(Luke 21:5-19) – Judgement and Forgiveness

5 Some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the Temple and the memorial decorations on the walls. But Jesus said, 6 “The time is coming when all these things will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”
7 “Teacher,” they asked, “when will all this happen? What sign will show us that these things are about to take place?”
8 He replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and saying, ‘The time has come!’ But don’t believe them. 9 And when you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place first, but the end won’t follow immediately.” 10 Then he added, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven.
12 “But before all this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons, and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers. 13 But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me. 14 So don’t worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you, 15 for I will give you the right words and such wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to reply or refute you! 16 Even those closest to you—your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends—will betray you. They will even kill some of you. 17 And everyone will hate you because you are my followers.18 But not a hair of your head will perish! 19 By standing firm, you will win your souls

For this passage to be understood, the context needs to be appreciated. Jesus and his friends were walking along side the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was the heart of Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples were Jews and Jews came from far and near to worship God offering their sacrifices and prayers. The stones were so immense that neither mortar nor any other binding material was used between the stones. Their stability was attained by the great weight of the stones. The walls towered over Jerusalem, over 400 feet in one area. Inside the four walls was 45 acres of bedrock mountain shaved flat and during Jesus' day a quarter of a million people could fit comfortably within the structure. No contemporary sports structure comes close.

There is another context to this reading the context of time. This was the week of Jesus death. He was speaking out and what he was saying would soon lead to his death. He was telling people that he himself would take the place of the Temple as the focus of people’s worship. He told them that he would 'take from them a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh'. Jesus prophesied the temple would be given to new tenants: the Lord would give the vineyard and its tower to others  [Mark 12.9]. 

The Second Coming refers to the Christian belief in the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, which will mean the general resurrection of the dead, last judgment of the dead and the living and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth

We can feel uneasy when talking about the Second Coming and the End of the World because we are uncomfortable with the idea of judgement. We live in our own houses, follow our own lives and don’t like the idea of someone telling us what to do. The idea that we should be able to do whatever we want as long as we don’t hurt other people is the ethic of the well off and comfortable. The teaching in the Bible on the Second Coming makes it clear that we do not have this moral comfort zone against the need for us to make decisions. Each person will have to answer one question: how did you care for people in need?  Did you feed the hungry and provide shelter for the homeless?  Did you care for the sick and clothe the naked? (Matthew 25.31-46).   Those who cared for others were caring for the Lord himself, and those who refused to help had rejected Him.  They would face the fire of the Judgement.

Some things are clearly wrong. Street prostitution for children is the hidden hole buried under the weight of legislation about Child Protection. If something happens within a family there are a hundred ways for the Social Services to get involved. Sometimes, it is necessary to judge. Street prostitution for children is the hidden hole buried under the weight of legislation about Child Protection. If something happens within a family there are a hundred ways for the Social Services to get involved. By contrast, according to the children's charity Barnardos, child prostitutes are badly served by the law. Men who buy and sell children for sex are escaping without punishment because the law is out of date. Pimps are only prosecuted for living off immoral earnings and the clients are done as kerb crawlers, rather than as sex offenders. If no one were prepared to judge this situation then nothing would ever change.

Judgement is endemic within the human condition – this is judgement of ourselves and of others. The appeal of I am a celebrity Get me Out of Here is that the public stands in judgement on the contestants. The appeal of running a marathon is to test myself in extreme situations. When I worked as a curate in Luton I was out one evening having a meal in a Chinese Restaurant with a friend (my girlfriend of the time). There was a man having a close and intimate meal with a woman who was very clearly not his wife. A refusal to judge would have been either complacency or apathy. I could not ignore him as I had a relationship with both him and his wife (I arranged for the waiter to send over a bottle of wine).

Judgement needs control. As soon as you have a concept of judgement you need a concept of forgiveness (calling us home). The two go hand in hand together – the greater the judgement, the stronger the forgiveness. I am happy to talk about earthquakes and famines and plagues because it is the Christian belief that we have already seen "the end," that the world has come to a decisive crisis in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. In his death, the entire history of the universe has reached a turning point. At that moment, when he was nailed to a cross, the conflict between life and death, good and evil, God and Caesar was resolved in favour of God’s lordship over existence. A new Kingdom was established