This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, the first day in the church calendar year. The lectionary, which follows the calendar, invites us to ponder Luke 24:36-44. The English Standard Version supplies the verses with the heading “No One Knows That Day and Hour” to verses 36-51.
The reading is part of Jesus’ last sermon as reported in chapters 24 and 25 of the Gospel according to Matthew.
The sermon, if we may call it that, begins with Jesus telling his disciples that terrible things will happen in Jerusalem and in the world, and then many other things will happen, and then the world as we know it will end.
But it’s not just that the world as we know it will end. It’s also that it will end at the same time as the return of Jesus – what we call the second coming or the second advent. And the second advent will result in punishment for those who do not live according to God’s will.
Jesus says we may be sure of four things. One, everyone will be affected by the ending. Two, the ending will be a time of separation of good people from bad people. Three, no one will be able to predict when it will happen. Four, everyone must be ready for the surprise.
After the service last Sunday, some of our congregation stayed back in our worship hall to decorate it for Christmas. It was a fun time of working together to create a joyful, festive atmosphere for December: a month of anticipation of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the first advent.
Joyful. So, why does the first gospel reading in the church calendar, in the build-up to Christmas, begin with judgment? Why does it speak of most of Noah’s generation being swept away by a flood because they chose not to enter the ark which Noah built? How can that be joyful?
The answer lies in the reason for the first advent, the reason for the first coming of Jesus.
“Jesus” is the name God commanded Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, to name the child. It’s derived from the Hebrew word “Yehoshua.” It means “God saves.”
Saves from what?
Saves from sin. Saves from the consequences of sin, of wrongdoing. Saves from the consequences both in this life and into the next life.
What do I mean by that?
By consequences of sin “in this life,” I mean things like hunger and homelessness, disease, blindness, deafness, imprisonment, torture, and oppression.[1]
By consequences of sin “into the next life,” I mean the quality of the lives we will live after we die.
The Day of Judgment is an unpopular teaching,[2] but the advent of Jesus, the adoption by the Son of God of the body and limitations of a human, growing in the womb of a teenage girl, living in a community of marginalized, oppressed people, without returning “an eye for an eye,” but instead loving his enemies, and then being crucified, killed, like a criminal, makes no sense if there’s no Day of Judgement.
Matthew records three sayings in which Jesus uses the word “eternal.”
In Matthew 18:8, Jesus says, “… if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.”
In Matthew 19:29, Jesus says “… everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” [We must note that Jesus said this in response to the rich young ruler who asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”]
In Matthew 25:46, Jesus says, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
In fact, the word “eternal” is used 45 times in the New Testament, and two-thirds of these are in the gospels, the stories about Jesus. As I’ve said in previous columns, John is the most theological, the most meditative of the Evangelists. John uses the word “eternal” 18 times.
The most well-known, ancient, and still-used summary statements of the Christian faith are The Apostles’ Creed and The Nicene Creed.
The Apostles’ Creed, which dates from about 215 AD, says Jesus “will come to judge the living and the dead,” and ends by saying that we believe in “life everlasting.”
The Nicene Creed, which dates from about 325 AD, says, Jesus “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,” and ends by saying that we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
Advent begins with the end because that’s the reason Jesus gave for why he came.
Peace be with you.
[1] Jesus spoke of this salvation in what we call The Nazareth Manifesto, in Luke 4:18-19.
[2] Teaching about death is also unpopular. Yet, one of the best-selling management books of all time, “Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” proposes “Begin with the End in Mind” as Habit 2 and asks us to imagine we’re at our own funerals, listening to people speaking about us. (Habit 1 is “Be Proactive,” which means take responsibility for your own life.)
To learn more about Rama, click here.
Pingback: Preparing the Way: Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent – Bangsar Lutheran Church