Thursday, November 24, 2022 - If the end were to come today would you be able to hold your heal high fearlessly? If No, what will you do about it today?

To read the texts click on the texts: Rev 18:1-2,21-23; 19:1-3,9; Lk 21:20-28

The text of today, continues the Eschatological Discourse, but speaks now of the destruction of Jerusalem and other cosmological signs which announce the coming of the Son of Man. Josephus the Jewish historian recorded the horrors of the Jewish war, which lasted from April until August of the year 70 C.E. It was a terrible for all the inhabitants and many were killed during it. The Romans razed the whole city to the ground. Once this happens and the other signs have come to pass signalling the end that is at hand, the Son of Man will appear in a cloud, with great power and glory. When this happens others might faint from fear, but the disciples are asked to hold their heads up high, because their salvation has indeed come.

Jesus now counsels his followers about “what is coming upon the world,” admitting that cosmic signs will attend it, signs in the sun, moon, stars, and in the roaring and surging sea. They will cause distress among people of all nations. Fear and foreboding will snatch the breath away from people, as the forces of the heavens are shaken loose. All of this will be a sign of the coming of the Son of Man on a cloud with power and great glory. He will bring deliverance to Christian disciples who will have to learn to “shape up” and hold their heads high in joyful expectation. For the judgment passed on Jerusalem merely presages a judgment of greater dimension and import. As Jerusalem was faced with a crisis when Jesus appeared to teach there, so will the world be faced when he comes as the Son of Man. In contrast to the judgment to be passed on the world, Christian disciples will then realize that their deliverance is near.