Good News or Bad?
Reading and Meditation
Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come to an hour when you do not expect him." (Luke 12:35-40)
A teacher tells her young students, "Class, I'm going down the hall to the school office for a few minutes. I don't expect to be away long. I'm sure there won't be trouble. I'm trusting you to work on your assignments while I'm gone."
Fifteen minutes pass, then 20, then 40. Suddenly the teacher returns. Dennis has just thrown an eraser at Carol, who is doing her math. Steven is standing on the teacher's desk making faces. The students carrying out the teacher's instructions are delighted at the teacher's return, but Dennis and Steven wish she hadn't come back at all.
Jesus is coming back! That stands as both a warning and a promise throughout the New Testament, as in today's reading from Luke 12. It's good news or bad, depending on who hears it.
In church we sing songs like "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus." When we partake of the Lord's Supper, we "proclaim the Lord's death till He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). On Sunday morning, the second coming of Christ sounds like great news. But during the rest of the week, are we as ready for His return?
Jesus is coming back! It may be soon. It will be sudden. Is that good news or bad? It's up to you - Haddon Robinson
When Jesus comes to reward His servants,
Whether it be noon or night,
Faithful to Him will He find us watching,
With our lamps all trimmed and bright? - Crosby
Whether it be noon or night,
Faithful to Him will He find us watching,
With our lamps all trimmed and bright? - Crosby
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. - Matthew 24:42
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. - Matthew 24:42
Resignation or abandonment?
Reading and Meditation
Christ's sacrifice once for all
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming - not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, all would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Therefore, when Christ came into the world he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.
Then I said, 'Here I am- it is written about me in the scroll- I have come to do your will, O God.' "
First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by the will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Today we continue meditating on the fact that when our Lord was crucified, His first words were not a protest but a prayer: 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing' (Luke 23:34). I find it interesting, indeed astonishing, that in the midst of such unutterable agony His thoughts should not focus on Himself but on His Father and on the spiritual needs of those who were crucifying Him. He was not self-centred but other-centred.
Depending on where we live in the world, we may or may not be called upon to die for our faith. But even if we do not suffer physical persecution and martyrdom, Jesus has made it plain that 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me' (Luke 9:23). Perhaps for you this cross is taking the form of rejection, misunderstanding, or even mental oppression. It is a far lesser cross than Jesus experienced, but it is painful, all the same. How are you responding? With self-pity or with love? It's not easy to love. I find it difficult at times to go on loving in the face of hurt and pain but, as I am sure you do, I long to be able to make every cross a cross of redemption and not of rebellion.
How can we do this? We must do what Jesus did and accept the fact that we should not just resign ourselves to the will of God, but welcome it. You see, resignation not a Christian grace, for beneath resignation rebellion festers, The mature Christian is not merely resigned to the will of God, acquiescent to it, or conformed to it, but is abandoned to it. Not only what God does, but what God allows wins our willing acceptance.
O God, help me never to forget that no matter what happens, You are my Father. And, as my Father, You are working all things to my good. Help me not just to resign myself to that fact but abandon myself to it. In Jesus' name. Amen.
