The End and the Coming
The season of Advent which prepares us for the celebration of the birth of Christ begins by putting this coming (Advent) in the context of the end (Eschaton). And so the place we begin our year with is from the end of Mark, not the beginning. It is a passage from the last instructions and teachings Jesus gave his disciples before he was arrested, tried and executed. It is a passage which reminds them, before they have to face the confusion and chaos of the crucifixion, that this world is not fixed yet. It is a terrible and fearful place in which to try to be faithful to God's way and is apt to be dangerous. Even when it is not dangerous, it may be deceitful. The peace which the world gives may rob a person of character and meaning. May cheat a person of his or her calling. So be watchful. Don't take your cues from the average, the earthly norm, what everyone else says goes. Look out! This world is passing away and with it all that is not part of God's eternal purpose.
Jesus tries to set into perspective the horror that they are about to see. Beyond the tragedy of seeing their Lord beaten and hanged, he lays out the vision that he will one day come as the king of king and Lord of Lords, the judge and not the judged, the victor and not the victim, in power and not in weakness.
We need to have this context in mind as we try to understand the meaning of Christmas and the world in which we try to be disciples. Jesus' birth did not fix all that is wrong with the world. Christ is still found with the victims of injustice and hunger and terrible persecution. He said we are blessed even as we mourn, as we face persecution. He said in this world you will have trouble. These are predictions that are fulfilled time and again.
Many Jews could have believed Jesus was the Messiah if his coming had only fixed all that is wrong with the world. That is what they were expecting. And it has not happened yet.
But Jesus talks of his coming again in power and the end. Things will not be set straight until the end of time. The wheat and the tares will continue to grow up together until the harvest, when God will separate what is good and bad. Only then will all the world be able to recognize that Jesus is the Christ. For the present this truth is ambiguous: The infant wrapped in rags, the Savior not saved from death.
It is entirely apt for us to use Isaiah's words: "Why don't you rend the heavens and come down."
Jesus is up on the mount of Olives with the closest four disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, John, and they are looking over at the beautiful walls of Jerusalem and the new temple. Jesus tells them this will all disappear. This symbol of the Jewish nation and the Jewish faith will be toppled over and scattered so that 2000 years later all that is left is a wailing wall and subterranean ruins.
They ask Jesus when. He goes on to talk about more than just the ruin of their little corner of the world. He talks about constellations coming apart. Darkness swallowing the stars and even the sun flickering and the moon fading out. He tells them this to say when all the world is coming apart, don't despair. For the Son of Man will come in power and great glory.
No matter how dark the world gets, the morning will come when the Lord who is in charge of history will appear and finish what he began.
Our part of the world is growing darker now as December 21 approaches. Each Sunday there will be a little less light outside, but inside each Sunday another candle will be lit. It is our way of remembering that just because everything around us may be falling apart, the hope when hold of the coming of the Lord is up to it. His promise is sure.
He did not say when he will come, but he specifically said that the darkness is not an argument against his coming.
By the time John Mark set his pen to paper to write this gospel, Peter had most likely being martyred and Paul as well. The church had been decimated in Rome by Nero. And it is quite possible that the city of Jerusalem has been destroyed in fulfillment of Jesus' warning. Things had gotten messy and there were false prophets and divisions in the church. Mark reminds them of what Jesus said that when it seems like the end of things, remember the coming of the Lord. The end of all that there is does not empty the promise of the coming of the Lord.
There are several ways to act on this promise. You can try to predict the exact time of the coming. Hal Lindsey thought it would be by the end of the 80's. He was wrong. And his attempt was misguided. Jesus said that even he did not know when God would declare the end to arrive.
There is another way to wait. Luther was asked what he would do if he thought the Lord would come tomorrow and he said, "I'd go ahead and plant my tree today." Be about the things that you would normally be doing as a good servant of the Lord. Don't leave your post.
There is another way to understand the end and that is to recognize that there is not just one end. Jesus talked about the end of Jerusalem. That happened in 70 AD, almost 40 years after he predicted it. But he also talked of cosmic cataclysm. Jesus talked about more than one end. But he spoke in both contexts of watching for the coming of the Lord. To be prepared in the darkest moments to see the power and the glory of God whatever kind of end is upon us, the final one or a more personal and immediate one.
Is not this so? When the doctor does not give a promising report. When the child dies before we do. When we lose what we worked so hard to achieve. When in short the end of our world comes, "look up," Jesus says.
Our job is through the darkest hour to expect the presence and power of God.
And Mark knew yet another end was looming.
For Jesus was telling them to watch and wait with him during the hours that were upon them as he would be taken from them and led to death. And they did not, They slept during the midnight hour. Peter denied at the cock's crow. They had left the scene of the cross at the midday. And they were not there when the stone was rolled away. The Lord came to them in the suffering of the cross and in great power and glory at the resurrection, but they were not waiting.
You do not know when the end will come, but as we light this first advent candle we say that the darkness can not put out the light, the night will not postpone the morning, the end will not prevent the coming.
AMEN
