READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Exodus 32:1-20
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
St. Matthew 24:15-28
...grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who
is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth.
On this antepenultimate Sunday, our Lord speaks directly to
us saying,
“So when you see
the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the
holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains.”
After today, there are only two more Sundays until the end.
Antepenultimate. Jesus comes quickly.
This day we face The Judgement, as Scripture teaches in our
Gospel reading, as God intends we do, and why He included it in His Word. Not
to be repetitive, but this points us to the fact of a real, actual judgement.
If Jesus was not spared, you will not be spared. We apply this to life by
realizing this and receive our lives, whatever they may look like, with
thanksgiving.
So let us attempt to explain the Old Testament reading
through the eyes of the New.
Again, these seemingly cryptic words from God, in the
Gospel, bounce off our noggins and land anywhere but in our understanding.
“Abomination of desolation”? “Holy Place”? What do these words mean? There are
no specifics given such as time, date, or name. Jesus says that Daniel spoke of
it, but he didn’t explain it at all.
As best as we can come up with is that maybe the Holy Place
is the Temple in Jerusalem and the abomination is false idols for
worship?
That’s nice and all, but that sticks this event all the way
in the past, having nothing to do with us today. The temple is gone and so
there are no holy places for these idols to be set up. This is not what God
intends with His Word, ever, so there must be something we are missing.
Of course, the first interpretation is that of the Last Day.
That when we see things go belly up, we should not stick around and gawk. Get
your things and get out. But what are those things, especially in light of us
constantly believing we are in the last days?
The Golden Calf will guide us, here! Ha.
But make no mistake, the drinking of the Golden Calf was
part judgement, but all teaching from God, so we must heed the lesson as well.
Our difficulty starts when we turn to commentaries to explain the situation to
us, because all the commentaries stop at “the people had to drink to bear with
and atone for their own sin”. No mercy in those words.
Certainly, there is that lesson to learn. That God’s Law is
holy and righteous and He threatens to punish all who hate Him and break His
commandments. However, the Lord is merciful, not only giving us the Promised
Land, a place to flee, but also never leaving our side. So, Moses and Israel
were all thankful that the judgement was not the end of the story.
First, the Golden Calf was an idol, a false idol. The Lord
has told us that false idols “have no real existence” (1 Cor 8:4),
meaning that there is only one God here. False idols are created in and live in
the heart. This is why Jesus can say, “all who make them become like them,
so is everyone who has faith in them” (Ps 115:8).
Now what’s with the drinking? Is it some sort of petty,
add-on curse that God enacts because He’s pouting over His people choosing
other gods over Him? It seems a step too far, but there was the warning in
Numbers 5:24, “And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness
that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her
and cause bitter pain.”
The point here is that eating and drinking are religious
acts. Eating food sacrificed to idols is communing with them, agreeing with
them, following them (1 Cor 8:10). Jesus said that it is not what goes into a
man that makes him unclean, but what comes out. If you are eating with idols,
you confess their greatness, because their food does not change you; you change
you.
It is your sinful insides that not only create idols, but
sing their praises. The Golden Calf is just one, visible example of the sin
inside. Idols can be invisible, for they are simply those things which you
fear, love, and trust. The Israelites couldn’t trust in the God Who works
through His own means, they needed more.
But more was just what they thought they needed. It was a
lie. The Golden-Calf-water did not increase the curse, but revealed it. What
was already evil on the inside, was shone on the outside. If you are going to
play with false gods, you are going to end up like them. And in the final
judgement, that will be mouths, that do not speak; eyes, that do not see;
ears, that do not hear; noses, that do not smell; hands, that do not
feel; feet, that do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their throat (Ps
115:5-7).
Sound familiar? Jesus would always cry out, “he who has
ears to hear let him hear”, right? This means you were not made for sin and
death. You were not created to receive things that are not from God or God
Himself. Since you have received eyes, ears and all your members, your reason
and all your senses from Him, if you commune with something “not Him”, you undo
all of it.
Repent. So if by faith you have been made a temple of the
Holy Ghost, then you in your sin have stood the abomination in that holy place,
inside you. And if the abomination is inside, then to where are you going to
flee? Sin is a cancer, a stage 5 cancer. It has spread into every corner and
crevasse. You are not only dead in your sin, even as you sit there, but it
would be impossible to separate you from your sin without killing you.
The Temple is gone. There is no more “holy place” not just
to find comfort, but even to meet God. This is because our sin kicked Him out.
Sin crucifies the Lord of Creation. That is the true Abomination.
Dear Christians, the crucifix is also the Primary symbol of
the Church. And it is for the same reason, too. Just like the bronze serpent on
the pole, we need to look at what sin has conceived in our hearts and in the
world and repent. “…mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly
pain” (LSB 449) as we sing. Yet it is in that pain, in those wounds, that
Christ brings us healing and righteousness.
Jesus takes on your cancer. He absorbs it. It becomes His as
He continues to heal and forgive you. Yes forgive, because with the sickness
comes a spirit of darkness that lies and says “God’s not worth it”; “The
crucifixion is not worth it”. So your forgiveness also corrupts the Savior,
also causes a price to be paid in blood.
And the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus is His surgery
that removes the root. Jesus, being the Root of Jesse, uproots Original Sin,
and replants Himself. He plants His cross on top of sin, death, and the devil,
ridding His world of these things forever. His Body and Blood nourishes that
Tree of Life, that we may approach it and find that heavenly medicine
ourselves.
Because, how do you take care of your insides? How do you
fight cancer that you cannot see? You ingest. If meals eaten with your idols
cause your death, then a meal eaten with God causes life, as He said, “they
ate and drank and they saw God” (Ex 24:11).
Jesus is your chemo-therapy. He is a poison to your sin. It
is not a pleasant procedure to go through, when you must divorce yourself from
your sins. It is painful. It is the way of the cross. However, where the gold
of the Golden Calf condemned, the Gold of the Son of God (Job 22:25) gives life. That is,
in His Body and Blood there is forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
Jesus is ground into the dust of the tomb for you. He offers
more than just a powdered drink of bitterness and cursing. Though you look at
His crucifix and see your sins, the Crucified Savior does not condemn, but
places Himself in a body in order that His Body become your body; in order that
His Blood become your blood.
But you are not replaced. In the mystery that is Communion
with God, you retain “who you are” yet are conformed to His Image, just as the
elements of Communion retain their properties, bread and wine, body and blood,
at the same time. You are not replaced. You are saved.
In our daily lives, sin does the grinding, not us (Ps
18:42). Ground into the dust. But Jesus, “raises the poor from the dust and
lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the
princes of his people” (Ps 113:7-8). He looks for those in need of a
physician and applies the Balm of Gilead (Jer 8:22), His Word and Sacrament.
This cleanses you of your false idols. Ingesting the Body
and Blood of Jesus leaves no room for false worship. Flee to this. The Last Day
has come upon you and the Abomination is inside you. Where shall you flee? To
the Mountain of God; Christ: to the cross of God at this Altar. And there find
a pure and holy Lamb, free from all impurities, offering His comfort, peace,
and purity to you.
There is no refuge in this world, nowhere to run. But the
Holy Place has never left earth. He dwells among us forever. He tells us to
draw near, eat and drink, and thus see the Mountain that is Christ our Lord,
then to have our lowly bodies changed into His glorious Body (Phil 3:21).
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