Exodus 32:1-20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; St Matthew 24:15-28
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, in today’s Gospel lesson our dear Lord Jesus Christ foretells of the devastation and destruction of the city of Jerusalem and of the end of the whole world. St Luke gives this prediction more clearly and pointedly, item for item. St Matthew blends both together, the end of the Jewish kingdom and the end of the world. As a result, that which is already obscure, as all apocalyptic literature is, becomes even less simple and clear.
First century Jewish historian, Josephus, who was employed by the Roman state, recorded the gruesome and horrific details of the siege of Jerusalem. The Roman General Titus encircled the walled city and for seven months cut off all supplies in and all waste out. He would starve out the inhabitants of Holy City. In short order riots began. Horrible tortures were committed, too graphic to even retell, by wild bands of men in an effort to secure a mere loaf of bread. Parents snatched food away from their famished infant children. Men resorted to eating dung and hay. Bodily waste and corpses piled up in the streets. Those who tried to sneak out of the city at night made it as far as the Roman siege lines, only to be caught, tortured, impaled and lit on fire as street lamps.
When the Roman army finally entered the city, Josephus reports an encounter with one mother who in sheer madness smothered her infant child and roasted him, eating half. When the soldiers came to her home she welcomed them in and set the other half of her murdered child before them as food. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Finally, the army, having ransacked the Temple, later parading the Menorah and Table of the Bread of Presence in sacrilegious victory through the streets of Rome, the Holy Place was burned, the curtain to the Holy of Holies was ripped down and a pig, that unclean and abominable creature, was sacrificed upon the Altar. The Second Temple, begun by Ezra the scribe in 521 BC, a portico and colonnade added much later by Herod, was completely destroyed in AD 70, never to be rebuilt.
It is fitting that we are reminded of this account now at the end of the Church Year. For hearing of the destruction of the Temple and the prophecy concerning the end of the world causes us to consider well our own mortality.
Far from being morbid or cryptic, this is a pious Christian habit, in which we ought to engage each day. Every recitation of Luther’s Evening Prayer, every Sunday night when we pray Compline with the children, every chanting of the Nunc Dimittis, every Seventh Petition of the Our Father, every removal of clothing and reclining for sleep, is but a dress rehearsal for death.
We who walk in this valley of sorrow, surround on all sides by enemies, besieged by the devil and the world, lured and tempted by our own sinful flesh, commend ourselves, our bodies and souls and all things, into the keeping of the almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sends His holy angels to watch over us.
The first Christians lived in a constant state of readiness for the immanent return of the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. Heading His words here at the end of St Matthew’s Gospel, they expected His return within their lifetimes. They did not put it off, simply enjoying life to its fullest today, presuming upon repentance tomorrow. Such licentiousness on our parts is dangerous, dear Christians. We have become complacent and comfortable. Forgetful of our Lord’s warning, falling asleep on our watch.
This is why St Paul must write to the Christians in Thessalonica. They were gravely concerned for their loved ones who have fallen asleep in Christ. They have died before His return. What will happen to them now?
While the death of our loved ones certainly grieves us and we sorrow at the absence of their presence with us in this life, we tend not to be as concerned about their deaths occurring before the Last Judgment. We have lived this way for nearly 2,000 years.
But the Thessalonian Christians feared that their deceased loved ones would not inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. But notice what St Paul says, For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. Then, we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. The dead in Christ will rise first.
So precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, that those whose souls repose in paradise awaiting the resurrection of the body, will precede us who are still alive. They will enter into eternal life ahead of us! Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
For as devastating as it was for the first century inhabitants of Jerusalem during the Roman siege and utter destruction of their homeland, as horrific and terrifying the plagues which afflicted Egypt during the time of the Exodus and the drowning of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, these things are but a portend, a foreshadowing and warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. As St Paul admonishes the Corinthians, Let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall (1 Cor 10:12).
For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonder, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Certainly there is no end to the number of false prophets filling their pulpits and stages proclaiming false christs. We are inundated with preaching that claims great signs and wonders: explosive growth, fantastic testimonies, and amazingly relative performances. When they say to you, “Look, here is Christ,” do not believe it. For it is the barren wilderness of American Evangelicalism. Or they shout, “There is Christ,” do not believe it, for He is not in the inner chambers of your heart and emotions. These are put golden calves!
For behold, here is Christ, as apparent as lightening coming from the eternal east and shining as far as our temporal west. He is where He said He would be: in His Word, read and preached, in His Holy Sacraments for the forgiveness of your sins. Flee, then, dear Christians, in these gray and latter days, to the Mountain of the Lord, to Mount Zion, His Holy Hill.
Flee to His pulpit and altar. Not to the golden calves set up in view of His Tabernacle, but to the refuge and fortress of His Church, wherein He gives you the safety of a house and home and clothes you with the cloak of His own righteousness.
For here stands the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, towering o’er the wrecks of time. To the world in all its wisdom this appears as an abomination. And the unbelieving vultures will come and pick at the corpse of the Church it presumes is dead.
But St John did not say vultures, as our ESV has translated. Rather, eagles. Wherever the Body is, there the eagles will gather. Even as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint (Is 40:28-31).
You, beloved, are the eagles, soaring high above the death and destruction and ruin of this passing world, gathering about the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was dead, but behold is alive forevermore. Daily do you do as the Olsens are about to publicly profession again, “Intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed, to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death. And intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it” (LSB Agenda, p33).
Even death. Twice mentioned for you are ever watchful and vigilant for His coming and always mindful of your imminence of your own death. For we are living in the last days. Ever since the incarnation of the Son of God, the end is upon us. Nothing is the same since the Eternal Word became flesh and suffered death on our behalf. Against Him the wrath of God burned hot as He was put to death for under transgressions under the Law. He drank the bitter cup of woe and suffering, so that He may bestow upon you the cup of salvation. The old homebound and shut-ins are right: the world is going from bad to worse.
But you, beloved, are not caught unawares. See, I have told you beforehand. And for your sake those days will be cut short. Thus do you look for and hasten the Day of His coming. You pray, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.” And as often as you eat the Bread that is His Body and drink the Cup that is His Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins, life, and salvation, you proclaim His death-defying death and life until He comes. And you are eager to live as St John writes, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 Jn 5:3-5).
Your Father in heaven preserves His Word unto you, for the forgiveness of your sins and for a good conscience. He shall rescue you from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when your last hour comes, give you a blessed end and graciously take you from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven (SC III).
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, in today’s Gospel lesson our dear Lord Jesus Christ foretells of the devastation and destruction of the city of Jerusalem and of the end of the whole world. St Luke gives this prediction more clearly and pointedly, item for item. St Matthew blends both together, the end of the Jewish kingdom and the end of the world. As a result, that which is already obscure, as all apocalyptic literature is, becomes even less simple and clear.
First century Jewish historian, Josephus, who was employed by the Roman state, recorded the gruesome and horrific details of the siege of Jerusalem. The Roman General Titus encircled the walled city and for seven months cut off all supplies in and all waste out. He would starve out the inhabitants of Holy City. In short order riots began. Horrible tortures were committed, too graphic to even retell, by wild bands of men in an effort to secure a mere loaf of bread. Parents snatched food away from their famished infant children. Men resorted to eating dung and hay. Bodily waste and corpses piled up in the streets. Those who tried to sneak out of the city at night made it as far as the Roman siege lines, only to be caught, tortured, impaled and lit on fire as street lamps.
When the Roman army finally entered the city, Josephus reports an encounter with one mother who in sheer madness smothered her infant child and roasted him, eating half. When the soldiers came to her home she welcomed them in and set the other half of her murdered child before them as food. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Finally, the army, having ransacked the Temple, later parading the Menorah and Table of the Bread of Presence in sacrilegious victory through the streets of Rome, the Holy Place was burned, the curtain to the Holy of Holies was ripped down and a pig, that unclean and abominable creature, was sacrificed upon the Altar. The Second Temple, begun by Ezra the scribe in 521 BC, a portico and colonnade added much later by Herod, was completely destroyed in AD 70, never to be rebuilt.
It is fitting that we are reminded of this account now at the end of the Church Year. For hearing of the destruction of the Temple and the prophecy concerning the end of the world causes us to consider well our own mortality.
Far from being morbid or cryptic, this is a pious Christian habit, in which we ought to engage each day. Every recitation of Luther’s Evening Prayer, every Sunday night when we pray Compline with the children, every chanting of the Nunc Dimittis, every Seventh Petition of the Our Father, every removal of clothing and reclining for sleep, is but a dress rehearsal for death.
We who walk in this valley of sorrow, surround on all sides by enemies, besieged by the devil and the world, lured and tempted by our own sinful flesh, commend ourselves, our bodies and souls and all things, into the keeping of the almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sends His holy angels to watch over us.
The first Christians lived in a constant state of readiness for the immanent return of the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. Heading His words here at the end of St Matthew’s Gospel, they expected His return within their lifetimes. They did not put it off, simply enjoying life to its fullest today, presuming upon repentance tomorrow. Such licentiousness on our parts is dangerous, dear Christians. We have become complacent and comfortable. Forgetful of our Lord’s warning, falling asleep on our watch.
This is why St Paul must write to the Christians in Thessalonica. They were gravely concerned for their loved ones who have fallen asleep in Christ. They have died before His return. What will happen to them now?
While the death of our loved ones certainly grieves us and we sorrow at the absence of their presence with us in this life, we tend not to be as concerned about their deaths occurring before the Last Judgment. We have lived this way for nearly 2,000 years.
But the Thessalonian Christians feared that their deceased loved ones would not inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. But notice what St Paul says, For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. Then, we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. The dead in Christ will rise first.
So precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, that those whose souls repose in paradise awaiting the resurrection of the body, will precede us who are still alive. They will enter into eternal life ahead of us! Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
For as devastating as it was for the first century inhabitants of Jerusalem during the Roman siege and utter destruction of their homeland, as horrific and terrifying the plagues which afflicted Egypt during the time of the Exodus and the drowning of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, these things are but a portend, a foreshadowing and warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. As St Paul admonishes the Corinthians, Let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall (1 Cor 10:12).
For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonder, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Certainly there is no end to the number of false prophets filling their pulpits and stages proclaiming false christs. We are inundated with preaching that claims great signs and wonders: explosive growth, fantastic testimonies, and amazingly relative performances. When they say to you, “Look, here is Christ,” do not believe it. For it is the barren wilderness of American Evangelicalism. Or they shout, “There is Christ,” do not believe it, for He is not in the inner chambers of your heart and emotions. These are put golden calves!
For behold, here is Christ, as apparent as lightening coming from the eternal east and shining as far as our temporal west. He is where He said He would be: in His Word, read and preached, in His Holy Sacraments for the forgiveness of your sins. Flee, then, dear Christians, in these gray and latter days, to the Mountain of the Lord, to Mount Zion, His Holy Hill.
Flee to His pulpit and altar. Not to the golden calves set up in view of His Tabernacle, but to the refuge and fortress of His Church, wherein He gives you the safety of a house and home and clothes you with the cloak of His own righteousness.
For here stands the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, towering o’er the wrecks of time. To the world in all its wisdom this appears as an abomination. And the unbelieving vultures will come and pick at the corpse of the Church it presumes is dead.
But St John did not say vultures, as our ESV has translated. Rather, eagles. Wherever the Body is, there the eagles will gather. Even as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint (Is 40:28-31).
You, beloved, are the eagles, soaring high above the death and destruction and ruin of this passing world, gathering about the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was dead, but behold is alive forevermore. Daily do you do as the Olsens are about to publicly profession again, “Intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed, to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death. And intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it” (LSB Agenda, p33).
Even death. Twice mentioned for you are ever watchful and vigilant for His coming and always mindful of your imminence of your own death. For we are living in the last days. Ever since the incarnation of the Son of God, the end is upon us. Nothing is the same since the Eternal Word became flesh and suffered death on our behalf. Against Him the wrath of God burned hot as He was put to death for under transgressions under the Law. He drank the bitter cup of woe and suffering, so that He may bestow upon you the cup of salvation. The old homebound and shut-ins are right: the world is going from bad to worse.
But you, beloved, are not caught unawares. See, I have told you beforehand. And for your sake those days will be cut short. Thus do you look for and hasten the Day of His coming. You pray, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.” And as often as you eat the Bread that is His Body and drink the Cup that is His Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins, life, and salvation, you proclaim His death-defying death and life until He comes. And you are eager to live as St John writes, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 Jn 5:3-5).
Your Father in heaven preserves His Word unto you, for the forgiveness of your sins and for a good conscience. He shall rescue you from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when your last hour comes, give you a blessed end and graciously take you from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven (SC III).
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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