WHEN WILL THESE THINGS
HAPPEN
MARK 13:1-8
I am not a great fan
of the national lottery. I tend to think that if the prime motivation was the
raising of money for good causes, there would be a better way to do it than the
weekly draws and endless scratch cards. Some friends of mine, knowing this
aversion, always buy me a lottery ticket on my birthday and stick it inside my
birthday card. Then I have to confess I do get quite excited. I actually sit
down and tune in to the live draw on Saturday night and as I wait for the “big
number balls to roll”, I daydream of what might happen if I do win that life changing
sum of money.
What would I actually
do if I suddenly had £8 million pounds.
What sort of person
would I become with such riches?
How would I live out the
Gospel if I ended up with more money than sense?
I dream of a future
and what might be coming to pass.
The disciples of Jesus
had invested heavily in their Lord and Master.
They had left
everything and followed Him and they began to sense that a new future was
beckoning.
Jesus speaks of a time
to come when everything is going to get shaken up.
Even the great
buildings of
The disciples want to
know when all this is going to take place
“Tell us” they cry
“when are all these things going to happen”
Their hope is that if
they stay close to Jesus maybe they can be “in the know” may be they can spared
from suffering in the great shake up.
What sort of future
will their investment in Jesus bring?
Jesus does not give
them the answer they’re looking for.
He does not give them
a time and a date.
He will not promise
that they will be immune from suffering in fact he advises them to prepare for
it.
What sort of God is
this – who sends His Son into the world and does not promise to His followers
an easy or predictable future?
The future Jesus
describes in our Gospel reading is one we seem to be living out in our day. The
world can seem a fearful and violent place to us and we are called to somehow
pit our faith in the midst of it all, rather than to see our faith as a
protective shield from the reality of life.
But whilst others
despair of the future, we hold on to the closing words of our reading “these
are but the birth pangs of a new age”.
There is something
about our God who brings healing through suffering, who brings unity out of
brokenness, who shines forth light amidst the deepest of darkness, and staked
in the centre of this conviction is the reality of the cross for there is the
heart of the matter – He brings new life out of actual death.
When will these things
happen?
What sort of future
are we in for as disciples of Christ.
Ours is not to know a
certain answer about date, time or experience.
But it is to know
this,that the love of God, shown in Jesus, shown at the cross and resolved at
the empty tomb will withstand any onslaught that future might hold.
For quite a few years
now, I’ve had my annual lottery ticket and I never get anywhere near a prize.
Never have I had more than one matching number and my daydreams of riches go up
in smoke.
To tell you the truth
I end up relieved for it means I can continue my existence in my usual ordinary
way, trying to be faithful, trying to keep my life in the stream of his grace
and realising that despite the uncertainty of the future, there is a wealth I
cling on to that far surpasses the lure of money.
Richer than gold is
the love of my Lord, Better than splendour and wealth.
That’s enough for me
and I pray for you too.
R 19.11.06