Pentecost 23 – 2022
Luke 21:5-19
Marian Free
In the name of God in whom we place our trust. Amen.
The past few years have been very unsettling to say the least. We have witnessed extreme and destructive weather events and a shifting international landscape as the influence of the US declines and that of China rise. COVID further exacerbated the uneasiness with closed borders, shortages of food and manufacturing products and the enormous stresses experienced by business trying to keep going during lockdowns. The war in Ukraine has further created havoc on the world stage. Unprecedented fuel and food shortages are impacting first world economies and interruptions to shipping are threatening starvation in third world nations dependent on wheat from Ukraine. A real or impending economic recession is further adding to a sense of gloom and doom. Add to this Putin’s threats to unleash nuclear warheads and it is not too difficult to imagine that we are approaching a cataclysmic end of the world such as that described in today’s gospel.
At the time that the gospels were written, the Jewish uprising had been completely squashed, the Temple destroyed, and Jerusalem razed to the ground. For those who believed that Jesus was the Christ and for those who did not, this was a foundational event. The Temple, which had been magnificently restored by Herod the Great was a visible sign of God’s presence among the people, a symbol of national identity and the only place in which sacrifices could be offered and rituals performed. Without Jerusalem and without the Temple, both Jews and those who would become Christians, had to rethink their identity and their relationship with God. If there was no Temple, there was nowhere in which to celebrate the major Jewish festivals, nowhere for those who lived in Jerusalem to worship on a daily basis and there was certainly no place or role for the priests who served in the Temple.
The Jewish uprising also caused an irreparable split between those who believed Jesus to be the Christ and those who did not. Until this time, Christ-followers (who became known as Christians) were tolerated as a Jewish sect. They worshipped in the Temple and were permitted to attend synagogues. After the destruction of Jerusalem however, Christians were excluded from the synagogues because they had refused to fight in the war. Thereafter they had to forge their own identity – separate from the faith which gave them birth. At the same time, they lost the protection afforded to Jews by the Roman Empire which in turn made them vulnerable to exclusion and persecution. As a “new” religion, Christians were viewed with suspicion and their beliefs regarded as superstition.
Jews had to redefine the way they related to God now that the Temple no longer existed. Forced out of Jerusalem, they turned to the law and Rabbinic Judaism was born.
The readers of Luke’s gospel must have found the times at least as uncertain and threatening as we find our own. While as yet they were not experiencing officially sanctioned persecution, their decision to follow Jesus isolated them from their family and friends, made it difficult to earn and income and, because they refused to worship the Emperor and the local gods they risked being harassed by citizens who believed that they were placing their cities in danger.
How reassuring, in such circumstances, to know that Jesus had understood that this would be a likely consequence of following him – that they might be arrested and persecuted, handed over to synagogues. and prisons and brought before kings and governors.
Whether or not Jesus was a soothsayer, he understood too the nature of the physical world. There would always be natural disasters – earthquakes, floods and famines – events that would be outside anyone’s ability to control. Further, Jesus knew and understood the nature of human beings – their propensity to greed, to lust for power, their desire to control others and in Israel’s case, their desire to overthrow the oppressor. There would, he knew, always be wars and insurrections and that his followers would not be exempt from fallout. He knew too, that in times of disaster and calamity people would seek comfort and hope wherever they could that that sometimes they would find it through the false promises offered by charlatans and false prophets. So, using the example of the Temple which appears to be solid and permanent, Jesus in effect warns the disciples that nothing stays the same.
In speaking to the disciples, Jesus not only has an eye on the immediate future and the dangers and perils it contains, but he also has an eye on the distant future – the future that will be a reality for his disciples in every time and place. His words to the disciples are as relevant to our age as they were to theirs. There will be wars and insurrections, earthquakes and famines and those who resist evil will risk arrest and. imprisonment
Having faith in him, will not protect or shield his followers from harm or from the difficulties that are attendant on living in an uncertain world. Disciples need to expect but should not be surprised if suffering comes their way, but in the face of uncertainty those who follow Jesus can be certain of a number of things – they will never be abandoned, they will always have the words to say, that not a hair of their head will perish and that through their endurance they will gain their souls.
If the Temple – that magnificent symbol of power, protection wealth – could be destroyed, then nothing is certain and nothing is permanent. To place our trust in earthly things is to be disappointed. To place our hope in Jesus is to be given strength to endure.
In whom or what do you trust?
Swallowsrest 