Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

This morning we come to those last Sundays of the Church year, the last set of Sundays after Trinity which are numbered according to how close they are to the last Sunday in the season. This morning marks the Third Last Sunday after Trinity. All of these last Sundays present us lessons that reveal what things are going to be like in the world as we approach the final end of God’s redemptive history. The picture that Jesus paints about the end times is very dismal and even more perplexing.

In our Gospel, Jesus offers more details about the final days of human history picking up the stinging words of judgment that He spoke in the temple against the unbelief of the Jewish leadership. When He left the temple, He proclaimed that the house of Jerusalem would soon be left desolate. About 35 years after Jesus was crucified, the Jewish faction that was looking for a political messiah that Jesus was not, revolted against Roman rule. While managing to gain a short time of success, being rather distant from the center of the empire, Rome finally marched upon Judea with strength, led by the famous commander, Titus. The woes spoken in our text relate to the slaughter of the Jews throughout the Judean countryside in 68 AD as the army moved toward Jerusalem for a two year siege. Finally in 71 AD, when all of the food and water had run out and most of the citizens of Jerusalem had died of thirst or starvation, Titus stormed the city and killed anything left that still moved. The abomination of desolation foretold by Jesus in our text occurred when Titus had a pig burned on the altar in the temple. And then the temple was destroyed with not one stone left standing upon another as Jesus foretold.

Reason would have it that if the Creator and Redeemer is truly in control of human history and is attentive and on the job - as, of course He always is - the closer we get to His achieving final victory over the forces of evil, the progressively better things are going to look for those who are on God’s side. That makes sense doesn’t it? Isn’t that the way it is in matters of war? For instance, when the last days of WW II were approaching, the fighting forces of Germany and Japan were progressively being diminished; they were being beaten down; they became less powerful, less a threat to the free world, and increasingly removed from previously occupied territory. And for this reason, their ultimate defeat became more clear to all as the end drew near.

How strange it is therefore, that when Jesus describes the condition of things approaching god’s final defeat of the forces of darkness, the picture He paints is just the opposite. Rather than reflecting a powerful God at work - revealing ever increasingly the advance and extension of His Kingdom and the success of the Gospel - the Lord describes conditions in the world that seem to indicate the powers of evil getting the upper hand and poised to achieve the final victory. As the end of time draws near, it appears that things in the world will become more corrupt, with greater suffering from natural disasters, civil upheaval, and wars. And to make matters worse, when promising words and works of relief and deliverance do come on the scene, we are warned against throwing in with them, for they will be of the anti-Christ. In other words, the bad will be bad and what seems good comes on the scene, it will be worse. These are hard words to stomach, and perhaps in days like our own right now, it would be good to gain a better awareness and appreciation how the Lord would have us see what it means to live in the last days; especially the last of the last days, for they may indeed be upon us.

The question cannot be avoided: If God is in control of things, and if these are the days when His final victory will be consummated; why are things going to look like just the opposite? Why is it going to appear that the true Kingdom of God is so doomed, and the forces of anti-Christ so persuasive, that these days must be shortened lest even the elect be fooled and lost? We raise these questions not because of some inordinate interest in learning about the secret hidden things of God common to all theologies of Glory; our interest is to sharpen our understanding of the last days so that we may better understand the challenges of faith that we face today, regardless of how close to the end of things we might be. We want to see how these events that Jesus discloses will mark the final days fit into God way of doing things both in creation and in redemption.

We have noted that at the very end of things, Satan is going to be given a special free reign in the world to spoil God’s plan of redemption, poising himself as the true instrument who can bring mankind to the good life in the face of all the hardships that we face. He will lead many astray by a show of impressive credentials offering great temptation and enticement to even the elect of God. Now, think about it. Isn’t this just like how God acted at the very beginning of things in his plan and work of creation. God allowed Satan an extraordinary presence and opportunity to spoil his work of creation - an opportunity that effectively tempted both Adam and Eve to turn their backs on faith in God as the ultimate provider of their well-being. In essence, God said to Satan, "have at em’. Let’s see what kind of faith they have in me. Let’s see what they can do when faced with attractive alternatives." The account of creation and the subsequent fall at the hands of Satan, reveal a God who prefers a rugged tested faith to one that is soft and easy. He loves a faith in Him that stands in spite of it all, not because of it all.

Do we not see the same thing about God when he tests Abraham in asking him to sacrifice little Isaac? And again when Satan is unleashed to tempt Job over a wager concerning the strength of his faith? And then of course, there is the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness after no food for 40 days and the thorn in the flesh of St. Paul that God would not remove in the face of all the other trials and suffering that he endured. As it was at the beginning, so it has been since the beginning . . . And so Jesus tells us that is how it will be at the end. The forces of evil will be present; they will be attractive; they will be persuasive; and they will be used by God to test the faith of those who are His own. It will be a time that calls for a rugged faith in God that believes in spite of how things look, not because of them. That’s the way it is because that is the way God is.

But, there is more we can learn about the tough times at the end, when viewed from the lens of the working out of God’s redemptive plan in the past. When we look at God’s method of overcoming the forces of evil in his plan of salvation, do we not see that He prefers to use Satan and the powers allied against Him rather than diminish their presence and put a stop to their evil deeds? In putting the dysfunctional family of Jacob back together, God uses the evil deeds of Joseph’s brothers, a great famine, and all the workings of evil down in the pagan regions of Egypt together with a great famine. Time and time again, we see God using the forces of evil to accomplish his purposes. And, of course the greatest display of this is seen in the passion and cross of our Lord. Satan’s greatest victory becomes his ultimate defeat, as God justifies a world of sinners through the greatest unjust event in the history of the world. Let us remember how Good Friday must be seen as good. When things look like they are beyond hopeless and all has been lost, that is where God is most present, decisively accomplishing his work of redemption and overcoming the forces and powers of evil. It is the cross of Christ that presents us the clear window to behold our gracious God, to live with that gracious God, and - and this is important - to become both a player and a battlefield in which the forces of evil will be at work, but God will also be at work, using them for their final and complete defeat. Blessed are the afflicted, for they are normal.

When things get rough, when challenges to our spiritual life become great, when it may seems that we might have to lay our faith in Christ on the line, when we may have to pay a price for our faith, make a big sacrifice, even give up our life for being faithful to Christ - then we must have well-focused eyes of faith to understand the words of our Lord about the last things. These are the last days and this is what it looks like when God is truly in control achieving his victory. Remember, this is not your home You have not arrived there, yet. The gates of Hell will rattle loudly for a little while. When the noise seems deafening at times, "look up," says Jesus, "your redemption is drawing nigh. This is the way my Father does things. In death, you get life - from injustice you get justice - in My cross, you shall receive glory." Let us hold fast to this hope that is within us . . that clinging faithfully to his cross we will all be there, be there together, be there forever with our Lord. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.