Jesus’s Message for Turbulent Times

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with . . . the worries of this life” — Luke 21:33–34

Our passage from Luke’s Gospel reverberates with foreboding. Jesus’s disciples, hoping for a politicized Messiah who will overthrow the power of Rome, wonder when Jesus might bring about what he has been calling “the kingdom of God” — an upending of the status quo. Anticipating that he will triumph over the evil powers of empire, the disciples ask how they will know the moment is near.

Jesus is direct. “For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’” Jesus says, but the disciples should “not follow them.” Furthermore, he tells them, “When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.” In such a time, “People will faint from fear . . . for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory.”

For his eager disciples, such a proclamation was harrowing, hopeful, and paradoxical. On the one hand, Jesus had warned them that, in the times to come, suffering was inevitable. Before these cosmic events, he tells them, the powers that be will “seize you and persecute you. They will . . . put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.” And while the disciples certainly believed that the future meant a righteous reckoning — a moment when those who had been flouting power over the weak would meet their comeuppance — Jesus was quick to remind them that their personal call would be one of servanthood rather than earthly glory.

God’s word for us is eternal — the pinprick of light before and beyond the coming storm.”

On the other hand, Jesus admonished his disciples to resist fear by staying alert — living their lives in such a way that they might be found faithful to God’s purposes when the time came. Despite the scary portents ahead, they should remain diligent, “standing guard” in their faith despite their external circumstances. In this sense, staying alert was, and is, a call to accept a life of self-sacrifice modeled by Jesus. Care for the lowly and disenfranchised, the refugees and strangers, the sick and the sorrowful was at the heart of his ministry.

While justice will eventually come, Jesus reiterates that his way — the way of Christ — leads us through brokenness. The external turmoil of world events might swirl in all directions, but Jesus’s message stays the same: the call of a costly and radical compassion at odds with the greedy, egotistical powers of Caesar. The only way beyond the chaos of political and militaristic powers is through the way of the cross — a dying to self that looks, temporarily, like defeat. 

This way, and the balance of fearlessness and sober suffering it requires, remains a challenge for us today. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “There are some who still find the cross a stumbling block, and others consider it foolishness, but I am more convinced than ever before that it is the power of God unto social and individual salvation. . . . The suffering and agonizing moments through which I have passed over the last few years have also drawn me closer to God.” In a time of political turmoil in America, Dr. King affirmed that God draws near to us when we stay alert through tribulation.

“Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus reassures, “but my words will not pass away. Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation . . . and the worries of this life.” Staying alert is no simple balancing act. And yet God is with us. The world might cower in the face of what is to come, but Christians need not despair. God’s word for us is eternal — the pinprick of light before and beyond the coming storm. When we keep our eyes on that light, resting in the promises of God’s kingdom, we see beyond the darkness, guarding a future not fully known to us, and yet already held by God.

Read all of Sunday’s scriptures

Step Into the Story

Here are some ways to think about how Jesus’s call to stay alert.

Social Justice

In his famous essay “Pilgrimage to Non-Violence,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks of the power of non-violence to enact political change, and what it costs us: “The choice today is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”

Visual Art

In French painter James Tissot’s series on The Life of Christ, he aptly considers the moment when Jesus is taken by the devil to the top of the temple and tempted with power. When Jesus rejects the devil’s taunts, he does so to show that the power he wields is not of this earth. Instead of politicized power, Jesus comes as a servant to all and rejects egotistical dominion.

Poetry

Oscar Wilde was once deeply moved by hearing the Dies Irae, or Day of Wrath, a medieval Latin hymn about God’s righteous judgement coming to earth, whereupon he wrote these famous lines: Teach me more clearly of Thy life and love / Than terrors of red flame and thundering.

Music

The Choir at Notre Dame performs the Dies Irae as part of Fauré’s tempestuous Requiem.

Scripture Interpretation

The folks over at The Bible Project help us understand apocalyptic literature in the Bible, especially passages like those in this week’s Gospel reading.

Summerlee Staten is the executive director for Faith Formation and Education at Trinity Church.