Raise your heads & guard your hearts
Readings: Luke 21. 25-36 & 1 Thessalonians 3. 9-13
Are our hearts heavy? Are they weighted down with worries of wars and violence? Jesus challenges us in our Gospel today; guard your hearts so they aren’t weighed down by these things. How do we do that?
This part of Luke’s Gospel is sometimes referred to as ‘the little apocalypse’. We’re only catching the end of it, it started back in verse 5 of this chapter. But you can see why, even from this small part, it’s referred to as this. The themes and tone are very much in keeping with the apocalyptic tone of Revelation and the latter parts of Daniel.
And in this little apocalypse Jesus has two horizons in view, first he has in view events which will happen in just a few short decades when the Romans will lay siege to Jerusalem and destroy it, along with the Temple, hence Jesus’ words in our portion about this generation not passing away. But he also has in view the end of all things, the eschaton as it’s called, the end of the world and the completion of God’s plan.
And Jesus is shifting between these two horizons, and that may perhaps feel a bit frustrating, pick a time and stick with it. But he shifts between them because they’re part of the same sweep, the same movement. The end began when Jesus was born, as the writer to the Hebrews will remind us at Christmas ‘in these last days’ God has spoken to us by his Son. The life, death, resurrection and ascension are like the lightning of the end, now we await the thunderclap.
Ofcourse Jesus’ perspective shifts between the ultimate end and the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70AD they’re part of the same moment, a moment which has so far lasted 2000 years.
We’re living in the end, and you can tell that simply by looking around. Jesus talks of signs in the heavens, moon and sun and stars, he doesn’t tell us what signs though. A bit more concrete though is his talk of distress among the nations, earlier he speaks of wars and uprisings. He talks of the roaring of the sea, perhaps a reference to natural disasters, perhaps the powers in the heavens being shaken is another reference to this or something else. There’s this sense that everything is coming apart at the seams.
And ever since Jesus spoke these words there have been wars and uprisings, truly cataclysmic world wars and cold wars and nuclear threats. There’ve been natural disasters that have wiped out cities and people innumerable. People have attempted to interpret different signs in the heavens. These are all signs that we’re living in the end, that everything really is coming apart at the seams.
It may feel particularly bad now, with costs spiralling, wars increasing, the right to life being challenged at the heart of our government, that global pandemic we went through just a few years ago. It might feel like right now the seams are at bursting point, the end almost here. But then, we’ve been living in the end since Jesus’ birth. It’s nothing new. The end is now, it’s a present reality.
So how are we to live as the world ends? As all the signs point to the end, as the dry branches of the trees give us the first signs of spring, Jesus gives us a few pointers on how we are to live.
Firstly we’re to stand. In verse 28 he tells us that when we see these things beginning to take place we’re to stand up, raise our heads because our redemption is drawing near. What a call. Whilst some might cower in the corner and hope it all goes away, whilst some might flee away, we’re to stand up tall, raise our heads towards the heavens because things getting worse is a reminder of our coming hope. We’re to stand boldly, but not because of anything we’ve done, but because of Jesus, because of the one whose time is drawing near. Because he’s freed us, through his cross and resurrection we’ve been set free from sin and Satan and all that binds and entangles us. And now that we’re free we can stand tall, unbound, stand free, awaiting the fulness of our redemption. The end and the judgement is no longer a source of dread for us, it’s a source of hope. We know the one who is coming as our closest friend and wonderful Saviour.
And in standing tall as the world cowers we become visible, people will notice us. And as they do we should keep in mind Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians that God would ‘strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father’ when the end comes. And if we’re to be strengthened in holiness we’re to guard our hearts. That’s the second thing Jesus tells us to do in these end days, guard our hearts from two things, firstly wild living and drunkenness, and secondly worry.
Because as things get worse, or even if they get better, we can forget Paul’s prayer that we would be holy. We can go after pleasure instead. You only live once! So we’d best live life to the full, do as much as we can before we’re dead and buried. In some ways that’s our cultural moment. Do what you want, when you want, however you want, with whoever you want. It’s an attempt to throw off the shackles and enjoy life. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. It can be tempting. Things are going wrong? May as well make the best of it, get what we can from it before its all over. But it’s a perspective that doesn’t take the long view, it’s for the here and now. As Christians we’re called to take the long view, we know we’re at the end, and after the end will come a new beginning. We don’t have to do everything now, there’s an eternity to come.
Moreover lots of what we might want to do aren’t good for us anyway, will damage and hurt us and those around us. To do what we want with seeming carefree abandon is to find ourselves still shackled. Having been freed let’s not relock the chains around ourselves.
But on the flip side we can become preoccupied with worry. Jesus warns us about the worries of this life. Not letting ourselves be weighed down by them. And actually, all that pleasure and pursuing life as we want it with no care for anyone else, a lot of the time that’s actually an escape from the worries. A lot of the time that stuff is less about pleasure and more about escape, less about feeling alive and more about numbing the pain and the fear and the worry. And the worries are more insidious because they’re always there aren’t they, they can be an almost constant companion if we let them be. We worry about our life and finances and health, we worry about our friends and family and neighbours and colleagues, we worry about our world and people starving, suffering, dying, we worry about wars and disasters and the seams ripping.
And perhaps it seems right to worry, there’s a lot to worry about. We should certainly still care, I’m not suggesting we don’t care, don’t try to make the world a better place. There’s a difference between care and worry. Care causes us to look outwards, to act. Worry causes us to turn inwards and fret. We curl up and look within ourselves for the solutions, for the answers, and find none. But we’re called to stand and raise our heads.
When worries come we’re to look outside ourselves. How? Through prayer. That’s Jesus’ last call to us here. Keep alert and pray. In his letter to the Philippians Paul tells us what to do with anxiety, offer our worries to God in prayer. He’s far more able to handle them than we are. And in doing so we’re trusting him that he can handle it, that he does have control of it. In worrying we can be so inward looking we don’t notice what’s happening, notice our redemption drawing near. So busy looking down that we miss the Saviour coming with the clouds. Miss the signs of spring. Let our hearts not be weighed down with worry, let them be lifted up in hope and prayer.
My brothers and sisters as it feels like things only ever go from bad to worse the rest of the world sees it as a sign of just that, that everything is getting worse. But for us who know and love the Lord Jesus we know that it’s a sign that soon things will be perfect.
As we live between the lightning of Jesus’ first coming and the thunderclap of his second, we’re to stand up and lift up our heads, because our redemption is drawing near. Let the signs be a reminder not to distract ourselves with pleasure or loose ourselves in worry, but to live differently, as people of the coming Kingdom. Let the signs point you to the coming Saviour, and the redemption of all things. Watch and pray, placing your trust in him so that, as Paul says today, your hearts may be strengthened in all holiness, that you may be blameless before our God and Father on that final day when Jesus comes.
Amen.