Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28B)

November 17, 2024

Text: Mark 13:1-13

            The signs of the End are not yet the End.  They are but the beginning of the birth pains.  Contractions indicate the beginning of labor, but there is an ordeal to be endured before the child is born.  So also, the signs of the End indicate that we are in the End Times.  We’ve been in the End Times since our risen Lord ascended into heaven with the Promise He would return to judge the living and the dead.  But the signs themselves are ordeals to be endured between now and His reappearing.  Jesus warns us beforehand, lest we be led astray… lest we fail to watch and pray… lest we lose heart in the midst of the promised trials and tribulations.

            What are the signs?  Well, the Temple prophecy has already been fulfilled.  AD 70: The Roman siege of Jerusalem, the devastation of the Holy City, the annihilation of the Temple.  Not one stone left upon another.  All of them thrown down.  Simply the consequence of Israel’s rejection of her Lord.  False christs… those coming in the Name of Jesus, saying of themselves, “I AM”?  Yes, we have plenty of those.  And along with them, the false teachers who claim they can predict the day and hour of the Lord’s return.  Jesus specifically says that only His Father knows that (Mark 13:32).  Wars and rumors of wars?  Nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom?  We’ve had a lot of that these days.  And we always have.  Reminders, always, each of them, of God’s impending Judgment.  “This must take place, but the end is not yet” (v. 7; ESV).  Earthquakes?  Famines?  Every natural disaster preaches the Eschaton.  That is to say, the Last Things.  Paul says it this way: “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Rom. 8:22) as it waits for the revealing of the sons of God (v. 19).

            So also, there are ordeals to be endured personally.  Jesus prophesies precisely what the Apostles and the first Christians will endure in the Book of Acts.  Being delivered over to councils, the Sanhedrin.  Beatings in the synagogues.  Testifying to Christ before governors and kings.  These things happened.  Remember the Apostles in Acts 5 (apparently all Twelve of them!), arrested and tried before the High Priest and the Council and Senate of the people, beaten and commanded no longer to preach in this Name (the Name of Jesus).  And they left the prison “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).  And then they kept on preaching.  Openly.  Because they knew that, before the End, the Gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.  Remember Paul’s sufferings.  Beaten.  Stoned (essentially to death, but he got up again, miraculously, and kept preaching).  Imprisoned.  He testified before governors and kings (Felix, Festus, Agrippa), as his Lord had done before him (Pilate, Herod).  And we know he was taken in custody to Rome, where he eventually suffered martyrdom. 

            Families torn apart over the Name of Jesus.  These are the signs.  Brother against brother.  Father against child.  Child against father.  You all know stories of this very thing.  Perhaps you’ve suffered it yourself.  Rejection on the part of loved ones because of your faith in Christ.  You will be hated by all for My Name’s sake, Jesus says.  Yes, we all know about that.  And you may suffer the other trials the Apostles and the first Christians suffered on account of your faith, the beatings, the imprisonments, death.  Yes, it could happen.  It happens now, in many places, to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We’ve been lulled into a false sense of security here in America, but we are not immune.  These are the signs.  The End is not yet, but the End is coming.  Jesus is coming.  He is coming soon. 

            And when we encounter the signs, beloved, we are not to despair.  We are to take them as confirmation of all that our Lord teaches us in the Scriptures.  These signs are reminders to stay alert, be on your guard, be prepared.  And above all, keep your ears on the Promise of the Lord Jesus Christ: “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). 

            How do we endure?  Well, perhaps most practically, don’t get distracted.  So many things in life, even though they are blessings in themselves, take our eyes off of the reality… these are perilous times… take our eyes off of Jesus, our only help, now, and in the Day of Judgment, who is coming soon.  You know the things that distract you from Him.  Politics.  Your job.  The busy-ness of life in the modern world.  Hypnotic glowing screens everywhere you turn, and in your very pocket.  Etc., etc.  Again, fine and good things as far as they go, but you get wrapped up in them, and allow them to become the main thing in your life, excuses to turn your ears away from Jesus, to not go to Church (or, as the writer to the Hebrews says in our Epistle, neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, 10:25)… You make them idols.  Repent of that, and look up at the One who was crucified for you, who is risen for you, and who is with you always, that you may endure. 

            Help your children to look up, to be vigilant, to interpret the signs.  Jesus is coming.  Teach them that.  Bring them here.  And teach them, here, how to participate in the full life of Christ’s holy people, as we endure the signs and await our Lord’s appearance.  This is actually a lot easier than we think, guys.  But we do have to do it.  Show them where we are in the hymnal.  Show them the words, even before they can read.  Teach them the words, here and at home, so that they know them by heart.  Have them say the words with the congregation (and with your family at home), starting with the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.  Help them to listen.  Tell them (especially when they get loud), “listen to the pastor.  He’s telling us about Jesus.”  Teach them when to stand and when to sit.  Bring them to Sunday School.  Teach them to tithe (have them put a little money in the offering plate when it comes by).  Set an example by your own words and actions.  Speak joyfully and positively to them about your Church.  These may seem like mundane things (and they are), but they have eternal consequences.  Because you are helping them to be ready for the End.  You are equipping them to endure, come what may, until that day.

            Help one another to look up.  Always be pointing one another to Jesus.  Away from the distractions.  To Jesus.  Help each other to hear and learn the Words of Jesus, because these are the Words that will carry you through the ordeals to be endured.  When you stand before governors and kings, or hostile family members, or the judge in some lawsuit because you didn’t use the right pronouns, you don’t have to be anxious what you will say.  The Spirit will give you the words to say.  Because He already has.  The Scriptures.  The Liturgy.  The Creed.  The words you know by heart, and that you are teaching your children to know by heart.  Just faithfully confess what you know and believe.  And then endure, whatever happens.  Endure by the strength of those Words of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who is in those words, knowing that the one who endures to the End will be saved. 

            And don’t let the ordeals themselves distract you from keeping your eyes, and ears, on Jesus.  That is so easy to do.  Watching the evening news is an exercise in despair.  What man does to man.  The lies.  The agendas.  The violence.  The murder.  The wars.  Creation itself subjected to futility by our sin (you know, hurricanes and destructive storms, fires, yes, earthquakes, famines, drought).  Don’t let Satan and his acolytes in the world convince you this is evidence of some sort of meaninglessness: a meaningless end to a meaningless life in a meaningless world.  That is called nihilism, and it is the hopelessness in which so many people increasingly live and die in this world.  But you know better than that.  You have a Lord who was crucified, but who is risen from the dead.  So you know how this works.  These evil things are signs that the labor is about to end.  Endure for just a little while longer.  The pain will cease.  Joy will come.  Jesus is coming.  And then, He will raise all the dead, and give eternal life to you and all believers in Christ.

            In fact, that is, finally, the ultimate sign.  Never mind the earthly Temple.  “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” Jesus says (John 2:19).  You know that He was speaking about the Temple of His Body (v. 21).  He is the Temple.  His flesh is the dwelling place of God with man.  His flesh is the place of sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  His flesh is the Sacrifice.  They destroyed this Temple… we destroyed this Temple by our sins (crucified, dead and buried)… and in three days He raised it up again.  For our forgiveness, life, and salvation.  And that is the pattern.  So as we see death on this side off the veil… false teachers, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, persecutions… we understand that this is the Good Friday to our Easter.  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  We are dying.  But He will raise us.  On that glorious Day when He comes again.  Until then, be on your guard.  Read the signs.  Look up, believe, and rejoice.  Jesus is coming.  The End is near.  And the one who endures to the End will be saved.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.