Year A. 1st Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2001 Matthew 24: 36-44
Heavenly Father thank you for giving us the power to contain and control evil through your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Title: Jesus has given us the power to contain and control evil.
In this second part of Jesus’ “eschatological discourse” three parables announce its major theme: vigilance as preparation for the Parousia, the coming of the son of Man.
Matthew records a fifth and final discourse of Jesus in 24:1- 25: 46, called by scholars the “eschatological discourse” or sermon. It is not really a sermon delivered by Jesus on one occasion, rather a collection of material, on the topics of the end of the age and or world, the coming of the son of man, and judgment. This would be material Jesus taught throughout his ministry. Matthew depends on Mark for much of it, at least 24: 1-36. To Mark he adds material from “Q” and from his own source, “M.” In the first part, 24: 1-36, he uses all the apocalyptic props, especially as found in the Book of Daniel, to indicate that there will come a point, whether a flash point or a prolonged or progressively developed period, when no one, believer or non-believer, will be able to deny the presence of God. The usual negative experiences of any age- war, famine, pestilence, storms of earth, sea and sky, moral and social ills, etc- will come together in such a way as to make the presence of God undeniable. He equates that condition and the set of conditions which precede it, with the Parousia. The coming of the Son of Man, here identified with the mysterious figure in Dan 7: 13-14 who receives glory and dominion from the Ancient of Days and the end of the age will happen together. However, they will not happen now and will not necessarily happen whenever the usual negative conditions of earth and earthlings become intense. There will be false messiahs erroneously announcing an “end.” Matthew counsels Christians not to be gullible and believe every prediction of the “end,” no matter how great and compelling the “evidence.” On the other hand, Matthew counsels that Christians should not become complacent or worse, non-believing because the “end,” has not yet come or because it has been loudly and confidently predicted many times and has not happened. Thus, in the first part of the “discourse,” Matthew counsels patience until the end and perseverance through the many trials and tribulations that inevitably precede the great day or period.
Verse thirty six, is pivotal. Jesus says that not even the Son knows the day or hour. That means that all the antecedent signs –cosmic, natural, social, political and religious- signs in and of every age are to be understood by Christians as effecting an improvement, if painful, reminders of the end, an end that could come at any time. Therefore, the second part of the discourse counsels watchfulness, vigilance, a constant sense of urgency, but not a state of emergency, as the only wise thing to do given the unpredictability, yet inevitability, of the closing of the age and coming of the Christ. Most will be caught unawares, but disciples must be in constant readiness.
Verses thirty-seven to forty-four present three parables- Noah’s generation verses thirty-seven to thirty-nine, the two pairs of workers verses forty and forty-one, and the thief in the night verses forty-three to forty-four,- to illustrate the need to be alert, alive, awake, watchful at all times.
In verses thirty-seven to thirty-nine, as the days of Noah were: The people of Noah’s time were so immersed in their ordinary, every day pursuits that they were blind to the imminent disaster, a disaster which Noah’s attentiveness to God’s word and personal righteousness caused him to see what they did not or could not. The implication is that it is possible to prepare for the Parousia or even one’s personal death and judgment, not by calculating a date or knowing a date in advance, but by a life of constant readiness to be judged by God, a constant willingness and openness to his warnings. As this and the next parable teach, there will be only two categories of people when that time comes: the prepared and, therefore, saved and the unprepared the lost.
Verse sixteen, makes a similar point and ties in with these verses.
In verses forty and forty-one, two men…two women: Both men are involved in the same work. Both women are grinding at the mill. Both sets of people look the same on the surface, by human judgment and standards. The separation, the difference, the judgment, is not on the basis of work or appearances, but on the basis of readiness. Only God can judge this difference, yet it makes all the difference, not in this world but the next. One will be “taken,” into the Kingdom, while the other will be “left,” behind. This judgment will come upon a person quite suddenly. There can be no other preparation but readiness. Verses eighteen and nineteen, make much the same point and tie in with these verses.
Verse forty-two, keep awake: This summarizes the stance, attitude, posture, Christians are to take regarding the End Time, however it comes upon a person. It summarizes verses thirty-six to forty-one, and at the same time is the theme statement for the focus of the rest of the chapter as well as chapter twenty-five verses one to thirteen.
Verses forty-three to forty four, the hour of the night when the thief was coming: A thief does not telegraph his timetable and neither does God. The only protection against theft is watching even through the night. The only preparation for the sudden break-in of the Parousia or God or death is by watching as well. Of course, God is not a thief, but the metaphor is used frequently in the New Testament for example 1Thes 5:24; 2Pt 3:10; Rev 3:3; 16:15, to describe the sudden and definitive “break-in,” of God. Intense, but not tense, constant alertness to any signs of the “end” requires a life different from the complacent, presumptuous lives of either Noah’s generation or even the ordinary “grind,” of daily life.
Verses forty-fifty-one: not in our liturgical text, these verses describe vigilance as something active, a faithfulness to responsibilities given and undertaken, a refusal to let either ordinariness or the quest for variety take the place of vision. Thus these verses elucidate what Christ means by watchfulness.
Sermon
Even though Jesus was, and is, divine, he refused to exercise his omnipotence example, he refused to turn stones into bread, except for the furtherance of his Kingdom, example, his performing healings and exorcisms. Likewise, he refused to exercise his omniscience, example, refused as a human being to even know the date of his Parousia. And he tells us to ignore any concerns regarding that date. First of all, he says, we do not need to know it; even he did not need to know it. Secondly, he says, if he gave us the date it would encourage carelessness, complacency and procrastination, the very things, which ruin life in his presence. Knowing for a revealed fact either that the “end,” would be centuries away or our personal end would be years away could make us put off getting serious or remaining serious about life lived in the constant awareness of his presence. Thirdly, Jesus may not even be talking about a specific day or date being the same for everyone. Let us examine these three points more closely.
In the first place the Incarnation did not destroy his Jesus’ divine potencies. Christ as divine always was and remained all-powerfully divine. The Incarnation limited his actualities, what Jesus chose not to do because of his freely endued humanity. Jesus was and is fully human in every sense, but sin. This duality of human and divine, of Jesus’ being, is also reflected in each Christian’s dual consciousness. We are conscious of one world with two dimensions to it, the eternal and the temporal, the heavenly and the earthly. We, like Jesus, accept, that for now, we are limited in what we can do with our heavenly, eternal dimension, even though, strictly speaking, the eternal dimension knows no limits as such, except those imposed by God. Yet, for now, we live in this world, as did Jesus, bound by its rules, except for sin. Jesus was tempted. So are we. Jesus did not sin. Even though we no longer need to sin or are compelled to sin, we might and frequently do. And that is a big difference between the divine indwelling in us and in Jesus. Besides sin, there is another difference. Our ability to grasp the divine presence while on earth is much more limited than that of Jesus. Presumably, in heaven, even though we will grasp more fully God’s presence, it will never be that of Christ. He is God; we never will be. Nonetheless, the situation is somewhat comparable. Just as Jesus had some limits within his humanity as far as divine knowledge goes, so every Christian has some; actually more limits. Like knowledge of the day of his Coming, these limits should not concern us overly much.
More importantly, we are to be watchful- alive, awake, alert- for all signs of Christ’s “coming,” into our consciousness. We should actively participate in those signs to heighten, bring home, make present to our consciousness here and now the always and everywhere presence of God. As we live our lives we are conscious of these two dimensions. We see with our faith eyes into reality, find the eternal presence and allow his light to be the light by which we read, interpret and respond to reality and its challenging opportunities. With our physical eyes we see chronos that is, chronological time, but with our faith eyes we see kairos, timing, opportunity time, decision time. Keeping eternity in the forefront of our minds we are able to stretch the boundaries of human knowledge and vision well past their ordinary limits, as did Jesus, transcending, without violating, our humanity. This extra vision lets us see things from the eternal perspective and, at the same time, empowers us to act differently than we ordinarily would. We are aware, awake, alert and alive to more than what meets the merely human eye.
Thus it is that the “Parousia,” the “coming,” of Christ is a constant, constantly growing and expanding experience in a Christian’s life. We know that our earthly life could “end” at any moment, but that is not what matters. We use our inevitable end as a stimulus to do all we can, while we can, to spread the gospel love. The fact that we cannot know exactly when does not make us nervous or tense, only faithful, intense, intent on being effective. That “Day of the Lord,” is different for each person, even though the final outcome will one day arrive for everyone.
War, famine, pestilence, storms of earth, sea and sky, moral and social ills, etc. are signs of any age, signs of evil in any age, not necessarily signs of the End of the world.
It is those signs that will end, those evils, not necessarily the world in which they occur.
The world as we know it is never the same from day to day, it is constantly changing and so constantly ending.
It is one’s personal “end” of the world, end of one’s time in the world, which should concern the Christian. That will occur in a relatively short but unknown time.
The “apocalyptic” signs are to be interpreted as salutary, if painful, reminders of both one’s own end and the end of evil.
The only effective preparation for one’s own end and the ending of evil in the world is constantly readiness to be judged by God by living a life of fidelity to his word.
Intense, constant alertness, readiness and wakefulness require a life different from the complacent, presumptuous lives of either Noah’s generation or even those caught in the daily “grind” of life, living “run of the mill” lives.
Apocalyptic Signs: Events like earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, strange events in the skies like eclipses, meteor showers and comets- all these can scare us into fearing that they could all come together and destroy us and the earth as we know it. We know that in the distant past of the planet weather patterns changed so drastically that the configuration of the earth was affected and whole species of animal and plant life disappeared. So, there is precedent for it and basis for fear. However, Jesus had a different interpretation of such signs. First of all, along with these more or less “cosmic,” signs he included not only war and pestilence but also family squabbles. These latter are less frightening because they are more or less constant, whereas things like war and pestilence as well as eclipses are intermittent. Family squabbles may scare us less, but for Jesus they are of the same order as “cosmic,” signs. They are all evil, all signs of evil’s power to destroy indiscriminately both the innocent and the guilty. Yet, for all their force, they will not be strong enough, either separately or together, to destroy human beings. Only human beings have the power to destroy themselves by behaving in ways similar, if less dramatic and forceful, to all these destructive “signs.” These evils exist in every age and there have been prophets of doom and gloom who have pointed to them as signs of the imminent end of the earth. The earth has not yet ended. It might some day, if and when God chooses. However, there are no really clear indications from Scripture, properly interpreted, that spell the actual end of the world. There are indications that the world will undergo change and transformation, but not extermination. What God creates he does not destroy. Jesus saw these signs as having a potentially positive effect if folks would look past the present fear and force of them and see them as reminders not only of the power of evil but also of the limited power of evil. Evil has not yet succeeded in destroying humankind or even earth and never will. However, evil must be eliminated because it is inimical to God and all that is good about life. While the cosmic evils like hurricanes will one day be contained and controlled by human ingenuity, the social evils like family fights can be contained and controlled right now by human kindness. Each person, according to Jesus, has the power, thanks to Jesus, to contain and control evil if he or she lets God’s grace rule and reign in his or her life. The apocalyptic signs mentioned in Jesus’ eschatological discourse and recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke are not punishments sent by God but consequences of human complacency and inattentiveness to responsibility. We humans should have long ago solved the riddles of weather patterns and controlled hurricanes and earthquakes. Better, we should have figured out how to channel their power into productive uses. It is complacency, laziness, misplaced priorities and refusal to use human talent to its utmost that is the main reason why we are still at the mercy of nature. God has planted the intelligence in the minds of young people across the planet to solve all human problems. It is humans who do not avail themselves of this hidden grace. Amen.
