Lenten Reflections on Jesus' Last Week 3

Week Three:  It Won’t Be Easy:  the Apocalypse 

Mark 13

Many of us find it hard to read with any degree of seriousness these extreme descriptions of persecution and judgment.  The people for whom Mark was writing were about to or were already experiencing such disaster.  Like us, they probably didn't want to accept it for the life-changing crisis that it was to become. One year ago, many of us were skeptical of the experts who were telling us that the second wave would be worse than the first.  We didn’t want to hear that thousands would die and we would be wearing masks in public spaces for the foreseeable future.  We did want to hear that this pandemic would someday be over and that life would be better, that we could even make it better than it was before.  We didn’t want to hear that it would not be easy to do so. 

Mark wrote around 70 AD when the disaster was not a pandemic but war.  Jerusalem had been or was about to be destroyed by the Romans and the Jews dispersed throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  This passage is not about a horrid fantasy.  It describes the inevitable march of history when a few people use military might to maintain the subservience of many. Jesus warned his followers about the dangers of the false promises of both sides.  Collaboration with Rome would not prevent the desecration of the temple or the destruction of the city. The Jewish rebels were ‘false prophets’ in thinking that God would prevent such a disaster for the Jewish people.  Joining them was not going to work either. Sometimes when there is no good choice, you just have to flee from the terror and bide your time.  In time, God will come to show us a better way. 

We are not yet facing war between the conservative right and the liberal left in our society. (Although, January 6th is certainly a wake-up call.)  However, the issues we face and the solutions offered are life and death.  Some of us see the actions of the conservative movement as so wrong our only option is to support the liberal side.  Others blame the liberals for the dire state of things and blindly follow the conservatives.  As Christians, followers of Jesus, perhaps we need to be willing to stand against both political forces of our time when they are leading us away from God’s way and to stand with them both when they say and do things that bring us closer to God’s reign of peace and justice.  When we do that, Jesus warns us, we will be persecuted by both sides but with patience and persistence perhaps we can hold onto a better way beyond both alternatives offered by our world today. 

Watch and wait.  Be patient but be ready.  History has shown us that God’s coming in any time is dependent on the willingness of the people to walk in God’s way, to welcome a reign of peace built on justice and love.  When the worries of this life seem overwhelming, that is the very hour that our chance for salvation will come. How are you getting ready to embrace it?

photo by Ralph Milton

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