Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Savior. (Titus 1:4)
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying:
And, in this one verse, we can find a little bit of understanding regarding the Last Day. For when we die, we do not disappear into the dew of the universe, but we fall asleep in Christ. And just like when we sleep and are woken up, so too will we close our eyes on this sinful world for the last time and awaken at Christ’s side forever. That is how sleep works and that is how waking works. We should expect our own death and resurrection, in Christ, to work no differently than His.
So when we look at Lazarus and the rich man, through the
lens of the Last Day, we see that immediate jump from time on earth to
eternity. Now, you may argue that Jesus spoke that way for teaching purposes
and skipped that time in-between to get to the point faster. And maybe so, but
St. Paul describes things happening in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet, in 1 Corinthians 15 (v. 52).
And we don’t even have to go to St. Paul for an in-depth
take on the Last Day. Jesus has already told us, on Ascension Day, that He will
return in the same way we saw Him go (Acts 1:11). Meaning, His Return will not
be secret neither will there be a pre-game return. One and done, says the Word.
But in order to understand, we’ll try to find out why year
after year there are calculations about the day of the Lord returning. First of
all, we need to be gracious and recognize the zeal of these people. That the
Word is so important to them that they will turn to it in every need. Do not
quench that smoldering wick!
However, you only need a few verses in Daniel, a few verses
in 1 Thessalonians, and some verse in Revelation and you have all that these
false teachers use to find the End. There’s more to the Bible than that, boys.
In my understanding, there are only a few verses used as the
foundation to begin calculations. Those are the ones having to do with numbers.
The chief of which is 2 Peter 3:8, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day”. This allegedly gives us the cypher
or the key to begin moving forward with the maths, because everything else the
Lord gives us are words.
Words that only describe things like satan’s imprisonment,
Jesus’s reign, and time times time and a half. These are not numbers, but
descriptions of things. So with the super, secret, cypher we can then decode
all this and come up with names, faces, and times. Because we want to know.
Repent. Eve wanted to “know” and you know what happened to
her! It is part of our godly nature to be curious and question and discover. It
is part of our sinful nature to want to know just like God knows and to fear,
love, and trust that knowledge, when we gain it, instead. God warned us. This
is all part of Romans 1, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (v. 28).
So let’s discover and really listen to what God has to say.
First, “satan’s little season”, from Revelation 20. The 7 years of tribulation
will come after Jesus’s 1000 year reign, allegedly, which is a bum deal already
that Jesus’s reign can’t stop this 7 years from happening, but…
Anyways, what happens in this 7 years?
Jesus says the devil will deceive the nations to make war
and to attack the Saints, His Church. It also talks about fire descending from
heaven to prevent it.
Well, we have seen fire from heaven a few times already: Sodom and Gomorrah, the pillar of fire in the desert, Elijah against the false prophets, Jesus under the fire of God’s wrath on the cross. This means, something more is going on here than literal future events.
Likewise, when we look at the 1000 year reign of Jesus
prophesied, what happens there? Jesus defeats the devil so that he cannot
deceive the nations, He raises some to a First Resurrection to rule with Him,
and gives power to resist the Second Death.
Well, in Christ’s Word and Sacrament, there is no deception from the devil. In the gift of faith, we are raised from the death of our sins to stand before God in righteousness, daily. This gift of faith then will mark us as “one redeemed by Christ”, giving eternal life, which naturally, or supernaturally, resists the Second Death, that is life in hell, forever.
The danger to our faith is that we begin to look for these
things more than we look for Christ. The danger to us is that we begin to trust
that, if we can just figure out who what where when how and why, then we will
be the ones to come out on top. We lose faith and trust in God and His work
accomplished for us, finding, instead, an inept God Who cannot complete His
victory without our aid and consent.
These things are already taking place. The devil is already
deceiving everyone. There is already devastating war. There is already turmoil
and tribulation, even in the churches.
And there is already victory.
Christ is risen from the dead. It is finished. These are the
signs of victory, when God is reconciled to us and forgives our sins through
His only begotten Son. The reign of Christ is the reign of His Gospel, the free
forgiveness of sins. Right now. We call those 1000 years the Time of the
Church, when we can daily find redemption and salvation for all in His church
on earth, no matter how many years it takes.
Verse 17 from our Epistle reading makes more sense when that
1000 years is not a literal 1000 years. It says, “because as He is so also
are we in this world”. This means two things, first “as He is”, as in as
Jesus is in His resurrected state, glorified and holy, we are also, by His
Word. “You are a holy people”, He calls us. Second, we are in this holy
state in this world, WITH HIM. He has not left or gone away.
Though Christ has ascended, He has not left. Though He has
given us His Word, He has not encoded it. Though He has told us the mysteries
of heaven, He lays them all bare to us, because the mystery of heaven is not
our holy lives, but the source of that holy life: His Crucifixion.
You want to ponder the end of the world? Ponder instead the
darkening of the sun and the bloodying of the moon at the crucifixion of
Christ. You want to find out who is the lying anti-christ and who are his
cohorts? Meditate on the forgiveness of sins found in the Blood of Christ. You
want to uncover the sinister plot of Armageddon? Commune with your God.
All else is distraction. You remember why St. Peter began to
sink in the water, when attempting to walk to Jesus on the water right? He took
His eyes off Jesus. He focused on the wind and the waves, in other words, he
began to trust more in the death that could be dealt to him by earthly things
and people, rather than the eternal life dealt to him by Jesus.
He began to doubt the Church Christ had won, purchased, and
purified and instead believed that there is no way something like a measly
Church could withstand what the world can do. He began to look for peace and
comfort in the deadly waves that drown the foe, and soon him, instead of
trusting his baptism.
Peace and comfort. Didn’t Jesus say He came to bring those
things and to give those things? This is why talk about the End Times in a
fearful, uncertain way should immediately raise red flags for you. Those things
only bring fear and discomfort, but that is how they sell their books!
I’m not saying that all things in this life should be comfy,
but that when we speak of the things that God has in store for us and the
things that He gives to us, even today, those things should be about peace. “I
go to prepare a place for you” should not be a far away thing, but a close,
intimate promise.
We return to our Gospel reading. If we are talking about the
end then it should be in the terms that Abraham uses. Mainly, that Lazarus is
now comforted. He had it rough, even nigh unbearable, but not now. Now that he
has fallen asleep and has been awakened to his Lord’s favor, he is in paradise.
No more bad things, no more sores, no more dogs.
Lazarus’s table is full of rich foods and aged wine. He has
no thoughts of the past. He remembers none of his torments. The twilight of his
sins has turned into the morning of eternal Easter. Through the merits of
Christ, Lazarus has become part of Abraham’s inheritance.
This is what true End Times predictions are for. For being
comforted and finding peace in Word and Sacrament. The very things Christ gave
to us to prove to us that we are His and that on the Last Day, we will be
raised and given eternal life with all believers in Christ.
The Last Day is a Promise, not a threat. God does not need
to hold the Last Day over our heads and say, “better watch out, better not cry”
or you’ll be left out, high and dry. There is no fear in love, our Epistle
said. Why? Because our God is love and out of His own love He sent His Son. And
out of that Love, His Son suffered and died for you. And out of that love, your
seat at His Feast of Victory is secured.
In Christ, the Last Day, the day of dread and woe, has
already passed. It has passed over you and unleashed God’s fury upon the Son.
With the Blood sprinkled upon your forehead and flowing through you, you are
Passed over from judgement and death, to new life in Christ between which such
a great chasm is fixed, that you will not be able to go back.
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying:
“The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's
side. The rich man also died and was buried”
And, in this one verse, we can find a little bit of understanding regarding the Last Day. For when we die, we do not disappear into the dew of the universe, but we fall asleep in Christ. And just like when we sleep and are woken up, so too will we close our eyes on this sinful world for the last time and awaken at Christ’s side forever. That is how sleep works and that is how waking works. We should expect our own death and resurrection, in Christ, to work no differently than His.
Well, we have seen fire from heaven a few times already: Sodom and Gomorrah, the pillar of fire in the desert, Elijah against the false prophets, Jesus under the fire of God’s wrath on the cross. This means, something more is going on here than literal future events.
Well, in Christ’s Word and Sacrament, there is no deception from the devil. In the gift of faith, we are raised from the death of our sins to stand before God in righteousness, daily. This gift of faith then will mark us as “one redeemed by Christ”, giving eternal life, which naturally, or supernaturally, resists the Second Death, that is life in hell, forever.
And there is already victory.
