long and we become
weary and things in the world just keep getting worse. While we wait for Christ’s second coming, we
remember that we aren’t waiting alone.
Christ is already here in our midst.
What is the Psalm that we all know – Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death – which is precisely the kinds of fears and
trials this text talks about – yea though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil – and why?
For Thou art with me.
This is what Christ proclaims to
you. Fear nothing, for Christ is with
you – and Christ is bigger than anything that you might face in your life. Christ is with you now – for you are
Baptized, you were joined to Him by water and the Word. Christ is with you now – He continues to
speak His comfort to You through His Word.
Christ is with you now – He comes to you in His holy Supper. Christ is always with you – and what does
this mean? It means you will be rescued
from every evil, every danger that this world can throw at you and you shall
obtain the eternal life that Christ has won for you with His death upon the
cross and His resurrection.
That’s how we approach the end times
as Christians. Not with fear, not with
trepidation. We approach all these
things remembering that we are God’s own children, that we are united to Christ. As we await the end times – we are simply
waiting for God to show to everyone, to show to the entire world what we
already know, what we already have. That
He is our God who saves us, who protects us, who guides us, and who ultimately
delivers us from wickedness unto His eternal life. So dear friends – fear not any talk of the
end – for you know what happens, and it ends well for you. Christ Jesus is your Lord, and He lives, and
He has won the victory for you – let not death, let not talk of the end appall
you any longer. Be confident in Christ
Jesus your Lord. In the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit + Amen.
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