Jesus said to his disciples: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21.25-28, 34-36)
One look at the gospel today and we can safely say Year C begins with a bang. If the big bang started creation eons ago, this big bang as Rabbi Jesus describes it ends creation as we know it. Cataclysmic wouldn’t even come close to describing the chaos let loose upon the world. It can hold its own against any Hollywood movie, including “Clash of the Titans” and the “Avengers.”
The difference, of course, is that with the Hollywood versions of hell let loose on the earth we can sit in our cushioned seats, eat some popcorn, and walk out of the theater knowing it was all fiction. We don’t have the same assurance with the end of the world as Rabbi Jesus describes it in that section that we hear today as we begin the new liturgical year. As I said, it’s quite a way to start a new year.
By now, we should be familiar with apocalyptic literature, that genre of writing that some Jewish writers came up with to make sense of the suffering and persecution inflicted upon them by outside forces a couple centuries before Jesus’ entry onto the scene. The Book of Daniel is one remaining piece of that type of literature, particularly parts of it, giving us a pretty good representation of the genre.
Apocalyptic literature was still in strong form when Jesus began his public ministry and the synoptic gospels have sections such as this one that show us it has not disappeared. The reason it has stayed strong into Jesus’ time is simple. Persecution and suffering had continued, the only thing changing were the faces of the persecutors. And, according to apocalypticists, God, the Just Judge, has had his fill of wrongdoing and is on his way to reclaim creation.
Several groups within Judaism such as the Essenes made it their principal doctrine, the Essenes going so far as to leave town, head into the desert, and spend their days preparing for the end. The Pharisees tended to preach the same message, at least in part. John the Baptist certainly did. He says in the Gospel of Matthew, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
In recent years, there are a number of scholars who believe Jesus was primarily an apocalyptic preacher, really not a stretch on their part. Many of his teachings carry the same themes. The very first words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of Mark are, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel!”
The predominant argument of the apocalypticists was that the world is ruled by evildoers. But their rule is about to end. The coming of the Most High God is around the corner and he will topple the wicked from their thrones of power and the righteous will rule in the Kingdom of God. Actually, this is the meaning behind Jesus’ frequent statement, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”
And how soon was this to happen? Apparently, very soon, at least in Jesus’ mind and in the minds of many other apocalypticists. In Mark’s gospel, the earliest of the synoptics, Jesus says, “I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” Matthew agrees, quoting Jesus as saying, “Truly I tell you this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”
Obviously, the end times did not come when expected, requiring some adjustment in the early Christians’ way of thinking. However, with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, they held that the end time had begun, the resurrection of the dead being one of the images often associated with apocalyptic literature. It would be completed with his second coming when he would reward the righteous and punish the wicked.
Saint Paul infers as much when he speaks of Jesus as “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep,” borrowing the image from the taking in of the crops when they have matured. The first fruits are the products that are harvested on the first day. When he returns in the future, the other fruit will be gathered, the good fruit brought before God, the bad fruit tossed into the eternal flames.
While at first glance we are left to wonder why this selection is given to us on the First Sunday of Advent, forcing us to look at the end times, in some ways it makes sense, pairing the first coming of Jesus with his second coming, asking the inhabitants of the world to be ready for both. Hence, the significance of Jesus’ words in the passage today, telling his followers, “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”
By way of these words–and we will see similar invocations in the next few Sundays of Advent–Jesus is preaching the apocalyptic vision, namely, that the time is short–imminent, as he says today–for sinners to change their ways before the Son of Man appears. We do not want to be caught unawares, “that day catching us by surprise like a trap,” as he tells his listeners.
Of course, the other point that is always part and parcel of this genre of writing is that the righteous have nothing to fear. Only evildoers do. Hence, the need to get into the right camp while there is time. Those who do good, endure the suffering put upon them by the wicked, and give witness to the ways of God have no reason to dread the end times. For them, it will be a time of liberation.
This is exactly what Jesus means when we hear him say today, “When these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” The word “redemption” that is used here is borrowed from the practice of slavery. In other words, the good people, enslaved by the wicked, will be liberated on the day of the Lord. It will be D-Day for the good.
I find something very powerful in that image. Whereas enslaved people are often bent over under the weight of oppression that they must carry on their back, Jesus calls upon his followers to “stand erect and raise your heads.” Why? Because, as people of hope, they believe that the reign of the evildoers has a shelf life and it is coming to an end.
With trust in God, then the righteous can stand tall even as the wicked try to break their spirits and crush their bodies. Try as they might, the wicked who thrive in this world will not be victorious over the righteous who will have their chains loosened by the Just Judge when he reestablishes upon the earth the reign of God and destroys the kingdoms built by those who do evil upon the earth.
For Luke, this phrase has a double meaning. Earlier in his gospel in Chapter 13, we find the story of the crippled woman who approaches Jesus. Luke describes her as “a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.” We’re told that when Jesus sees her, he says to her, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He then laid his hands on her and “she at once stood up straight and glorified God”
It should be easy enough for us to see the direct parallel between that story and these words of Jesus that he speaks in the Temple near the end of his public ministry. In both instances, he refers to someone who has been “crippled by a spirit,” the woman as well as people enslaved by evil forces, resulting in their being bent over.
But their days of stooping are soon to end. As Jesus brought remedy to the crippled woman who “stood up straight and glorified God,” so the righteous also can “stand erect and raise their heads” because the same Lord and God will free them soon, releasing them from the crippling power of evildoers who lay heavy burdens upon their backs and upon their spirits.
None of this is meant to minimize the suffering of the righteous at the hands of the wicked. Just as the woman who meets Jesus has suffered for eighteen long years, her back bent under the duress, so the righteous must endure suffering for what seems like an interminable period of time. But in the same way that the day comes when the woman is freed from an evil spirit, so the day comes when the righteous will be freed from the rule of evildoers.
Saint Paul, for one, often looked upon the sufferings of the present as “labor pains,” referring to the pain that a woman undergoes as she gives birth. So it is with the righteous who suffer through every kind of pain. That pain will give way to the birth of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of peace, justice, and love, not a kingdom of war, injustice, and hatred.
So, I believe that our purpose is clear as we begin this new liturgical year, initiated by the season of Advent, a time reminding us to get right with God because the time is coming when God will separate the sheep from the goats. When that time comes, we want to be with the sheep, not with the goats. And while the time in between as we await the coming of the Lord appears long, the evildoers celebrating their petty wins, we are sustained by our hope and our belief in the victory of good over evil.
And it is that same trust, then, that allows us to “stand erect and raise our heads” even as evil rains down upon us. Already now, we know that the reign of God will win the day and the reign of terror inflicted upon us will end. We, like the bent over woman, can already stand tall because we can see over the horizon, something the wicked cannot do, living as they do in “carousing and drunkenness,” as Jesus says, becoming drowsy, intoxicated as they are from their evil deeds.
So, as Advent begins, we prepare not only for the birth of the Messiah at Christmas, but also for the birth of a new world, a world ruled by the Most High God and his angels, the present world passing away into the trash heap of history along with the wicked, while the righteous stand tall and ready for that new day, having nothing to fear because they will find themselves free at last. Yes, thank God, free at last.
–Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 