Ultimate trust
This week is on Luke 21:10-19:
These verses are a warning Jesus gave to his disciples at the time. He talks about the season of persecution that would follow in the wake of his death and resurrection, and which continues even to this day. I had the chance to share a picnic a couple years ago with a man who fled his country when he heard his own father on the phone with the religious police, turning him in for having a Bible. Some of his friends had already been "disappeared" that way. Miraculously he was able to get on an international flight with no money and no passport. Some things you can prepare for, and other things you just have to trust.
Jesus talks about world events turning bad. There's war, ethnic conflict, natural disasters, famines, diseases, and cataclysms of all kinds. Basically everything Christians pray won't happen when they want to pray a safe spiritual prayer. "Please let the people in that hurricane be OK. And don't let the other side win the elections coming up or the football game this Sunday." But think about it for a minute. This is Jesus, describing the Christian epoch that he is ushering in, saying that bad things beyond our control will happen.
We do everything we can to prevent those things and they happen anyway, even on a personal level. Babies die. Spouses cheat. Business partners embezzle and betray. Stuff gets stolen. People get cancer. We lose followers on social media. Christianity isn't an easy path to a comfortable life. Again, this is Jesus talking, not some random pastor we can dismiss with a hand wave and any of a number of best-selling Christian guides to prosperity.
Christianity is a hostage rescue, not a pleasure cruise. If you duck when they say duck, and run when they say run, and your friend still dies and your best shoes get ruined, instead of dwelling on those things, be happy you're free. And that someone who didn't get themselves into trouble was willing to die to get you out. If it rains while you're waiting for the helicopter, so what? You have eternity to dry off.
But Jesus' warning isn't just about bad things that are going to happen, but about how our attitude towards them should be. When describing the betrayals of their loved ones, and how they'll be trapped in the jaws of a corrupt legal system, Jesus tells them not to rehearse in advance what they are going to say to defend themselves. That's so opposite to the way we live today.
Over the course of my life, I've watched my culture and people become sissified. I heard some commentator explain it as a side effect of us having smaller families. If you have one kid, you're going to do everything you can to keep bad things from happening because if that kid dies or leaves, you'll die alone. So that kid will grow up afraid of his own shadow. If you have six kids, on the other hand, you can let your guard down, at least once the older ones make it out of the house alive. Our national attitude borders on hysterical risk-aversion.
If you believe that your life on Earth is the only life you'll live, you'll be like that histrionic parent, raising weak, adventureless, bubble-children, sacrificing life to the illusion that you can prevent pain and suffering. If that's you, you're probably reading this thinking "what do you mean there's going to be earthquakes? No! I refuse!" And yet Jesus himself, who was nailed to a cross by depraved, uneducated men who didn't use hand sanitizer, said that earthquakes will happen and things will still manage to somehow turn out okay.
On the one hand, we have all of the things the news tries to scare us with for profit, all of the things we worry about late at night, and so on, and on the other we have Jesus saying "Don't worry about it. Either you'll die and go to heaven, or you'll live a bit longer, build some more character, and then die and go to heaven." By our endurance we gain our lives. Another translation says "Stand firm and you will win life."
In a way, it's the ageless question of trust. "Who do you trust to feed you, God or the large flock of sheep you've managed to assemble?" "Who do you trust to protect you, God or your shiny chariot and state of the art weaponry?" "Who do you trust to take care of you when you get old, God or your retirement plan, children, friends, or community?" Who do you trust to decide whether you need to be comfortable or strong, to have a long life or a short one, to be full or hungry?
Where is your trust? What do you place your faith in when you think about the future? Is it God, for the eternal win, or something which, despite your heroic efforts, will perish in this life?
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and famines and plagues in various places, and there will be terrifying sights and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will be a time for you to serve as witnesses. Therefore be resolved not to rehearse ahead of time how to make your defense. For I will give you the words along with the wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will have some of you put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of my name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.
These verses are a warning Jesus gave to his disciples at the time. He talks about the season of persecution that would follow in the wake of his death and resurrection, and which continues even to this day. I had the chance to share a picnic a couple years ago with a man who fled his country when he heard his own father on the phone with the religious police, turning him in for having a Bible. Some of his friends had already been "disappeared" that way. Miraculously he was able to get on an international flight with no money and no passport. Some things you can prepare for, and other things you just have to trust.
Jesus talks about world events turning bad. There's war, ethnic conflict, natural disasters, famines, diseases, and cataclysms of all kinds. Basically everything Christians pray won't happen when they want to pray a safe spiritual prayer. "Please let the people in that hurricane be OK. And don't let the other side win the elections coming up or the football game this Sunday." But think about it for a minute. This is Jesus, describing the Christian epoch that he is ushering in, saying that bad things beyond our control will happen.
We do everything we can to prevent those things and they happen anyway, even on a personal level. Babies die. Spouses cheat. Business partners embezzle and betray. Stuff gets stolen. People get cancer. We lose followers on social media. Christianity isn't an easy path to a comfortable life. Again, this is Jesus talking, not some random pastor we can dismiss with a hand wave and any of a number of best-selling Christian guides to prosperity.
Christianity is a hostage rescue, not a pleasure cruise. If you duck when they say duck, and run when they say run, and your friend still dies and your best shoes get ruined, instead of dwelling on those things, be happy you're free. And that someone who didn't get themselves into trouble was willing to die to get you out. If it rains while you're waiting for the helicopter, so what? You have eternity to dry off.
But Jesus' warning isn't just about bad things that are going to happen, but about how our attitude towards them should be. When describing the betrayals of their loved ones, and how they'll be trapped in the jaws of a corrupt legal system, Jesus tells them not to rehearse in advance what they are going to say to defend themselves. That's so opposite to the way we live today.
Over the course of my life, I've watched my culture and people become sissified. I heard some commentator explain it as a side effect of us having smaller families. If you have one kid, you're going to do everything you can to keep bad things from happening because if that kid dies or leaves, you'll die alone. So that kid will grow up afraid of his own shadow. If you have six kids, on the other hand, you can let your guard down, at least once the older ones make it out of the house alive. Our national attitude borders on hysterical risk-aversion.
If you believe that your life on Earth is the only life you'll live, you'll be like that histrionic parent, raising weak, adventureless, bubble-children, sacrificing life to the illusion that you can prevent pain and suffering. If that's you, you're probably reading this thinking "what do you mean there's going to be earthquakes? No! I refuse!" And yet Jesus himself, who was nailed to a cross by depraved, uneducated men who didn't use hand sanitizer, said that earthquakes will happen and things will still manage to somehow turn out okay.
On the one hand, we have all of the things the news tries to scare us with for profit, all of the things we worry about late at night, and so on, and on the other we have Jesus saying "Don't worry about it. Either you'll die and go to heaven, or you'll live a bit longer, build some more character, and then die and go to heaven." By our endurance we gain our lives. Another translation says "Stand firm and you will win life."
In a way, it's the ageless question of trust. "Who do you trust to feed you, God or the large flock of sheep you've managed to assemble?" "Who do you trust to protect you, God or your shiny chariot and state of the art weaponry?" "Who do you trust to take care of you when you get old, God or your retirement plan, children, friends, or community?" Who do you trust to decide whether you need to be comfortable or strong, to have a long life or a short one, to be full or hungry?
Where is your trust? What do you place your faith in when you think about the future? Is it God, for the eternal win, or something which, despite your heroic efforts, will perish in this life?
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