Malachi 3__13 to 4__6 Proper 28C THE DAY OF THE LORD
Gospel: Luke 21:5-19
The Old Testament lesson brings once again to our attention a familiar theme in the Bible. Why does the righteous suffer?
More than 1000 and perhaps nearly 1500 years had passed from the time God Almighty
called Moses from his role as shepherd to go to Egypt and lead the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob out of Egypt. Abraham and his descendants had a personal relationship with God. They spoke with him as a familiar friend, calling on him as a child petitions a father when he is fearful or in trouble.
This nation received the Law of the Lord, and from time to time wrote down accounts of their dealings with him. So it was in today’s reading from Malachi. Malachi was written at some time near 400 years before the birth of our Lord, about 2400 years ago. Secular history can be matched with events referred to in Nehemiah 13:10-29 and with the Book of Malachi. The calamity referred to in Malachi 1:2-5 really happened . The Edomites, a nation related to the Jews, was expelled from their land by the Nabataean Arabs. Nehemiah became governor of Judea in 44BC, giving us an approximate date for these events.
Ninety years had passed since a small group of Jews had returned from Babylon with the high hopes expressed in Isaiah 40ff. Jeremiah 23:5-6 records the faith the of the Jews that the glory days would return as in the time of King David. It was thought the land would become miraculously fruitful (Ezekiel 34:26-30 and Isaiah 41:18-19). The heady view was that all nations would come and serve them (Isaiah 49:22-23), There are communities of Jews that still look forward to such a King, such a Messiah who will set up offices in Jerusalem and rule the world in righteousness.
The reality of life for the small remnant of Jews that returned from Babylon was very different from the Messianic expectation. They became rulers by the grace of the Persian empire, of only a small district, not much larger than Jerusalem. The land was rocky and not at all fertile. The energy of the people required to eke out a living from the arid land was such that reconstruction of the walls to protect City of Jerusalem and the reconstruction of the temple was not accomplished until 90 years had passed. The rains failed on occasion (Haggai on 1:10-11), followed by famine (Malachi 3:10).
The question came. Why, Lord? We trusted you. We left Babylon and came back to the Holy Land, the Holy place. We were promised a return to national glory. We have put away the idols and the evils of Egypt and Babylon. Where are you? “What is the good of keeping the Lord’s rules or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? Evil- doers not only prosper but thy put God to the test and they escape. Why?”
It had become unpopular to be a prophet in Israel-Judah. The school of the prophets founded by Elijah had fallen into disrepute and were on the verge of disappearing.
Zechariah 13:2-5 and Psalm 74:9) A spirit of rationalism, akin to that of the last 2 centuries in Western Europe and the United States had come into that society and a prophet could not gain an audience by merely saying, “Thus says the Lord.”
There were objections. “If the Lord loves us, why does he not show it?” If he is good and righteous why are not the rewards of life more equitably distributed?” All of this sounds familiar to us, does it not?
Malachi’s answer is the old and still true, orthodox answer of retribution. Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Psalm 37 and the speeches of the “friends of Job” found in the Book of Job give the formula: “You suffer because you have been bad.” Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. Or, as we say today, “He brought it on himself.” “As a man sows, so shall he also reap.”
Malachi repeated that teaching, ”when the people repent, the rains will come to the arid, famine stricken land.” There will be showers of blessings. (Malachi 3:10)
Agricultural people in this country for over a century sang a Gospel Song,
“Showers of blessings.” This song was especially meaningful when they felt the pinch of a bad crop year. Showers of blessings, showers of blessings we need. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.” City folks cannot feel the depth of emotion country people felt as they lifted their eyes to God and sang that song.
Malachi was pressed for an answer to the Why question regarding Jewish poverty, subservience to a foreign ruler and sense of distance from God. Malachi answered not only were they reaping what they had sown, but also they had demonstrated an indifference toward God by deliberately offering the worst animal in the flock on God’s altar. Their hearts were simply not right. Also, they had sinned against their brothers by social immorality (Malachi 3:5). Therefore Malachi’s first answer to “Why,” was the orthodox one: “You have brought it on yourselves, repent!”
A second answer Malachi gave was this: in spite of the general hardness of the times, there is at least one contemporary event showing that God was in control of history and still loved his people. The Edomites, the blood brothers of the Hebrews, had expressed their delight at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. (Psalm 137:7) They had continued hostile to the defenseless Jews. Malachi assured his people God was in control and does not permit faithlessness and cruelty to go unpunished. ( Malachi 1:2-5) The Wisdom of Solomon was once again vindicated in history “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.”
There is a lesson here for us. A New Testament writer spoke of the patience of the saints. Even in our own time as we witnessed the fall of the Japanese Empire, of Nazi Germany, the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and now the destruction of Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq we believe we see the hand of God in history. Any empire built on bloodletting, fraud, and injustice is an affront to the moral order the Almighty placed in the universe. God will intervene.
Malachi’s third answer why is “the day of The Lord is at hand.”
The day of God’s judgment is not far distant and then rewards and punishments will be measured out so all men may see that loyalty and justice are not forgotten. All is recorded in God’s books (Malachi 3:16-18).
This “eschatological” thought runs through the Old Testament from Job and Genesis to Malachi. It increases after the Exile and provides the immediate background for the proclamation of John the Baptist, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
This idea of the immanent coming of the Lord drives Malachi to preach that righteous living is important. He sees human relationships differently from his contemporaries as a result of his belief that the Lord is always near.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 in the sacred books of Moses allowed for divorce. Malachi came close to the position of Jesus (Mark 10:2-12), anticipating Jesus words by 500 years.
God said to Malachi “I hate divorce.” Divorce is breaking a covenant.
Malachi taught that cruelty and treachery was wrong in a covenant relationship such as marriage. Paul, in the tradition of the prophet Malachi and Jesus said the covenant relationship of marriage is to be as holy as the union of Christ with the Church.
He also sees the covenant relationship with God the father as demanding righteous treatment of God’s children. He is way ahead of our generation though he lived 2400 years ago. He taught the brotherhood of man. “Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?”
Malachi 2:10; 1:6; 3:17.
Malachi ends his teaching with a promise that Elijah would return, and soon after The Day of the Lord, at which time “the Sun of Righteousness would rise with healing in his beams.
This is not only a day of healing, but also a “great and terrible day.” It is a day also of reconciliation. (Malachi 4:5)
Of course you have all read the Gospels many times and know that John the Baptist is referred to as the spirit of Elijah and the “forerunner” of Messiah; the one who came to announce the Christ. The Gospel of John has the Baptist pointing to Jesus and saying “Behold the Lamb of God.”
Now concerning the day of the Lord in today’s Gospel (Luke 21:5-19), it is impossible in a short space to go into all the details, but consider Luke 21:32. After describing wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, great signs in heavens, betrayal by friends and relatives, Jesus talks of Jerusalem surrounded by armies and a desolation that was soon to happen to it, with signs in the sun, moon and stars. The “Son of Man is to come in a cloud with power and great glory (with clouds). This may sound like a cataclysmic end of the world, and yet Luke 21:32 records Jesus as saying it will happen in this generation.
If we read only Luke’s account of this day in Jesus life and his message, we will find it very confusing. We have to add to his narrative, that of Matthew and Luke.
Jesus was not an uninformed person living at the edge of an agricultural society unaware of the great events in the world. He saw the Roman occupation. Nazareth was but a small distance from Sapphoris a city as modern and cosmopolitan in its time as Indianapolis or Chicago in our time. There were rulers and administrators of Rome near at hand. Palestine was on a trade route between nations to the north and south, and the east. As the New Testament says of the events of Jesus life, “These things were not done in a corner.
Jesus could easily foresee a revolt, a Messianic uprising. He knew a self appointed political Savior, claiming to a new King David, a Messiah would foment a revolution ending in the utter destruction of Jerusalem. He said, the end of this world is coming in this generation. He described, nearly 40 years before it happened, the destruction of Jerusalem, a judgment of God the Father on the nation that had refused to accept His Messiah as King of Peace anointed by God for leadership of a kingdom different from that offered by the false Messiah’s who opposed Rome and brought devastation on the people.
As Jesus prophesied, not a stone was left on another in the Holy place.
You will notice in Luke 21:5 that Jesus was asked 2 questions by his followers after he told them that there will not be left one stone upon another. The two questions were, “When will these things be, and what will be the sign they are about to take place?” Now Luke was not an eye witness, he was a reporter a generation later who inquired carefully and wrote down what was given. But Matthew, who was presumably an apostle on the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus, heard questions that Luke apparently missed. Remember also, that both Matthew and Luke are evangelists, giving what they thought was relevant for the salvation of the people they were addressing. Matthew, who was a Jew, was concerned about the physical as well as the spiritual welfare of his people. He records Jesus sayings that would provide physical safety for the Jerusalem Christians. Luke, writing later to Gentile Christians in the Roman empire, had not that concern and shortened the narrative..
Matthew records these questions: When shall these things be? What shall be the Sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?
There was more than one question and Jesus gives answers to all of them. If we omit some of the questions and summarize the answers as Luke does, we will misunderstand.
To the question – when will these things be? When will Jerusalem be destroyed and not one stone in the temple wall be left atop another.. Jesus gave specific signs for these events but no specific date for the Last Day question.
In Mark 13:14 – Jesus spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem and gave a specific sign so that the Jewish Christians could flee to the mountains for safety. That bit of advice would be of no use if he were talking of the end of the world. So when he spoke of earthquakes, famine, troubles, wars and persecution of the faithful, that beginning of sorrows was prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Remembering Jesus’ words, Jewish Christians did escape by fleeing to Pella, a city to the north according to Eusebius a historian. In Samaria, a community of Jewish Christians still exist using the Gospel of Matthew in their liturgy and worship. These may be descendents of the Jewish Christians who remembered the words of Jesus given 40 years earlier. They left when they saw the Romans coming.
Think about it. The fall of a nation is the end of an age, an era in human history. When Rome fell, it was the end of the world, or the era for those people. When Jerusalem fell in 70 AD it was the end of an age, the end of the world for those who sacrificed animals in the worship of God and expected Messiah to set up an earthly kingdom and all the world would come to pay tribute.
The signs of the destruction of Jerusalem of which Jesus spoke in 30 or 33 AD were
Adversaries, betrayal by friends and relatives, nations in anguish, men fainting in terror,
false Messiahs (those who advocated war against Rome by the Jews), the Gospel would be preached to all nations (yes – even to the extent of St. Paul’s going to Rome and St. Thomas to India), the abomination that causes desolation would lay waste to Jerusalem. Matthew says when you see these things happening, when you see the gathering of the eagles around the carcass, then flee to the mountains (Matthew 24:28). Eagles were the flags of the Roman armies descending on Judea which was the carcass.
A Jewish historian, Josephus writes of the events referred to in our Gospels. He was not a Christian, in fact he was an employee of the Roman rulers. When Luke and the other Gospel writers refer to the great tribulation, consider what Josephus had to say concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In the Jewish Wars he said, “And now, rushing into the city, they slew whomsoever they found, without distinction, and burned the houses and all the people who had fled in them, , , , The whole city ran with blood. . . .He adds that in the siege of Jerusalem not fewer than eleven hundred thousand perished. That is 1 million 100 thousand! In the nearby provinces two hundred and fifty thousand Jews were slain making the total number of those killed in the Roman onslaught against the Jews one million three hundred and fifty thousand.
Josephus said: Not all were slain with the sword. Many were crucified. Many hundreds were first whipped, then tormented and finally crucified. The Roman soldiers nailed them to crosses until at length the multitude became so great that room was wanting for rosses and crosses for the bodies.
Josephus also records how the strongest of the young survivors were made slaves and sent as captives into various nations as Jesus had said would happen. As Jesus said, “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Matthew 24:22. The Roman general Titus was not able to obliterate the followers of Jesus who, being warned in advance by our Lord, fled from his path.
A second question the disciples : what will be the sign of your coming, The sign of his coming was interpreted by the author of the Didache, an early second century catechism that the sign was Jesus on the Cross, arms outstretched lifted above this troubled earth. This sign appeared everywhere in the Roman empire after the persecutions that erupted following the fall of Jersusalem. The Cross of Christ became the universal sign of the coming of the Son of Man.
As to the last day question, “when will the world end?” Jesus said (Mark 13:32) “ Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”
Then Jesus proceeded to tell of the Sign of His Coming and the Last Great Day of the Lord. Matthew 24:30 ff; Mark 13:24 ff “In the days following that distress the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give it slight, the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken;; at that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. . . .both Matthew and Mark record these saying of Jesus, and then says “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only (Mark adds not even the Son).
There are many days of the Lord in the history of our race, and in our own personal history. It is a day of the Lord when we are born, when we are baptized, when we come to know Jesus the Christ the Son of the living God and confess him. Every Sunday is the Lord’s day when we meet him as we gather at Eucharist. Every day that we encounter our Lord in prayer is a day of the Lord.
A saint in our times recently had a little day of the Lord when she received too much change back as a result of a transaction. She ignored the error at first, because it was only $5.00. Then, she thought of who she was and thought of the Lord. She returned to the merchant, confessed her error and made reparations. These days of penance are days of the Lord. We are told by St. James to confess our faults one to another, and pray one for another, that we may be healed. (James 5:16). Penance and absolution have fallen on hard times in all communions in this age. James ties health to confession and forgiveness of sins. The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his beams when we confess and ask for forgiveness. St. John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have no sin, we make Him a liar and his word is not in us.”
Any time we enter into covenant with another is a day of the Lord. Any time we break covenants with one another, or with our government, is a day of the Lord. Any time our government breaks covenant with its people, or a business breaks a covenant relationship with customers is a day of the Lord, for we are all under judgment.
There will be, as Malachi and Revelation both say, a day when the books are opened and there will be a final judging. We should, as Jesus advised, watch and pray.
Then Jesus said,” But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Matthew records the parables that describe how the Day of the Lord and the coming will be unexpected, like a thief in the night, like a bridegroom coming for his bride, like a landlord who traveled from a far country and then came back to his villa to demand an accounting of his stewards. Judgment day will divide the sheep from the goats and the King will say “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me. . . . In as much as you have done these things for the least of my brothers, you have done it for me.” Then the sheep and the goats are separated the evil to everlasting punishment and the righteous to life eternal.”
Luke’s account has a shortened version of Matthew and Mark’s account so that it is not clear that Jesus was answering several questions. The main thrust of his story is the same, “Be watchful. . .be prepared don’t be weighed down by the anxieties of life be on watch and pray.”
Pray that the vision of Malachi and Jesus will be fulfilled in this generation.
Pray that righteousness will be established in our nation and on the rest of the earth.
Pray that the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his beams for all the tormented, tested and sorrowing on this earth.
Pray that the Kingdom of Peace will come and God’s will be done; that a brotherhood of mankind will be established on earth.
Pray for the salvation of our enemies, lest God come again and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
Thank God that in His mercy Jesus came with the promise “Not a hair of your head will perish” as a result of your trials but “By your endurance (by your faithful patience) you will save your life.” “Pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)
Transition to offertory:
Pray brothers, that your sacrifice and mine may be acceptable to God the Heavenly Father. Lift up your heads, your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:31)
