+ 26th Sunday after Pentecost - November 17th, 2024 +
Series B: Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-25; Mark 13:1-13
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
One of my high school geography teacher’s, Mr. Brooks’ famous quotes, (and he had many of them since he was also the football coach), was … “Life isn’t easy; and whoever told you it was, lied.” How about that for some true, honest, tough love.
C.S. Lewis said something similar when asked to write an essay on whether Christianity was easy or hard. “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy,” Lewis wrote. “I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” (God in the Dock)
The Christian faith is many things: it’s true. Historical. A faith founded on the facts of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s beautiful, rich in meaning it’s comforting - which is different from making you comfortable in a broken world. It’s joyful, but not in the same way people usually think of - not the sugary, artificial, put on a happy face kind of joy - but a real, deep, abiding joy that knows no matter what the world, the devil, and your sinful flesh throw your way, Christ’s dying and rising for you is bigger than all that, and in the end he rescues and delivers you. Yes, Christianity - your Christian faith - is many things. The one thing it’s not…is easy.
Until your dying breath the Christian life is a battle against your own sinful flesh. It’s a daily assault from a hostile world that seeks to redefine what God says is true, rejects his word and anyone who believes it as you do, and rebels against God’s goodness. It’s a constant campaign of terror and temptation and trials from the devil. He takes no days off. No holidays. No rest.
So Jesus gives his disciples then, and us now, some true, honest, tough love followed by his promise. There are no easy days as living in these Last Days. Jesus doesn’t promise that life will be easy following him. But he does promise you this: I am with you. No one can snatch you out of my hands. Fear not. I’ve got you in my pierced, crucified and risen hands. I am your endurance.
This is what’s happening in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus is readying his disciples for days of trial and suffering and upheaval that they were about to face in the world around them, beginning with the one place that was seen as the center of the Jewish world at the time, the temple in Jerusalem.
You have to laugh a little at the disciples’ lack of situational awareness. Jesus just finished teaching them about faith and trust in him, about his coming betrayal, death and resurrection, and his provision for all, even the widow who gave her last mite. And what are the disciples doing? Admiring the temple architecture. “Hey, Jesus, check out all these beautiful stones!”
If doing a facepalm was a thing back then, you can bet Jesus did that as his disciples talk. “Guys, listen up. You see those stones? They’re all coming down. Every. Last. One.” Talk about a buzz kill!
Naturally, the disciples want to know when this is all going to go down. “Tell us when, Jesus. What are the signs, Jesus?”
Sounds like Jesus' words are ripped right from the headlines. See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. False teaching. False prophets. Wars and rumors of war. Earthquakes. Famines. Nations and kingdoms clashing. Jesus doesn’t promise his disciples then, or us now, that Christianity is easy. There are no easy days. But he does promise you will endure. He promises to be with you. He promises to deliver you.
These are but the beginning of the birth pains. Now, birth pains don’t sound like good news, but they are. It means a child is on the way. Joy is coming. In the midst of this fallen world, surrounded by temptations, trials, and at war with our sinful flesh on a daily basis - feeling so often like we’ve already lost - Jesus brings hope into the horrifying mess of this sinful world.
Those birth pains Jesus talks about are the labor contractions of the new creation. The sufferings and groanings of this present time are the birth pangs of something new breaking in. The new creation. Life. Resurrection from the dead. While the devil, the world, and your flesh would have you despair or doubt, Jesus says, don’t fall for that old trick. I was crucified for you. I rose from the dead for you. I’ve conquered it all - your sin, your failures, your death - for you. You are new creation in Christ.
So, Jesus warns his disciples: “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations
Within 40 years, Jesus’ words in Mark 13 all come true. The temple was torn down in 70 A.D. The Romans swept into Jerusalem and tore the temple down one stone at a time to extract the gold lined in its walls. Then they reduced the city to rubble, so much so, that you couldn’t tell where the city was any longer, except for the Jewish bodies on crosses marking the perimeter of Jerusalem.
Disciples are never above their master. They stood trial before religious authorities. Were hauled before kings and rulers. Were beaten, persecuted, and all but John were martyred in horrific ways. And yet through it all, Christ the King reigned, and still reigns.
It’s not all that different in our day as we continue to live in the Last Days. On October 20th, Christian churches in Beijing were raided, and members arrested. On All Saints’ Day, a radical Islamist mob killed a pastor, his wife, and two daughters in Uganda. On November 8th, police in Chhattisgarh, India, watched as hundreds burned the farms of 14 Christian farmers who were also brutally beaten.
Persecution may not be that dramatic here in our own country at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you’re without the cross. A friend, coworker or neighbor who mocks your faith or questions your beliefs. Maybe even your own family members have rejected the faith you raised them in. Jesus’ cross often divides people closest to home. Brother against brother, father against child, children against their parents. No doubt many of your families experience this division as well. “And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.”
But take heart. The one who endures to the end will be saved. There’s rescue and relief at the end of the road. The sufferings of this present time, whatever they may be, do not compare with the glory that will be revealed on the day of Jesus’ coming. And yet in a way, the Last Day has already come.
On a good Friday, outside Jerusalem. In darkness at Noon. On a cross. When Jesus said, “It is finished.” That was the end of the world as we know it. Jesus embracing the world in His own body brings the world to its end in His death. He is the persecuted One. The Martyr of all martyrs. The Lord of lords. The King of kings. He endured to the end. And in the end, He saved the world, and you. Baptized into Him, you have died to this dead world, and now live to God in Christ. For you, the end came in the water of Baptism with the Name. You died. And your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Jesus doesn’t promise his disciples then, or you now, today, that your life in Christ will be easy. But he does promise you will endure. For your endurance isn’t on you or in your hands. Your endurance is in Jesus. Your endurance is Jesus. He who gave up his last dying breath to save you, promises to be with you until your dying breath…and then to breathe new life into your body and raise you from the dead just as he rose on the third day.
When life seems full of trials, temptations, and terror all around, the answer isn’t found in our life. Jesus is your endurance. Now and forever.
Life may not always be easy. But take heart; Jesus will endure you to the end.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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