Tuesday 26 June 2012

Background

Each of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) include adescription of Jesus' dramatic teaching, shortly before his arrest,trial and crucifixion (Matthew24:32-35; Mark 13:28-31). A common theme is that ofjudgement and the need to be watchful, so that the day of the Lorddoes not catch us unprepared. Jewish readers would have recognisedthis as apocalyptic, a familiar form of literature that lookedtowards God's turning upside down of the world as we know it andthe dramatic fulfilment of God's kingdom. It often sounds like badnews, until we think of the good news it provided for those whowere the victims of the current way of the world and felt they hadnothing to lose.

By the time Luke wrote his Gospel (probably in the last 20 years ofthe first century AD) the great Jerusalem temple had been utterlydestroyed by the Roman forces reoccupying the city after the Jewishrebellion of AD69-70. So Luke feels totally justified in portrayingJesus as the prophet who foretells the destruction of the temple,the terrible suffering that will accompany it and the kingdom ofGod that will replace it. If that prophecy has come true, Lukeseems to suggest, we should take very seriously Jesus' words aboutfinal conflict and victory. Just as the sprouting of the fig treeis a sign that summer is on its way, so the conflicts and sufferingof the world are a sign of the imminence of the kingdom.

Passages like this seem a world away from the 'gentle Jesus' weoften prefer to portray. But this is a Jesus who confronts the grimreality of an often sinful and violent world and urges us not becomplacent about it. Instead, we are to be on constant alert, notsuccumbing to its twisted value systems, but keeping as close as wecan to the words and example that Jesus has given us.

To Ponder

Is the prospect of a dramatic shake-up of theworld as we know it good news or bad news for you? Why?

How do you react to the prophetic Jesus who warnsabout the destructive path the world is on?

What do you need to do if you are to be betterprepared for the kingdom of God?