The World remains evil; the Word remains true.
Jesus used
an example from nature to explain to us how we will know when this will
occur. As soon as the fig tree’s branch becomes tender and puts out
its leaves, you know that summer is near.
The meaning of this is really simple.
Just as nature gives certain and definite signs that summer is coming,
so also Jesus has told us to look for certain and definite signs that Judgment
Day is coming.
What are these signs? What are we supposed to look for? Jesus explained right before our Gospel
reading for today begins. He warns us
about false teachers claiming to be Christ; He describes wars and rumors of
wars. He tells us of nation rising
against nation, and of earthquakes and famines and all sorts of troubles. Jesus is clear in his warning. These things will happen and so we shouldn’t
be surprised when they do. Brother
will betray brother to death, fathers their
children; and children their parents. He says that we will be hated for his name’s
sake. “But he who endures to the end
shall be saved.”
“When you see these things taking
place,”
Jesus says, “you know that [the Son of Man] is near, at the very gates.” The world is very evil indeed. Because of all the evil in the world, the
clouds of judgment will gather. Of course, we say they will gather,
because God is patient, and
although we see consequences of sin, and wickedness of the world, when Jesus
talks about the clouds of judgment, he’s not just talking about a hurricane
or something that comes sweeping through.
No he’s talking about an event in history that all the world will
see when God’s patience will have ended, and he will come to call his children home. Because God does not tolerate evil
forever. Eventually he punishes it; eventually he destroys everything
that is evil in his sight.
Jesus gives evidence of how evil the
world is and of his own judgment against sin and unbelief by foretelling not
only the dreadful day when the Son of Man will come, but he also warned of the
dreadful day when Jerusalem would be destroyed.
Jesus told his disciples about how not one stone of the Temple
would remain upon another. He warned
that the coming judgment upon Jerusalem would be terrible. And all because of Israel’s rejection of Christ
their savior.
It is easy to imagine Judgment Day
as just a theoretical idea. But what
Jesus says will happen actually happens.
“Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus says, “but
my words will by no means pass away.”
But the destruction of Jerusalem was just a shadow of what would
come. It was nothing compared to what
the coming of the Son of Man will be.
The world is still very evil. Wars
and rumors of war continue. Natural
disasters and human suffering of every kind still occur. False teachers still preach falsely about
Jesus. Every evil, every blasphemy, and
false religion that was punished in Jerusalem still exists. God carried through on his threat against the
nation of Israel because of their unbelief and rejection of Christ; He will
also carry through on his threat against the world. The very fact that all these evils
still exist today is only evidence that Jesus will come again to judge. So now we wait until the clouds of judgment
gather against the world that is still so very evil. We wait.
But, won’t those clouds
of judgment surround us? Won’t the wrath
of God also be upon us on that awful day?
The evil world from which we need to be saved is evil because of the very
sin that comes from us. Think of it – thievery, burglary, murder,
fornication, adultery, disrespect for parents and others in authority – all of
these wicked things in the world exist because of the very covetousness and
pride in our own hearts. We complain and
we point things out, and often we’re right, and it’s good to identify the evils
of the world. But you can’t identify the
evils of the world without impugning what is in your own hearts. That’s the problem. And that’s the point.
Every awful thing that
one man commits against another, all violence and bloodshed is only a
manifestation of the hatred and jealousy that each one of us must fight against
in our own minds and hearts. We can go
through all the commandments like this, but none of them will condemn the world
without condemning us. Jesus says that
out of our own hearts proceed what is evil.
We might be mostly successful in staying our hand from evil. And that’s good. Good habits promote virtue. But God sees what is in the heart. So won’t those clouds of judgment surround
us? After all, the world is evil because of us.
But that is why Jesus
lived a perfect life for us. He alone had absolutely nothing evil proceed
from his heart; he alone truly feared, loved, and trusted in God; only Jesus
loved his neighbor as himself without complaining about the injustices he had
to suffer because of it. Only Jesus, the
Son of God, could say that the world’s wickedness was not his fault.
Therefore only he was
exempt from the wrath of God against sin.
And yet only Jesus and Jesus alone suffered the full wrath of God his Father against all sin of all sinners. And
he did it without complaining. There is
no evil that exists, that makes us mad, that we cry out to God for vengeance
about, that Christ did not suffer for. “Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” This is true not simply because only God has
the prerogative to punish sin, but we say this also because the one who comes
on the clouds of judgment to judge the living and the dead is the one who
actually bore the sin that oppresses us and that we hate – the sins in your
heart that you regret – your sins, my
sins, the sins of the whole world. The
clouds of judgment and wrath gathered around Jesus Christ, and him alone, as he bore in his body every sin that any sinner
ever committed, and he willingly suffered the full punishment for it. Let
this put into perspective the clouds of judgment in the midst of which Jesus
shall stand – because before he comes to judge, first he suffered underneath
it.
But judgment could not
keep Jesus dead. He’s God. Condemnation could not keep Jesus condemned. The law that shows us our inability to escape
God’s wrath was silenced forever, because it had condemned and judged an
innocent man – the God Man who lived the perfect life in our place. And the death that is the due payment for sin
– the sin that Christ bore for us – this
death was defeated, because Jesus rose from the dead by the glory of the
Father who was completely pleased with his Son’s sacrifice. That means that his wrath against sin and guilt
was completely satisfied.
And so, God the Father reckons to the whole world the very righteousness that Jesus earned by living the life that we could not. The perfect goodness that defined every
thought word and deed of Jesus our Savior is now given to each of us individually
in the free forgiveness of sins, which we hear.
It is for all who are afflicted.
It was made ours personally when we were baptized. That is why we can return to our baptism by
daily repentance when we drown the old Adam with all its evil desires. Why?
Because we know full well with all boldness and confidence that we can
stand again forgiven by God, with the
very righteousness that was won for us on the cross. Against this righteousness
we know that no clouds of wrath can gather.
As surely as Jesus is true! And
we have his promise that his words will by no means pass away.
But heaven and earth will.
The world is still so very evil. We
can see it and hear it everywhere. There
is no denying that sin and unbelief increase daily in the world around us. Our position
as Christians against abortion, homosexuality, against the doctrine of
evolution is constantly mocked on TV, in the newspaper, and at the schools and
colleges that shape our future generations.
Christians who believe and confess what God teaches us in the Bible about
Jesus are hated and despised and ridiculed everywhere we go. The world is evil. It hurts.
The devil, the prince of this world, will always remind us
that we are evil too. And this is the chief persecution or
affliction that we will feel and suffer.
He will appeal to our sinful flesh that still longs to be a part of the
world. Though we struggle and fight
against temptation, the devil will never cease to exploit our every weakness,
and point out our every failure that he
himself has led us into. The devil
will show us how our sin contributes to and causes the world’s
condemnation. And the dots will connect,
if we honestly listen to what the holy law of God says. God is true.
Yes. But the devil’s a liar. We might see and feel the effects of our sin
and the sin of others, we might be able to connect our own failings to what
makes the world such a crummy place to live.
But Scripture clearly teaches that ALL condemnation was laid on
Christ.
If you see that your sins has cause harm, then repent. Own it.
If you see that your sin contributes to the judgment that the world
deserves. Repent. If you acknowledge and feel and know that you
with the world have transgressed God’s commandment and deserve nothing but
punishment. Repent. And look to this
Christ. Look to him who before he will
come on clouds, first suffered on the cross for your sins as the sky turned
black.
God punished our sin and the sin of the whole world in Jesus
as he hung on the cross reconciling the world to himself. The Holy Spirit teaches our hearts to trust
in God’s promise that if God forgives the sins of the whole world, he most
certainly forgives me; if God the Father reckons to the whole world the
righteousness of Christ, he most certainly gives to me the righteousness that I
need. This is the reasoning of
faith. It’s what God teaches us.
But the prince of this world, the devil, has led so many to
despise the gospel and reject their salvation.
Against this unbelief the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, comes to judge. Between now and then, the devil will never
stop trying to tear us away from our salvation as well. He wants us to despise the righteousness that
Christ freely gives to us through his precious word and Sacraments. And so the devil sends out false teachers who
tell us that we can in one way or another rescue ourselves from our own sin. This is
always his message. It’s at the heart of
it.
They’ll tell us that we must look for Christ here or there,
just as Jesus warned that they would. False
teachers will tell us to find Christ in our heart, where we inevitably
encounter our own sin and unworthiness – we’ll never find him there! Or they’ll say that we must find Christ by
following this or that method of self-improvement. It might help a little …
But that’s not what Jesus taught us! False prophets will tell us that our
so-called Christian life is more important than our Christian doctrine. But this is the devil trying to confuse
us. You can’t pit one against the
other! We find our true Christian life in our Christian doctrine. God gives us new life by forgiving our sins
for Jesus’ sake, according to his word! And so it is always to the word of God that
we cling to and stand upon and continually gather together to hear, especially
as we see the Day drawing near. This is
what it means to Stay Awake!
These assaults of the devil are exactly what Jesus has
warned us about: An increasingly evil world, temptations to sin, persecutions
of the Church, false teachers dividing the outward unity of the church, all
sorts of evils and especially the increase of unbelief all around us that make
it more and more difficult to live as Christians in this wicked world. What’s new?
And it all simply means one thing: Jesus will come soon. As surely as the fig tree in spring indicates
that summer is near, so also all these signs indicate that our Savior and Judge
is near, at the very gates.
But before any word of condemnation will be spoken, Jesus
will send out his angels to gather all of us who are chosen in Christ, all of
us who are found trusting in His
righteousness and salvation, and he will bring us to heaven just as he has
promised in his word, where he shall wipe away every tear from our eyes and
give us eternal life. And the words of
Jesus that promise us these things will by no means pass away. So neither shall we.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment