“Live in Hope!”

A Sermon Based Upon Mark 13:14-23, CEB

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin.  

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 6th, 2016

Back in the 1970’s, the southern gospel group known as the Oak Ridge Boys,  made a song written by R.E. Winsett very popular among many evangelical churches.   You probably remember the catchy chorus which went:  
        “Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon

          Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound

          All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies

          Going where no one dies, heavenward bound.”

As a young gospel singer myself, I recall singing this song in our ‘homespun’ men’s quartet.  Although I liked the tune, did I really consider the words I was singing so joyfully?  “Jesus is coming soon….Many will meet their doom?”   Now, it seems quite odd, if not cruel, and I’m not aiming at political correctness either.   It’s more about human civility and sanity.  How can you find ‘hope’ in a song that finds joy from ‘many’ meeting their doom?  Of course, I was young, but now I’m older and I understand very well how strange it all sounds.  

I have a similar feeling of ‘bewilderment’ when it comes to today’s text in Mark 13.   This text has Jesus himself predicting “gloom and doom” for people of his ‘generation’ (13:30), along with a vision of ‘the Son of Man coming with clouds of glory’  (13:26).  It is a text filled with predictions of the temple in Jerusalem crumbling, along with all kinds of other signs that predict the beginning of the end (13.7).  The whole scenario ends with the sun being darkened, stars falling, and angels coming to snatch away God’s elect, just in the nick of time (13:24-27).  If you take this dramatic ending literally, it almost sounds better to have ‘all heck break loose’ than it is to have ‘all heaven break loose’.   I know some folks, even folks who believe the Bible, who just don’t like to hear preaching on these kinds of troubling, apocalyptic texts. 

Today, what I want to suggest to us, is that when Jesus originally spoke these words, he was not trying to scare people, but he was trying to encourage his disciples and give them some hope in their own ‘troubled times’.   For even though this text does present us troubling pictures of unending wars, false religious leaders, natural and man-made disasters, and untold suffering,  Jesus also inserts into these gruesome descriptions some very ‘hopeful’ words.   Jesus’ own words and woes about these kinds of ‘days’ (13:17) can remind us that, no matter what comes unglued and falls apart, either today or tomorrow, God’s redeeming grace and power will  maintain the advantage and have the ‘upper hand’.  

AUTHENTIC HOPE

Perhaps the most pressing question on everyone’s mind is ‘when’ is all this going to happen.  Let’s deal with that first, because to understand this is the first step toward finding hope in this ‘frightening’ chapter.  

What we need to understand, more than anything else, is that Jesus was predicting ‘these days’ in ‘those days’ (13:17); the day of his own disciples in their own time and place.  I realize we all want the Bible to speak directly to US, to OUR times, so it will tell us about OUR OWN future, but before anything can be applied to us, we need to understand what it was saying then.  This is important, because the Bible is the “Word of God” for all times, and is not to be used as a crystal ball or for fortune telling.  Besides, if Jesus had been specifically talking about ‘our time,’ these words would have made no sense to them.    Interestingly, these words still wouldn’t make much sense to us either.   Let me explain.

Just consider how this whole discussion began with Jesus answering the amazement of one of his disciples about the beauty of the temple building complex.   In response to seeing all the grandeur around them, Jesus says quite shockingly: “Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (13.2b).  Later, while sitting right across from these temple grounds with four of his best disciples, Jesus is asked privately (13:3b) about ‘when’ these things will be, and about ‘what will be the sign’ of them being fulfilled which they can observe.

Already, we can see that Jesus is being specific about ‘their’ time, not ours.   This even becomes clearer as Jesus speaks of the ‘desolating sacrilege being set up where it ought not to be’ (in the temple) so that ‘those in Judea must flee to the mountains’ (13:14).  Now, it should be most obvious, that Jesus is specifically talking about the ‘ending’ (13: 7, 13) of that particular country before that ‘generation’ passed away.   It was before that generation died that ‘all these things’ did take place (13:30).  As any reader of history knows, less than 40 years after Jesus made these predictions, Jerusalem was invaded by the Romans and the Second Temple fell and was burned to the ground in 70 AD. (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1990/issue28/2808.html).  

Now, that we can say with certainty that Jesus words were about ‘them’ and not specifically about ‘us’ now, that puts us all in the clear, right?   Well, not exactly.  As we should already know, any and all of the Words in the Bible are considered ‘sacred Scripture’ because they can have, ‘double meanings’ or ‘multiple applications’.   While these “signs” are historically specific, they can still have general implications for any and all time.   This does not mean we can ‘force’ these predictions upon us, as some false prophets did then, and still do today, but they can provide a general picture of the ‘horrors’  that are always present during times of natural or political catastrophe. 

When I was a living in Brandenburg, Germany, I read two British authors accounts of the “Fall of Berlin”, which was one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read.  What made the book so real was that I was living in the very area where some of the battles of between the Russians and Germans took place.  One of those places was Seelow, where 10,000 Russian soldiers marched on flatland straight into 800 Germans embedded with large artillery on a hillside.  It was one of the most costly allied battles of the war.  Living near that battlefield made the story on those pages push out of history into that moment and made me much aware that this was not only a ‘history’ story, but it was a very ‘human’ story that now belonged to the whole world for all times https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1573997.The_Fall_of_Berlin).   

The predictions Jesus gave belong to the whole world too because they were true.  That generation did not pass until these things were fulfilled. What Jesus predicted was not mystical, religious, or political guesswork or nonsense.  These are graphic, dramatic, and very intense ‘earth shaking’ images which cannot and must not be ignored or overlooked.  But here’s my point: because these words can still give us warning about the real dangers of our world too, can they also bring us hope in the midst of these same kinds of dangers.  What we must never do with these images, is to try to put these ‘predictions’ into a single ‘religious’, ‘political’, ‘historical’ or apocalyptic-scenario-like ‘straight jacket’.  Only when we let them show us the truth of Jesus’ day, will these words become lessons of authentic hope that can still come through for us for our own.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM GOD?

So, understanding that these words were specific to Jesus’ day, but might still have applications for us, and also for times still to come, how do we find a message of ‘hope’ where there is so much apocalyptic drama?  

I find it very intriguing, that in the middle of all this catastrophe and chaos, we have Jesus saying, “And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations” (v.13:10).  This is a very ‘strange’ word in the midst of everything that was happening, isn't it?  What would the ‘good news’ be in a world that was falling apart?   I know that later on Jesus says that ‘for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days’ (13:20), but how can it be ‘good news’ for ‘the nations’ when only an ‘elect’ will be ‘saved’?  Again, here we must know what happened in history to understand how this text can bring hope now.   What happened in history is that bad things did happen in and around Judea and Jerusalem, exactly because religious and political leaders had rejected Jesus’ way of peace and had taken a violent stand against Rome.  When they rejected the way and wisdom of Jesus as preached in the Sermon on the Mount, they put themselves into the crosshairs of Roman wrath and power.

But besides the disasters that unfolded, Jesus words tell us something else.   They tell us that even in those distressful and disastrous moments of religious, political and moral failure, God was also working through those who would repent and follow Jesus’ way, so that the promise of redemption and hope might increase in the world.  The ‘elect’ God ‘saved’ where those very first Christian followers who did live through the ‘end’ of their world to ‘preach’ good news to the ends of the earth..

So where is the good news for us in all this?  It is that now, just as it was then, that even when things fall apart something new can and will come together for those who don't lose hope or faith.   For even when God’s people are facing difficulties, destruction and death itself, God will show up in all his ‘spiritual’ glory to bring us the power and promise of His presence (13:26).  Just like it was when the world rejected and crucified Jesus, God was right there, at work in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world to himself for his glory to bring grace to us (2 Cor. 5:12). Also, even in that terrible ending of Jerusalem 40 years later, God was also at work giving birth to the church so that the gospel of grace, peace and hope could go out to be preached to ‘all the nations’ of the world.

This is exactly the kind of ‘hope’ we can always expect from God, in any and in every situation.   A great example of how God works to bring hope, even in the midst of heartbreak and distress, goes all the way back to the first book in our Bible, the book of Genesis, and the story of Joseph.   It’s one of my favorite stories from the Bible, partly because my middle name is “Joseph”, but mostly because it is one of the most ‘hopeful’ stories in all Scripture.  You know the story, how Joseph was hated by his own brothers, was sold into slavery in Egypt, and thrown into prison, but eventually gained favor of his captures and rose to prominence in Egypt.  When his family had to travel to Egypt to escape a terrible famine, it was Joseph who spared then and also forgave their misdeed.  His words to his brothers is unforgettable, saying what they had done by selling him in slavery they ‘intended for for evil, but God intended it for good’ (Gen. 50:20).

We can hear the same kind of sentiment when Esther was ready to approach the king without permission, which could mean her death or it could mean the salvation of her people.  In that moment as she prepares to risk her life her uncle Mordecai says to her, “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).  It is  this kind of “time”, the Bible calls “the fullness of time” which came to fulfillment when “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-7).

The Bible often speaks of “time” which goes beyond ordinary chronological time, but is more of an opportune time to ‘stand still and see the salvation of the Lord’ (Ex.) or a time to ‘look up’ and know that ‘redemption has come near!’ (Luke 21).  As  Paul so aptly described this kind of time which God brings to his people, often, just at the right time, he writes: ‘See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation! (2 Cor. 6:2).  That's precisely the kind of time Jesus is speaking of in this text.  It is not only a time of endings, but at the same time it is also a time of new beginnings, when the gospel is preached, the elect are saved, and when the glory of God is made known in the world.  This is why throughout this dramatic text spotlight is on those who are aware, alert, and prepared to ‘endure to the end’ so they will ‘be saved. Even the end is not the end for those who put their trust in the eternal God of all time.

When the late Pastor John Claypool had to face the terminal illness and death of his five year old daughter, he felt that he could not endure to watch his little Laura Lue suffer and die.  But in a story he told right before his own passing, Claypool tells how exactly in those moments he thought he could not bear, though his daughter was not given the ‘healing’ they wanted, she was given maturity and courage beyond her years in her ordeal, and they were both given gifts of endurance which made them the kind of people they could never have become without God’s grace and help in those ‘times of trouble’ (The Hopeful Heart, by John Claypool, Moorehouse, 2003, pp. 55-61).

HOPE IN WHAT COMES NEXT

Hope in God means that we can ‘endure’ whatever comes, but it means much more than this.  As Jesus surprisingly tells his disciples during his discourse, “…I have already told you everything.” (13:23).

What is this ‘everything’ Jesus has explained to his disciples?  It is certainly not every detail that unfolded then, nor is it details of what will happen next for us or the world.  Most of us would like to know more than we can know and some still claim that they have a ‘map’ of how everything will end.  What is so strange about this kind of ‘wishful thinking’ is that no one can even say how their own life will end, let alone really say how the ‘world’ must or will end? 

The witness of Scripture is clear when Jesus says in this text that even he ‘doesn’t know’ (13:32) and Paul later adds that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Cor. 2:9 KJV).  While Paul also says “God has revealed them by the Spirit…” (1 Cor. 2:10), this refers to having ‘wisdom’ (1 Cor. 2:7) and not ‘words’ (1 Cor. 2:13) about the ‘deep things of God’ (1 Cor. 2:10).  These ‘deep things’ are only ‘spiritually discerned’ (1 Cor. 2:14) ‘in a mystery’ (1 Cor. 2:7) no human can know, but only the ‘Spirit’ knows’ (1 Cor. 2:11).  No matter how many ‘Prophecy’ or “Heaven” books claim to know otherwise, we can’t know what comes next, because our ‘faith’ is in the power of God (1 Cor. 2:5) who ‘freely gives’ what only He ‘ordains’ or ‘prepares’. 

If God would have ever let Jesus or any of us, in on exactly ‘what’ comes next, then God would cease to be ‘free’ and have to work or live by a ‘script’ he doesn’t have to write.   This is exactly why the “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven” Alex Malarkey, had to recently admit he lied about going to heaven and coming back.  He had to admit it because God doesn’t let anyone know beyond ‘faith’ about what comes next.  (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/alex-malarkey-boy-who-came-back-from-heaven_n_6483432.html).

The reason we can’t know the ‘what’ the ‘how’ nor the ‘when’ of God’s final redemption is because we are now called to live our hope through the ‘who’ God has sent to save, Jesus Christ.  We cannot decipher beyond Jesus, because life is finally about the ‘who’ we ‘trust’ and ‘why’ we should have ‘faith’, no matter what comes next.  The ‘everything’ Jesus has ‘already told’ his disciples all points to the ‘coming’ of our hope through the  “Son of Man” …. Who will be seen ‘coming in the clouds of great power and glory’  (v.26) exactly at the same time the ‘stars fall’ and ‘the powers of heaven are shaken’ (vs. 25).  The language here is ‘spiritual’ to depict who comes, not what comes to hold the world together, even with it looks like everything in heaven and on earth falls apart.

The most obvious example of how things ‘hold’ together, even when things ‘come apart’ has ‘already’ been made clear in the ‘everything’ Jesus told his disciples of how even their ‘persecution’ (v. 9) will lead to the ‘proclamation’ of the gospel to all the nations of the world (v. 10).  It is even in through the ‘worst’ situation that God brings the fulfillment of his promise. 

The late Will Campbell tells the story of an Anabaptist (Amish or Mennonite) woman who lived in Antwerp of the 16^th century.  She had been arrested a few day earlier for proclaiming the gospel of Christ as she understood it from her personal reading of Scripture and from study and discussion with others of like faith.  She underwent the inquisition of the clerics for heresy and the bodily torture of the civil authorities, but she would not buckle under to their pressure.  After six months, she would not promise to stop preaching the word from her own reading of the Bible.  So the authorities did what they thought they had to do: They sentenced her to death on October 5, 1573.  Included in the sentence was the stipulation to the executioner that her tongue be screwed fast to the roof of her mouth so that she might not testify along the way as they took her to the stake where she was to be burned.

The day her teenage son, Adriaen, took his youngest brother, three year-old Hans Mattheus, and they stood near the stake so that her first and last children might be near her at her moment of death.  Three other women and a man were to die that day for the same terrible offense—unauthorized preaching of the gospel.  When the flames were lit, Adriaen fainted.  He could not witness the horror.  But when it was all over and the ashes had cooled, he sifted through them until he found the screw that had silenced his mother’s tongue.  It would not silence his (As quoted by David Garland in “The NIV Application Bible, Mark, Zondervan Press, 1996, p. 512, from Will D. Campbell, “On Silencing Our Finest,” Christianity and Crisis 45 (1985), p. 340).

“I have told you everything” Jesus says.  And as certain as Jesus has told us how the gospel will be preached to all the nations,  he has told us that we can put our trust in the God of this ‘good news’ because the ‘news’ of God will never cease to be ‘good’ to those who suffer, who die, but do not cease to put ‘all’ their trust in the goodness of this God who continues to come to us in the ‘glory’ of Jesus Christ.   

“Father and Lord of all, give us unshakable faith to live in hope of your coming glory, no matter what shakes us in life or in death.”    Amen.