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INJ
St Luke 21:25-36
'Waiting'
Morning Service
The 2nd Sunday in Advent | Populus Zion | December 8, 2007
Dear Saints,
It's white outside, but the color will be blue for three more weeks. And while it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, like a white Christmas, in the Lord's church, it's still Advent. In Advent we focus in on the Lord's coming. Last week we heard how the Lord Jesus continues to come in our midst, and this week we hear how the Lord will come again in glory.
This is the promise from our Gospel text from Luke 21. This text is from the passage of Scripture called the Lord's Eschatological Discourse, and this teaching is also found in Mark 13 and Matthew 24. 'Eschatology' is a word that comes to us from the Greek, eschaton meaning last things. The eschaton is the end of all things, and eschatology is the study of the last things, and is the topic that our Lord Jesus is talking about in this text: the end of all things.
But Jesus' teaching is not quite that simple. Jesus is talking about two things: the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the world, the world's end and the temple's end. And Jesus is talking about these two things because His disciples asked about these two things, and in His answer to this question these things and intertwined.
This all took place on Holy Tuesday, the last day of Jesus' public ministry, and the history unfolds as follows. Jesus spent the day teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, debating with the Pharisees and Saducees. As they are leaving Jesus sees the widow and commends her for offering a mite. Then, as they are leaving the temple on the way to the mount of Olives, the disciples are commenting on the splendor of the temple, the size of the stones and the finery, how the temple was so fancy, etc. To this Jesus responds, “As for these things which you behold, the days will come in which there shall not be one stone left upon another, that will not be thrown down.” [Luke 21:6]
To this the disciples ask (and we turn to Matthew's Gospel to get both questions), “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” [Matthew 24:3] When will Jerusalem be destroyed and when will You return in glory? It is safe for us to assume that the disciples thought these events would happen together, but as we have seen there are almost 2,000 years between these events.
The destruction of Jerusalem occurred in 70 AD as Jesus promised, “This generation shall not pass away until all these things are fulfilled.” [Luke 21:32] But the destruction of all things is yet to occur, and we still wait in expectation of this return in glory.
That's a lot of what Advent is about, we are waiting. Not, remember, waiting for Jesus to come. He has come in the womb of the virgin Mary. But we wait for Him to come again, for 2,000 years we've been waiting, and in this waiting the church learns patience and endurance, and this is a good lesson to learn.
We, after all, live in a fast-food world with high-speed on-demand instant-gratification drive-thru everything. We have express lanes on the highway and in the grocery store and through airport security, I hear. A while back I saw an ad for a video, “Meditate Like a Buddhist Monk in Half an Hour”. In no way am I advocating Buddhism where you try to avoid the pain of this world by sinking deeper and deeper into yourself, searching for salvation in yourself rather than finding it in Christ. But it does seem like these guys work hard at their idolatry; it takes a lifetime of dedication and meditation and orange robes to be a good monk. But look at the silly impatience of our culture that sells a video for $19.99 on how to meditation like a monk after only 30 minutes of training. I wonder how many people looked at that as said, “I'd like to be like a Buddhist monk, but thirty minutes is too long.”
And if 30 minutes seems too long, imagine 2,000 years. It seems like a long time to wait for the Lord to return. The Bible talks about this long wait and the scoffing that accompanies it, St Peter writer:
1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." [2 Peter 3:1-4]
So as the Lord's church waits for her Lord she is mocked, scoffed at, and tempted to impatience. And this impatience takes the form of growing board with the Lord's Word and cold in our prayers; 2nd and 3rd commandment stuff.
Jesus also warns about this growing cold in our text,
“34 But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” [Luke 21:34-36]
But the Lord has other plans for our waiting, not that we would grow tired or impatient, or that we would fall away or be weighed down with cares and suffering or distracted by the glitter of this world. The Lord would have it that by our waiting we would stand before Him in eternity in bliss.
And so the Scriptures teach us to wait. Waiting, in the Scripture, is faith mixed with hope, it is a trusting in the Lord's promises and a sure and certain knowledge that the Lord's promises are true. The Lord intends for us to look and watch and pray, to wait and suffer and trust and believe, and as we wait and hope our desire for the Lord's returns grows.
Most of you all know that I spent a few summers in High School and College working in the outback of Australia on student adventure trips. For two summers I was a cook, and it was my responsibility, every day, to feed 35 hungry students out of the back of a truck. We would often arrive at camp late, and I was doing most of the cooking over a fire, and so dinner was generally late. You could imagine the chorus of whining and complaining, “When is dinner? I'm hungry. I'm starving.” We were hundreds of miles from even the smallest city and I would hear, “Where's the McDonald's?” To all of this I would reply, so often that it became a joke, “The longer you wait, the better it tastes.”
This is what the Lord intends for us as He, week after week, feeds us with His Word and the body and blood of His Son, that in our waiting for His return we would grow more and more hungry for His gifts, for His goodness, for His Gospel, and for the sure hope of the coming of His Son. For the Lord's gifts are not like food, we never get full, and in fact the more we have the more we desire. The more we hear and learn the Scriptures the more we want to hear and learn them, the more we taste the Lord's mercy in His meal the more we want it, and this is how, exactly how, Jesus would have it.
It is in faith, then, that we eagerly wait for the promised coming of our Lord, and it won't be long now, our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Dear saints, lift up your heads, for your Redemption draws nigh. Your Jesus has never told a lie, and He has promised to come for you. Let us therefore wait in joy and in peace. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO