Luke 21:25-36
Today's content is consist of three parts, a apocalyptic declaration that the Son of Man will come in 21:25-36, the parable of fig tree which explains that it's sign is very clear in 29-33 and finally the teaching we have to prepare for it in 34-36. Though each paragraph seems to say different content it is the same in the point of 'the last time' is coming. Regarding the last time is described as 'the Son of Man' in the first paragraph, ' the kingdom of God' the second and finally 'that day' in third. What does the last time mean? What would the author who delivers Jesus' saying of 2000 years ago would like to say?
‘The Son of Man’ points out the Almighty, Messiah who will judge the world and redeem God's people. The last time is the time of new beginning. The Son of Man will take a decisive role in that day. The story of the Son of Man often comes in the Old Testament. A detailed story of the Son of Man comes in Ezekiel chapter. “He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” (Eze. 2:1, 3,6,8) It comes in Daniel. “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven .He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.”(Dan. 7:13) It says his power never destroys and will be forever. Such conception of 'a Son of Man' of the Old Testament is the same as it of today's content. “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”(28) The core of such idea of a Son of Man is 'the last day and judgment'. It means the last day of the world will come and a Son of Man will judge this world at that time.
The last time and judgment
Regarding the last time, Luke describes as following. “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.(25-27) In the Revelation we can see the similar content. "...and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. “ (Rev. 6:13,14) Such verses means the entire universe including the earth will be dismantled.
Will really such thing be happened? In the past human history there were many people who prophesied the end of human kind and the last of universe. Nostradamus (1503-1566), a doctor of France and a mystic thinker exactly prophesied will-be-pop and Henry II's death caused by horseback game. Might be it was right his another prophesy that the great king of fear come from heaven on July 1999 became a great issue.
There are many movies which deal with the end of mankind and the earth. '2012' is one of them. The scientists concludes a prophesy, the year of 2012 is the year of humankind destruction which was known from the time of ancient Mayan Civilization after long study. It says the entire humankind will be destroyed by earthquake, volcanic eruption and tsunami. The scientists make a spaceship to save the descendants of mankind.
Will the time of the entire universe destruction come? Let's think the earth only and especially humankind. Will the moment humankind live in the earth no more come? It is not a groundless story, possible in the movie only. We can find out an answer in common sense. The earth can be son of the Sun floating at the corner of the universe. The earth never can be the center of the universe. And the earth continually moves. You don't feel it. Feeling itself it not only sure. There are many planets, comets and meteors in the solar system. It moves according to its orbit or randomly. If a comet with 1 Km diameter hit the earth the entire life on the earth are finished. An ant can survive? An ant also finally will be disappeared. And a glacial epoch begins in full scale humankind cannot be survived in the earth. The time now human civilization are blooming it falls under an interglacial period between the old glacial epoch ended ten thousand years ago and new glacial epoch. Not only by this natural disaster but human's consumption civilization the ecological balance of the earth will be suddenly destroyed.
Is the same end of the world, the testimony of the Bible for the last as a Son of Man comes and the above explanation? It is quite similar story outwardly. It all says a dismantlement of the universe. However, it is different story fundamentally. The Bible basically regards this world as God's creation. God is good and righteous. Then his creative activity also good and righteous. The author of Genesis testifies God also had said of the beauty of creation after creation. (Gen. 1:31) In Noah's time, God judged the world with flood due to their sin but promised with Noah no more disaster with water. It says, "I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life."(Gen. 9:15) According to the Bible and Christian faith there will be no futile destruction of the earth. The earth you are standing is strong. Though flood, earthquake and tsunami happens the foundation of God created world never moves. Don't be afraid of it.
Then why today's content says all the sun, moon and stars will be distorted and o the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea? Is it the same with humankind destruction that worldly prophet says? The end the Bible says is not a dismantlement and a destruction but establishment and lift. It is not killing but saving. It is not a stop but a completion. Luke described it in verse 27 in this way. "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (27) And it is the time of redemption. Yes. the time of Son of Man's coming is the time of redemption, the time of completion of life.
Look into what the two verses quoted in above say? It contains the future and hope of Christianity. The Son of Man has power and glory. He saves the world. It means the Son of Man who has power and glory only can save us. There is no one who has such power and glory to save human and world. A wonderful science of 21 century can help us to live conveniently but doesn't have power and glory. Human and science have no foresight. It is very helpless. Is this word sound strange? No strange at all. The power of science only can excise it's power in this world only but helpless in the world completed by the Son of Man. It is completely different., not by partially but totally, not by quantity but by quality. It is not improve the world but overturning. Everything can be changed. We cannot imagine its scale. It is similar that we cannot imagine the shape of alien.
Though it says the world qualitatively different world, do not think awkward world. It would better to explain with example. Suppose here is a cosmos seed with 1 mm diameter and 1 Cm length. It planted in the spring. A little time passes and there blooms a beautiful cosmos flower. It is a magnificent phenomena that cannot explain with a seed only. It is different world in quality. If we see it separately it is completely different world. However, a seed and flower are connected to each other in a mysterious way. This world is like a seed. As a seed blossom on its time the world God created will blossom with a qualitatively different new life world. The Son of Man with power and glory is the very one who completes it. The Son of Man only has the power and the new word is his glory.
What do you think about this teaching of the Bible? You may believe it as it is but something might be not clear in your heart. No matter how the world the Son of Man establish is new we cannot feel it in real for it is quite a far from us. We think here now well eat and living and further more having peaceful life with neighbors is more important. It is not wrong. Christian faith can lost a real world with thrown into dualism, transcendental eschatology and history nihilism. Such things had happened in the past Christianity history. On October 28, 1992 the people of Dami mission insisted it is the day of judgment and they only will be ruptured. They stopped their job, school and indulged only in a religious meeting. Such faith is clearly wrong. Christianity faith should stand on the history of a real world. We have to pray God's will be done on the earth as it is in the heaven.
Problem is that the world we are standing with two feet is not yet completed. It is incomplete. The creation is not completed yet. We cannot be satisfied with this world. No true peace is possible in this world. Would the apocalyptic literature say death is eternal rest? See. All the things we have experienced is passing. See your youth. It passes in a moment. All the possession we had slip through as sand does our fingers. Nothing is remained of us. Anything we experience in this world can complete life. The fact that the end station of our life is death is a decisive proof for it. Here is the reason Buddhism, our native religion says nirvana. It says we can reach nirvana after getting complete freedom from the entire obsession of human in the world. The nirvana is salvation or the kingdom of God in Christianity term. They are different from us in many point, but we are not different at the point of thinking this world and the life in it is not completed one.
Be always on the watch
When can be the exact day this incomplete world can change into a complete one qualitatively? Nobody know it. Jesus also doesn't know it. God the creator only knows it. However, there will be sign. In today's content Jesus explains it with the parable of fig tree. He says, "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near." When pseudo eschatology was rampant, they used to explain the time of the end of world by connecting the numbers 666 or 144,000 in Revelation and a big incident in the world history. They exampled EU and bar code of the product. They also exampled a natural disaster. Such insistent are vague. It is a behavior to call a religious passion by giving them unnecessary fear. You do not need to pay attention on it.
Today's content says the last day is coming like trap. It means it happens unexpected time with unexpected way. It sounds contradictory One-sidedly it says we will know the sign of the end of the world and the other side we don't expect it. It is not a contradictory word. A sign will be visible to someone and someone not. Who will be an invisible one? The content clearly points out. They are people with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life. Their heart are completely weighed worldly things. It doesn't mean a will for life and its passion. It says to indulge in self-achievement and self-satisfactory. The word praise them. However, eventually such life make our heart dull.
Who will be the one who can see the sign of the day? According to verse 36 they are "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” To pray and be watch means to connect to the center of life. It means to sensibly resonance with the Holy Spirit who gives us life. Such people can see the sing of the last day. More fundamentally the last day doesn't have much meaning whether it is tomorrow or after 10 or 100 or 100 million years. It is because he vividly conceives and experiences that the last days is happening at the very this moment.
Dear brothers and sisters. Today is the first Sunday of Advent the beginning of church calendar. It is the beginning of the season to remember Jesus' first coming and waiting for his second coming. The reason we are waiting for Jesus is that Jesus is the very the Son of Man that today's content says. Jesus promised to come again. He will come as the Lord of Judgment. It means Jesus is the unique standard to divide between life and not life. Do not be doubt or feel uneasy for his promise for he didn't come even after 2000 years waiting. For him 2 thousand years are like a night. When all the life reveals its reality the mystery of time also will be brightened. Do not fear for the last day unnecessarily. It is the moment of redeeming into eternal life. Do not be weighed on your heart with wariness of life and do not forget. The day of redemption will come soon. It has come already in Nazarene Jesus Christ two thousand years ago!
Today's content is consist of three parts, a apocalyptic declaration that the Son of Man will come in 21:25-36, the parable of fig tree which explains that it's sign is very clear in 29-33 and finally the teaching we have to prepare for it in 34-36. Though each paragraph seems to say different content it is the same in the point of 'the last time' is coming. Regarding the last time is described as 'the Son of Man' in the first paragraph, ' the kingdom of God' the second and finally 'that day' in third. What does the last time mean? What would the author who delivers Jesus' saying of 2000 years ago would like to say?
‘The Son of Man’ points out the Almighty, Messiah who will judge the world and redeem God's people. The last time is the time of new beginning. The Son of Man will take a decisive role in that day. The story of the Son of Man often comes in the Old Testament. A detailed story of the Son of Man comes in Ezekiel chapter. “He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” (Eze. 2:1, 3,6,8) It comes in Daniel. “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven .He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.”(Dan. 7:13) It says his power never destroys and will be forever. Such conception of 'a Son of Man' of the Old Testament is the same as it of today's content. “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”(28) The core of such idea of a Son of Man is 'the last day and judgment'. It means the last day of the world will come and a Son of Man will judge this world at that time.
The last time and judgment
Regarding the last time, Luke describes as following. “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.(25-27) In the Revelation we can see the similar content. "...and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. “ (Rev. 6:13,14) Such verses means the entire universe including the earth will be dismantled.
Will really such thing be happened? In the past human history there were many people who prophesied the end of human kind and the last of universe. Nostradamus (1503-1566), a doctor of France and a mystic thinker exactly prophesied will-be-pop and Henry II's death caused by horseback game. Might be it was right his another prophesy that the great king of fear come from heaven on July 1999 became a great issue.
There are many movies which deal with the end of mankind and the earth. '2012' is one of them. The scientists concludes a prophesy, the year of 2012 is the year of humankind destruction which was known from the time of ancient Mayan Civilization after long study. It says the entire humankind will be destroyed by earthquake, volcanic eruption and tsunami. The scientists make a spaceship to save the descendants of mankind.
Will the time of the entire universe destruction come? Let's think the earth only and especially humankind. Will the moment humankind live in the earth no more come? It is not a groundless story, possible in the movie only. We can find out an answer in common sense. The earth can be son of the Sun floating at the corner of the universe. The earth never can be the center of the universe. And the earth continually moves. You don't feel it. Feeling itself it not only sure. There are many planets, comets and meteors in the solar system. It moves according to its orbit or randomly. If a comet with 1 Km diameter hit the earth the entire life on the earth are finished. An ant can survive? An ant also finally will be disappeared. And a glacial epoch begins in full scale humankind cannot be survived in the earth. The time now human civilization are blooming it falls under an interglacial period between the old glacial epoch ended ten thousand years ago and new glacial epoch. Not only by this natural disaster but human's consumption civilization the ecological balance of the earth will be suddenly destroyed.
Is the same end of the world, the testimony of the Bible for the last as a Son of Man comes and the above explanation? It is quite similar story outwardly. It all says a dismantlement of the universe. However, it is different story fundamentally. The Bible basically regards this world as God's creation. God is good and righteous. Then his creative activity also good and righteous. The author of Genesis testifies God also had said of the beauty of creation after creation. (Gen. 1:31) In Noah's time, God judged the world with flood due to their sin but promised with Noah no more disaster with water. It says, "I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life."(Gen. 9:15) According to the Bible and Christian faith there will be no futile destruction of the earth. The earth you are standing is strong. Though flood, earthquake and tsunami happens the foundation of God created world never moves. Don't be afraid of it.
Then why today's content says all the sun, moon and stars will be distorted and o the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea? Is it the same with humankind destruction that worldly prophet says? The end the Bible says is not a dismantlement and a destruction but establishment and lift. It is not killing but saving. It is not a stop but a completion. Luke described it in verse 27 in this way. "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (27) And it is the time of redemption. Yes. the time of Son of Man's coming is the time of redemption, the time of completion of life.
Look into what the two verses quoted in above say? It contains the future and hope of Christianity. The Son of Man has power and glory. He saves the world. It means the Son of Man who has power and glory only can save us. There is no one who has such power and glory to save human and world. A wonderful science of 21 century can help us to live conveniently but doesn't have power and glory. Human and science have no foresight. It is very helpless. Is this word sound strange? No strange at all. The power of science only can excise it's power in this world only but helpless in the world completed by the Son of Man. It is completely different., not by partially but totally, not by quantity but by quality. It is not improve the world but overturning. Everything can be changed. We cannot imagine its scale. It is similar that we cannot imagine the shape of alien.
Though it says the world qualitatively different world, do not think awkward world. It would better to explain with example. Suppose here is a cosmos seed with 1 mm diameter and 1 Cm length. It planted in the spring. A little time passes and there blooms a beautiful cosmos flower. It is a magnificent phenomena that cannot explain with a seed only. It is different world in quality. If we see it separately it is completely different world. However, a seed and flower are connected to each other in a mysterious way. This world is like a seed. As a seed blossom on its time the world God created will blossom with a qualitatively different new life world. The Son of Man with power and glory is the very one who completes it. The Son of Man only has the power and the new word is his glory.
What do you think about this teaching of the Bible? You may believe it as it is but something might be not clear in your heart. No matter how the world the Son of Man establish is new we cannot feel it in real for it is quite a far from us. We think here now well eat and living and further more having peaceful life with neighbors is more important. It is not wrong. Christian faith can lost a real world with thrown into dualism, transcendental eschatology and history nihilism. Such things had happened in the past Christianity history. On October 28, 1992 the people of Dami mission insisted it is the day of judgment and they only will be ruptured. They stopped their job, school and indulged only in a religious meeting. Such faith is clearly wrong. Christianity faith should stand on the history of a real world. We have to pray God's will be done on the earth as it is in the heaven.
Problem is that the world we are standing with two feet is not yet completed. It is incomplete. The creation is not completed yet. We cannot be satisfied with this world. No true peace is possible in this world. Would the apocalyptic literature say death is eternal rest? See. All the things we have experienced is passing. See your youth. It passes in a moment. All the possession we had slip through as sand does our fingers. Nothing is remained of us. Anything we experience in this world can complete life. The fact that the end station of our life is death is a decisive proof for it. Here is the reason Buddhism, our native religion says nirvana. It says we can reach nirvana after getting complete freedom from the entire obsession of human in the world. The nirvana is salvation or the kingdom of God in Christianity term. They are different from us in many point, but we are not different at the point of thinking this world and the life in it is not completed one.
Be always on the watch
When can be the exact day this incomplete world can change into a complete one qualitatively? Nobody know it. Jesus also doesn't know it. God the creator only knows it. However, there will be sign. In today's content Jesus explains it with the parable of fig tree. He says, "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near." When pseudo eschatology was rampant, they used to explain the time of the end of world by connecting the numbers 666 or 144,000 in Revelation and a big incident in the world history. They exampled EU and bar code of the product. They also exampled a natural disaster. Such insistent are vague. It is a behavior to call a religious passion by giving them unnecessary fear. You do not need to pay attention on it.
Today's content says the last day is coming like trap. It means it happens unexpected time with unexpected way. It sounds contradictory One-sidedly it says we will know the sign of the end of the world and the other side we don't expect it. It is not a contradictory word. A sign will be visible to someone and someone not. Who will be an invisible one? The content clearly points out. They are people with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life. Their heart are completely weighed worldly things. It doesn't mean a will for life and its passion. It says to indulge in self-achievement and self-satisfactory. The word praise them. However, eventually such life make our heart dull.
Who will be the one who can see the sign of the day? According to verse 36 they are "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” To pray and be watch means to connect to the center of life. It means to sensibly resonance with the Holy Spirit who gives us life. Such people can see the sing of the last day. More fundamentally the last day doesn't have much meaning whether it is tomorrow or after 10 or 100 or 100 million years. It is because he vividly conceives and experiences that the last days is happening at the very this moment.
Dear brothers and sisters. Today is the first Sunday of Advent the beginning of church calendar. It is the beginning of the season to remember Jesus' first coming and waiting for his second coming. The reason we are waiting for Jesus is that Jesus is the very the Son of Man that today's content says. Jesus promised to come again. He will come as the Lord of Judgment. It means Jesus is the unique standard to divide between life and not life. Do not be doubt or feel uneasy for his promise for he didn't come even after 2000 years waiting. For him 2 thousand years are like a night. When all the life reveals its reality the mystery of time also will be brightened. Do not fear for the last day unnecessarily. It is the moment of redeeming into eternal life. Do not be weighed on your heart with wariness of life and do not forget. The day of redemption will come soon. It has come already in Nazarene Jesus Christ two thousand years ago!
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