LENT 2016 – GOING TO JERUSALEM

Tuesday, March 1

Persecutions Foretold: Matthew 24: 9 – 14

“And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world,” (v.14).

                What good news are you taking about, exactly, Jesus?

                Let me see. So far, we have war, death, famines, earthquakes, and now hatred, betrayal, lawlessness, and no love – I’d hate to hear your opinion on what the “bad news” will be, Jesus. No wonder that you suggested that we head to the hills and take cover (v.16).

But good news?  I am not hearing a lot of good news, here. Can’t we just skip over this part of the sermon and get right to the best part of the Big Story? You’re giving me the heebie-jeebies.  

                I want to hear just about the Big Happy Ending. You know; “death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away,” (Revelation 21:4). Get to the good stuff!  Paint a pretty picture of tomorrow.  The world can be tough enough; don’t make it any scarier!

                Good news, you say?  I don’t have a very long list of items for my version of what makes for good news. You are not even close; off by a mile, in fact!  Come back when the noise dies down, and we can talk then.

                I am open to all the good news I can get. Bring it on. Win me over with words of love, harmony, cooperation, unity and peace.  Jesus loves me.  You know what I like. I can get very excited about those sorts of things.  Or tell me that I will get into heaven and watch it all from there. Tell me that I am exempt. Tell me that I can take a short-cut, and go past GO and collect my celestial $200, so to speak; and get to into your kingdom by some other, easier road and avoid this unholy mess.

                Perhaps, Jesus, you meant that it is Good News that we will be saved if we endure.          

                But I am not very good at endurance. I have a very low, pain threshold. You should see me when I am sick with a cold – nothing but a big baby. I don’t endure well.  I am not very long-suffering. I wish, sometimes, that I could live in a bubble and wouldn’t have to deal with the many ills of the world, some of which you have listed here already. Sometimes, I wish I could just look away. Sometimes, I wish I didn’t care so much.  I am unsure whether I have the capacity to outlast the pain and hurt that is out there in the world.  Endurance, although preferable to death, doesn’t sound much like good news to me, either.  Save me from that!

                I think what you are telling us is that things in this world are going to get worse before they get better.  These are part of the birth pangs (24: 8) in which God breaks open the future for his Kingdom. It’ll be messy and chaotic and hard. Obviously your healing and rebirth of the broken world needs to be seismic in its scope and nature. It won’t come easily or quietly or peacefully.  There will be heavy resistance.

                But in the end all our efforts under your guiding Spirit will be worth it. We are never alone as we work with you in the present unfolding of your Love, and demanding as it will be, we will get through it.

                Yeah, I can see the Good News in that!