“A divine countdown?”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, December 3, 2022
Luke 21:5-19 (Forward, p. 35) CEV p. 1091
Many, many people over the years have tried to establish some sort of timeline based on Jesus’ words here and in the parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark, but such an exercise is iffy at best and hazardous at its worst. They constitute a very sketchy and nebulous outline of future events and nothing very solid in terms of a divine countdown. Here is what it says:
-Jerusalem and its Temple will be destroyed. (This is the one definite thing here: it happened in 70 AD);
-there will be false Messiahs, people claiming to be Christ, appearing on the scene;
-there will be wars and rumours of war;
-there will be massive earthquakes, starvation & pandemics;
-there will be frightening omens in the skies;
-there will be widespread persecutions of Christians, and even one’s own families will sometimes turn against them;
-and some Christians will even be condemned to death therein.
Apart from the first event, all of these things have happened over and over in the succeeding years with few if any of them being particularly spectacular or note-worthy in terms of frequency or magnitude. So, I would suggest, it is something of an idle and useless endeavour to try to fix any kind of a timeline on their basis. Indeed, I don’t think that prompting people to do so was any part of Jesus’ intent. Instead, I think that there were xx other things He had in mind:
a) He was telling us, His followers and disciples, not to be afraid, not to be frightened, when such things take place;
b) He was counselling us to make the best use of such times as we are brought to trial before tribunals and kings and governors to share our faith with them. At such times, we don’t have to worry about how we answer; the Holy Spirit will give us the necessary wisdom to know what to say;
c) We are to stand firm, to remain faithful to Christ and His Gospel, even with the opposition and persecution we face.
d) Then, almost at the close of this section--in verse 18—we hear Jesus saying something truly astounding, even unbelievable, given His earlier remarks: “Not a hair of your head will be lost.” How can this be, given His earlier suggestion that some of us will be killed for our faith? (Not to mention the increasing hair loss that many of us older folks encounter daily). But here my sources tell me that this is but a Jewish idiom, a figure of speech, meaning ‘there’s no need to worry.” In other words, it is not to be taken literally.
So, underlying all of this there are four profound and important truths, truths that have nothing to do with any timeline or divine countdown. They are this:
a) God is in control and knows fully well what is to happen, both now and into the future;
b) God is with us and stands with us and will help us in all this;
c) God is working out all things to a satisfactory conclusion;
d) All that is asked of us is that we remain faithful and keep on trusting Him and not give up or worry about any of this. We are to trust in Him and not in any imagined timeline or reconstruction of future events. He is our Lord and is sovereign over all things. He is the one to trust in rather than in any construction by our feeble and limited human wisdom of what we happen to think He is up to. Amen.
Forward notes: “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls” (verses 16-19).
“Betrayal by a loved one—there’s nothing worse. And yet I listen as a spouse shares their partner’s infidelity, and another laments how an addicted child stole from her pocketbook.
“These are painful betrayals.
“Where do we find the hope to carry on? Jesus assures us that even if we are hated or feel as if we’re being put to death, not a hair of our heads will perish. How can we translate that message to hurting people?
“Jesus suggests we endure. What does that look like? My best guess is to set a healthy routine and see a physician. Add to the mix a therapist or trusted friend who will listen without judgment. Find support from the legal system if needed. Set short-term goals that are achievable. And, above all, pray without ceasing for God’s will to be done.”
Moving Forward: “Have you experienced betrayal, and, if so, what did you do?”