120119 – Matthew 24. 36-44
These Matthean TEXTS are NOT necessarily what people read INTO them.
These texts ARE NOT about trying to get a leg up” on the “Second Coming.”
When Jesus said, “NO ONE KNOWS.” He meant just that! No one knows, so STOP all the speculation ALREADY! You are just spinning your wheels!
They are INSTRUCTIVE WORDS…that happen to include the “coming of the Lord…”
They are about “HOW TO LIVE” as followers of Jesus in the midst of “uncertainty and chaos.” This was meant to be a PRACTICAL DISCOURSE!
So what we are talking about here is “THE CHALLENGE” of living as FAITHFUL people in cataclysmic situations and times. The word translated as “flood” in the Greek means CATACLYSM…so there is even a little play-on-words-going-on-here.
At the time that Matthew (or whomever) was writing the gospel, the situation was DIRE, indeed!
Jerusalem was NO MORE. At least not as people REMEMBERED it to be! It was burned down to the very ground.
CHRISTIANITY (if we can even call it that yet,) was a small and fragile group. It has been estimated that in the time of Matthew there were perhaps LESS THAN a few thousand followers who would have identified themselves as being followers of Jesus.
They found themselves living under an OPPRESSIVE government and at ENMITY with the vast majority of the Jewish people. The Jews no longer wanted to have anything whatsoever TO DO with the followers of Jesus.
PERSECUTIONS were a real thing…and sometimes a DAILY thing.
The vast majority of people lived in ABJECT POVERTY under the domination of Rome…
Who (by the way) had JUST recently devastated THE COUNTRY during the Roman-Jewish War and had DESTROYED both the city of Jerusalem and its Temple.
There was LITTLE left, as the people groveled for what little food they could find.
The people knew cataclysm first hand– they LIVED IT every day and attempted to somehow survive.
Today dependent upon WHOM you listen to – we are deluged with all kinds of “dire predictions,” our imaginations are stoked with “images of imminent disaster” and our minds are inundated with “this-or-that-appeal to save ourselves” from “this-or-that catastrophe.”
People live daily in situations of “QUIET APOCALPSE” – things like war, plane crashes, floods, domestic violence, hunger, poverty, murder in the streets, terrorism, job loss, disease, devastating fires, addictions…and on and on it goes…
No one is seemingly immune.
The struggles ARE REAL!
Chaos surrounds and ENGULFS…
The real question for the early struggling church was HOW DO YOU remain faithful?
When it seems like the sky is falling – all around you – and just WHAT do you do? HOW do you react? HOW do you live your life? HOW do you get through it?
At the very heart of THIS is the understanding that MY GOD loves me and this created world EVEN IN THE MIDST OF “cataclysm and chaos.”
No matter what transpires MY GOD is with me, my God and I walk together every day…
Paul, the author of the Book of Romans nailed it, he hit it squarely on the head when he penned the words:
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who first loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That is how we survive.
That is how we manage.
We hold up our heads and we do the best that we can.
We keep our faith.
We remain strong in the Lord.
We reach out to those in need and we help others…if we are able.
We realize, we understand that WE ARE NOT in CONTROL of every situation…and sometimes, you have to have faith that things will work out. You need to be hopeful.
But the bottom line is that strong – “strong relationship” that is so vitally important and necessary. Have integrity and do what you are supposed to do.
YOU belong to God and YOU ARE HIS. EMBRACE IT!
Amen.