Chaos Of The End-Times And Faith In Resurrection

Saturday of the 33rd Week in course

For those of us raised in a solid, middle-class home, in a reasonably ordered town or city, the scenes pictured in apocalyptic books like Revelation are hard to imagine. But those who were in Chicago in late August, 1968, and saw the police riot and demonstrations at the convention, or who were in Portland or Seattle during the riots of 2020, the chaos of the Revelation story seems like a current event. Jesus asked the question “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” Revelation seems to suggest here that He will not find much of that, or many faithful disciples.

But Jesus will find the Church, still proclaiming God’s Truth, still preaching His passion, death, resurrection and desire to save all humans from eternal death. There’s much discussion of who the two witnesses, symbolized by olive trees and lampstands, might be. But the words witness, olive tree and lampstand suggest sources of true enlightenment, preaching the Gospel of Christ. In the OT, Moses and Elijah were such witnesses, and the fact that Moses directed the plagues against Egypt–featured prominently here–and Elijah summoned as witness against sin a drought lasting three and a half years. So they may be the models for these NT witnesses. After the hell-spawned beast slays them, the depraved citizens of the sin-ridden city add insult to injury by not interring them. But after three and a half days God acts to raise them from death and take them then to His presence. He acts for them as a shield and stronghold. And then the sinful earthly city is struck by earthquake, and that is just what the author calls the “second woe.” It gets worse for the wicked, but remember not a hair on our head will be harmed.

Our Gospel tells us of Jesus’s conquest of the resurrection-denying Sadducees, who were early materialists who thought this earthly life is all we get. Why? Because resurrection of the dead is not in the first five books of the OT, and they didn’t think anything else was God-inspired. Well, Jesus puts them down pretty convincingly when He quotes from Torah that clearly, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must be alive with God. St. Paul is correct to say that if there is no Resurrection to eternal life, then we are all stupid for our faith in Christ, and are the most pitiable of humans. We live now and follow the way of Christ, not only because it causes a peaceful and civil society, but we even deny ourselves now so that we can celebrate with Christ in His kingdom. That will be the victory that the Psalmist prays for with us. Let’s let that realization be the first and last thing we pray for when we rise in the morning and fall asleep at night.