ALIVE: Chapter 169, War and Peace

More than a thousand years after the Pharisees targeted Jesus for destruction as described in the scriptures he was reading, the wise teacher had a good reason to weep. Not only because Jesus was being falsely accused, or because of the gross irony that the Healer would be murdered, and not only because of the political corruption that still haunts this world, but because a powerful sense of profound enmity squirreled its way into the core of him where the teacher by surprise became aware of Jesus abiding there. The teacher had received holy communion the day before. He knew that the body and blood of Christ saturated his own body and soul. Because of that revelation the wise teacher felt himself to actually be a branch of the vine, as Jesus had said he was. And so the epic tragedy of the end of Jesus’ human life melted the shield that separated the teacher’s own life story, from Jesus Christ’s life. And yet, at the same time, the wise teacher was feeling an intense sense of contrition. His awareness of unity with Christ was met with equally intense awareness of his own sinful humanity. It was like two massive trains colliding on the same track. All that was enough for his weeping to grow into wailing.

The wise teacher gradually composed himself and read on. While the teacher reads, weeps, and wails, you and I will return to those pivotal days in the life story of humanity.

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After confounding the arrogant Pharisees with His Wisdom the disciples followed Jesus out of the temple. Matthew who was walking beside Jesus and looking around him, casually mentioned, “Look at all these beautiful temple buildings. They are so majestic.”

Jesus looked around Him for a moment and then said to Matthew, “Take a good look because there will not be one stone of all these buildings that will not be thrown down.” They continued to walk in silence while Matthew was rendered speechless as he looked at the buildings and imagined their collapse.

From the temple the group walked over to the Mount of Olives to rest.

Matthew said, “I know about the destruction of Jerusalem when we lived in Babylon, but the Lord had mercy on us and we returned and built it up again. Are you saying that there will come another devastation of this great city?”

Thomas who was listening came closer and asked, “When will that happen, will there be a sign of the coming of the end of the world?”

Jesus answered, “Pay attention! Let no man lead you astray. Many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray. You will hear people talking about wars and rumors of wars; do not be troubled, these things must happen; but that will not be the end yet. Nation will war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines and earthquakes in different places. All these things are only the beginning of the travail.”

As Jesus spoke the disciples stepped closer to hear better, and soon other people who were on the mountain attached themselves to the huddle.

“Then they will deliver you up to your own tribulation. It’s not just Me that they are after, it is your mind and your heart that they want to keep their clutches on. I am only pulling you away from their grasp and that’s why they want to kill me. And when you don’t honor them alone as you once did before I came, then they will kill you. You will be hated because you doubted them and instead honored Me and My Father. When they have done away with Me, they will become even more hostile because by killing Me, they did not achieve what they set out to. They will be furious and wage war on you because you believe in Me.

Expect many people to fall into their hands for fear. People who once believed in Me and My Father, in what I taught and showed, will stumble out of fear of them. To pacify the enemy some will even betray their neighbors and their own brothers and sisters.

Many false prophets will arise, and lead many astray. Because iniquity will grow, the love of many will become cold. But the person who endures to the end, whether enduring persecution, or even torture, will be saved from the ultimate destruction that is the fate of the faithless and of the cowards. Truth will prevail. Truth spreads in spite of the danger of knowing it.

In the kingdom to come there will be no more sickness, suffering or evil of any kind. This good news will be a beacon of light to those who believe in Me during the dark times ahead. But suddenly, when not expected, the end will come.”

The disciples and the crowd around Jesus did not expect to hear such an intense message. It was as if His timing mimicked the unexpected end of the world. No one spoke. His message was a serious warning. To the Jews and Samaritans, Jesus was an unprecedented healer, a teacher, a miracle worker, and now He presented Himself as a prophet.

Peter and the other disciples who had been nervously preparing for the arrest of Jesus, now had even more to fear for their own future. They had no where to go to escape misery, if that’s how they chose to see it. And yet, Jesus also told them about the victory that follows nobly getting through it.

The enemy is powerful, to a point, and more powerful for cowards than for the brave. More powerful for unbelievers than for the faithful.

Jesus continued His warning, “Read the prophet Daniel who had his vision of the abominable desolation while standing in a holy place. When it happens, those who are in Judea should flee to the mountains. If you are on the housetop do not go down to take things that are in the house. If you are in the field do not return to get your coat.  It will be worse for nursing mothers in those days! And pray that your flight is not in the winter, or on a sabbath. Because there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will be. Unless those days will be shortened, no human being will be saved. But for the sake of the elect who heed this warning, those days will end. I assure you.”

Jesus paused and continued, “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken: And then there will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then all the ethnicities of the earth will be horrified and mourn. Then no matter where they are on earth, every man, woman, and child will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect, the humble and faithful, from the four winds, from one corner of the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other.”

Knowing that He was speaking to all of humanity far into the future, Jesus ended His message that day by saying to the swollen crowd, “Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day or the hour. But be careful for yourselves, unless your hearts be swindled by eating too much, or drunkenness, or too much pleasure, or anxiety. That day will shock you suddenly as if you are caught in a trap and you won’t be prepared to handle it. Because it will come upon all that on the face of all the earth. In every season, be alert, praying that you may prevail and escape all these things that shall come to pass, and that you are able to stand before the Son of Man.