Yes, brothers and sisters are still cleaving to the promise of Jesus Christ, even when the world does its worst.
In Spite of the Carnage
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.
“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
~ the Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 21, verses 5 to 19, from The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. (Revised Common Lectionary, Proper 28, 13 November 2016.)
For reasons of justice (see Luke 20:45-21:4), the temple in Jerusalem was coming down. In A.D. 70, a few decades after Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the temple was destroyed by the Roman general Titus and his army. Those living in Jerusalem had to flee the conflagration of Roman destruction, resulting in another exilic dispersion of Judeans from their beloved city. The temple has not been reconstructed since then.
The call for a “sign” of all this destruction and dispersion leads Jesus into a vague but troubling series of predictions about the environment of the faithful. These descriptions could pertain to one location or another on earth at just about any time between Jesus’ day and our own—the Diocletian persecution in the Roman era, the Inquisition and Crusades of the western medieval era, or the experience of the Church in present-day Sudan or places in India.
When we listen to Jesus’ words here in the context of the gospels and the New Testament, we hear a common chord struck: All will not be candy and roses for the faithful. The world will be full of tribulation, and conscious endurance will be the order of every day.
During my brief term as a hospital chaplain, I remember a nurse approaching me for a conversation. She was from India, and since coming to the United States had kept in contact with her mother congregation, a Christian church in one of the many areas of India where disciples of Christ are treated with suspicion and violence. She told me the story of her pastor there, who had spent three years in jail for his faith. He had been questioned, deprived, and tortured in an effort to get him to deny his faith and step into the religious party line of that society. At length, his sufferings resulted in his death.
I noted as I listened that the nurse telling me the story did not ask for pity. She was not telling me a “sob story,” certainly not as a prelude for financial or material support of any kind. The thing she wanted me to know, to which her entire story led up, was that the pastor “never gave up faith in Jesus Christ.” She praised the Lord for his stalwart adherence to the name of Christ. This was the crescendo of her narrative, meant to be an encouragement to me: Yes, brothers and sisters are still cleaving to the promise of Jesus Christ, even when the world does its worst.
If you are in a place of suffering for faith—being bullied at school, shamed at work, or mocked among friends, as often happens in present-day America—take heart. You stand with a great cloud of witnesses whose peace, love, and persistent proclamation will be vindicated in the end. If you are not presently suffering for the faith—as many of us in present-day America are not—then use your freedom to pray for those who are persecuted. You may avail yourself of a resource like Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution.com) to aid in prayer and learn more. Together we may confess and pray that as for our eternal lives, “not one hair on our heads will be lost.”
Ancient of Days and Possessor of History, embolden us with your Spirit. So strengthen our souls that we readily pray every day for those persecuted. So brighten our lips that we speak persistently about your love in our lives. So mesmerize our hearts with a vision of heaven that we stride every day closer to your brilliance. We ask it in the name of the one who endured even death so that we may have life: Jesus Christ!
~ emrys tyler