Discerning the Times

“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

The Revised Common Lectionary sometimes has a very awkward passage selection. In this case, the passage begins in the middle of a discourse by Jesus. If one has not read the previous portion of the discourse, one might not understand this passage as one ought. Since this passage deals with the importance of spiritual discernment, it is important that we be properly informed. The lectionary passage from the previous week ends with Luke 12:40: “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Beginning with Luke 12:41, Jesus elaborates further. Jesus answers Peter that the parable he had just spoken was for them and not all people directly. He desires that they be wise and faithful stewards who will teach others in the LORD’s house to properly discern the truth of the Gospel. Jesus warns all who have been given authority in His house as stewards to be gainfully employed and watchful. Jesus is going to return and expects everything to be in order. the stewards who are drunken and mistreat His lesser servants will be severely punished when He returns. The return of Christ is central to the understanding of what Jesus is saying here. It is at this time that the faithful stewards will be rewarded and the faithless punished. Those who have been entrusted much shall suffer the greater punishment.

This morning’s text begins with the warning that Jesus had come to bring fire upon the earth. And Jesus declares that He wishes it were already kindled. This is a shocking statement considering that preaching emphasizes the love and long-suffering. But the Greek is very strong here and cannot be softened. Fire is often used in Scripture to denote God’s judgment. Jesus is more than ready to execute final judgment. We do proclaim that Jesus will being all things into judgment at the Last Day. But Jesus places this judgment at least in part to His own life on earth. It would be a mistake to not discern the ongoing judgment of Jesus Christ.

Jesus continues to shock us in this passage by referring to a baptism He needed to be baptised with. We know that Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist at the beginning of His ministry, so this reference to baptism must mean something else. John also mentioned that Jesus would baptize with fire. We think of this as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I think this is a true statement as far as it goes. If one looks at preaching in the Apostolic age, the message is “Repent or else!” As Paul says in Acts 17:30 to the Greeks on Mars Hill in Athens, God had winked at their ignorance. They were now being told the truth, and they needed to immediately repent, or else. Paul told them that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead made the last judgment certain. It is this Jesus who will judge all.

But here, Jesus seems to be talking about a third baptism. He was already filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. So this baptism refers to something else. The context indicates this baptism to be His suffering and dying on the cross. Jesus had endured much weariness in His earthly ministry. He know what lay ahead for Him which was to be rejected by the chief priests and elders followed by death from crucifixion. As hard as earthly life might be, virtually all of us would like to procrastinate crucifixion. But Jesus seemed eager to embrace it. This sacrifice was to save those who believed and would believe on Him. For these, He was eager to go to the cross to free them from the bondage to sin and death. But there is another side. No one would any longer be able to make excuse. Those would have to embrace the fullness of eternal judgment. There is grace to the believer, but the promise of wrath to those who do not believe.

This very hard passage gets even harder when Jesus now says that He had not come to bring peace on earth, but a sword. We think of the heavenly host at Jesus’ birth singing “Peace on Earth!” Does not Isaiah 9:7 call Jesus the “Prince of Peace.” What’s with the violence here? Perhaps we need to finish the heavenly hosts message. In the King James Version we read “Good will to men.” This seems to be a universal declaration of good will to all. However we must first realize that the word “hosts” properly means “armies”. The second is that the statement is better rendered “upon those whom His favor rests.” The offer might be of peace being made available to all, but it is only effective upon those who would come to believe. The promise of peace is universal, but also conditional as well.

Jesus now clarifies what He means by the sword. Those who follow Jesus will be treated in the same way He was treated. A disciple is not above his master. Those who would mistreat Jesus would mistreat them as well. Earthly families and associations would be strained and fractured. Christians would be ostracized by even their own families. The peace of family and work relationships would rupture even to violence. One should think that if a Jewish family cast a family member out as an “apostate” that they would hod a funeral for that person. then it was up to the father or eldest brother to make this symbolic death a reality. Some places still have honor killings today. This is not to say that God is in favor of breakups of earthly families. It is His will that all of them would repent and follow Him. But the reality has often proved otherwise. But in these cases, God gives the believer a new family to belong to. However, we cannot paper over how painful these family ruptures are. Jesus experienced rupture in His own earthly family. John 7 states that His own earthly brothers did not believe on Him. At one point in His ministry, they came with His mother Mary to take Him away as a madman. Be sure that Jesus in His earthly existence knew this pain. And He is able to comfort us in our pain as well. The good news is that James and Jude and perhaps others came later to believe on Him after the resurrection. May this be true for us as well. Don’t give up hope. But the best thing we can do is to remain firm to our convictions and not compromise.

Jesus now refers to the forecasting of the weather and being able to discern the face of the sky. It was commonly held that when clouds arose from the west, that is the Mediterranean Sea, that a shower was coming. But a wind blowing from the south meant hot weather in Palestine. This was a pretty good rule of thumb, but the failures of weather forecasters to predict the weather is proverbial. Even with all the satellites and forecasting computers, they still get it wrong too often.

But Jesus isn’t interested about forecasting the weather here. Even a dullard having read these verses can discern that. We need to discern what Jesus means by this comparison. What would it have meant to those who heard Jesus speak that day? What does it mean for us?

Jesus is speaking to more than His disciples. the text says He spoke this to the people. These people were Jews for the most part if not all. But this does not mean that they all held to the same ideas. there were Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and other sects of Judaism that may have been represented. There was a general expectancy that this was the time for the Messiah (or Messiah’s) to appear. the land was under Roman occupation. They looked to Scripture and to teachers of the Scripture to examine the Biblical prophesies to discern those times. In Matthew 2, the Jewish leaders were able to quote the prophet Micah who said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judaea to King Herod. Yet none of them followed the Gentile wise men to Bethlehem to see for themselves. The times were right for the Messiah. But too many of them failed to discern that the very Messiah was speaking to them. They were looking for political rather than spiritual emancipation. They were looking for the judgment to fall upon the Gentile enemies of Israel. The disciples also held to the political emancipation and had a hard time accepting what Jesus had told them about his upcoming rejection and death by crucifixion. They were alarmed when Jesus told them that His disciples were to take up their own crosses and follow Him.

When we look to ourselves and our own time, we see many Christians of many denominations looking for the signs of His return. An avalanche of books have been written about the return. some hold to a rapture, either before, during, or after the tribulation. There are others who just hold to the second time. And there are divisions over the millennium as well. I am not saying that these people do not have good intentions, but the vary fact that there is so much disagreement among people of good faith that we should take time to pause. We might want to note that the text talks about the signs of this time and not the signs of that time.

We should remember that the people of that time, that is the time of Jesus’ earthly sojourn, got some things right, But they got many things wrong also. They expected a Messiah, but who came to the manger to greet Him? The Bible says that the humble shepherds did, but they did not figure this out for themselves. They heard the voice of the angel summoning them to come. We don’t know how much later the wise men came to, but they were lead also. In other words, this event was revealed to them.

Jesus came. Some people might have gotten things more right than others. But the important thing to consider is not which teacher should get credit, but that Jesus came. When we think about today, we should not concentrate so much time forecasting the time of His return but that He shall return. Once we discern this, then we should also discern that the Lord will take care of the details of His return. This passage teaches us that we should be busy about the Lord’s work, doing what He has commanded us. We need to evangelize and baptize people from all over the world. We must teach them to observe whatsoever Jesus commanded. We need to keep focus on this mission, We need to remain expectant of the return of Jesus. We must not grow faint or weary. What Jesus told the people that day applies to us as well. We must treat our fellowservants with respect. We must yearn for the profit of the Kingdom and not ourselves. We must realize the sorrows of rejection, even when this opposition comes from our earthly families and neighbors. We must discern that the Bible does not promise us the best life in this world but to place our hope in the fullness of His Kingdom.

To give a couple of examples, Jesus said that one of the signs of his return was a comparison to the days of Noah where he noted that they ate and drank as well as married and giving in marriage (Luke 17:26). When in human history has this not been true? They were eating and drinking as well as marrying and giving in marriage back then as well. How does this inform us about the times of the Lord’s return? It seems to me that what Jesus is emphasizing is that business will be going on as usual when He returns, We need to discern, then, the suddenness of His return. He will come at a time we think not. (Luke 12:40)

Matthew 24:4-8 is also quoted as describing the last days. But verse 4 begins with a warning not to be deceived by fake news and fake christs. There will be wars and rumour of wars. There will be earthquakes in various places. there will be pandemics as well. Is the Ukrainian or possible conflict with China over Taiwan the beginning of World War 3, and if so, is this what Jesus is telling us here? Is the Coronavirus on of the pestilences of the last days? Or should we look elsewhere? The world has a long history of wars and rumors of war. there have been many devastating plagues as well as earthquakes. The theologians of those days wondered if this was the right time. It wasn’t, of course. Even well-meaning and reasonably informed theologians get the forecast wrong. Are some of the times Jesus talks about refer to the Jewish was with Rome of 66-70 AD in which Jerusalem was razed and the Temple burnt? I am not necessarily disagreeing entirely with today’s forecasters of the end of times. Someone might be right. But perhaps we should treat this prophecy the same way we did the previous passage in Luke. Things will continue as they always have been since the fall. There well may be a time where these things occur excessively. But it seems to me that the beast thing to do is to concentrate on what Jesus commanded us to do. Too many are living their lives beating their fellowservants and are spiritually drunken. they assume they can discern the time of the end and repent. Others think they will forego serving and believing on Jesus in their youth. I will know when I am about to die and make a deathbed confession. What if your forecast for the rest of your life is wrong and you die tonight? A serious and consistent Christian life considers how temporary life in this world can be. “Remember your creator in the days of your youth.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1)

We must use discernment in our own lives and in the Body of Christ, the Church to make sure our hearts and faith remains true. We must, as Peter admonishes, make our calling and election sure. Let the Lord find us busy at His work hen the time of our death or of His return comes. Our faith is based upon Jesus Christ and not upon a spiritual weather forecast. Spiritual weather forecasters get it wrong too often.

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