“THE ONLY SIGN IS THE SIGN OF THE CROSS”
Saint Luke 21: 25-36
Populus Zion: 9 December Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
Christ mentions the sun, moon, and stars to His Disciples. He says there will be signs. It’s not wrong to view this warning as partially natural. Though the earth will not be destroyed by flood, no one knows how the various astro-physical bodies of God’s creation may, or may not, be employed at the end. It’s also not wrong to view The Lord’s words as typological—symbolical if you will. God is your sun, both The Father and The Logos and The Spirit. Christ Himself reflecting the glory of God could be seen as a “type” of Moon in His flashes of Divinity during His 33 year “state of humiliation.” The stars are angels. The stars are the 12 Apostles themselves.
The sun in the sky underwent strange darkness at Jesus’ crucifixion. Every time the harvest moon, or any moon, looks blood-red one should remember the Blood of The Lamb that washes the sinner clean from sin.
But Christ is also clear, very clear, that no one knows the time of His reappearing. No one knows when He will come back again at the end of all of this.
As all of God’s creation should awaken in you a sense of God’s existence, and of your smallness, so too all of God’s Word should awaken in you a contrite heart over your sinful lost condition and of His gracious mercy towards you. The sanctified mind, the five-senses and the brain’s good interpretive skills, are wonderful and should be always employed to seek the bountiful wonder and provision of God’s gifts to mankind. Curiosity and exploration for a Christian can be meet and salutary in worshipping The Lord and in serving the neighbor. But, weirdly obsessive pre-occupation with fault-lines, ice-caps, volcanos, ozone, CO2, and rogue asteroids cam be tools of the old evil foe to pull the Christian away from The Word of God to the imaginations of man. Do not be a Pharisee or Sadducee tempting Christ with demands for signs of glory and power. The only sign you are given is the Sign of The Cross.
Bad things happening will continue to happen. They always have and always will. Things in your life may get better, but probably won’t. Look at the lyrics once again from Abide With Me (change and decay, indeed). These earthly and fleshly “thorns” in your side are manifestations of a Christian “living under the cross.” These sorrows and challenges are to focus you back to He Who hung and bled on the cross for your future glory. Jesus does not want you to have perplexity or your heart failing. Jesus wants you, after smiting your breast in repentance, to REPENT…to turn from sin and darkness…to vow to walk in His footsteps by the power of The Holy Ghost. Jesus yearns for you to look up to Him. And “Him” is found visually in the sign of the cross—The Holy Crucifix, and in all fullness in His Holy Word (The Scriptures) and in His Holy Sacrament (His Body and Blood).
But because you are of flesh and blood, He gives you a kind and accessible parable—a story example that is as true and relevant in 2018 as it was in 33. Jesus says look at the little humble fig tree… “and all the tree” He says. No fig trees in Johnson County, Kansas, so we look to the Maple, or whatnot. We know when Autumn is coming from the trees we encounter every day in late September and into October. We know Spring and new birth is coming from those same trees in moist, sunny, and warming April. If God is good and true when He tells you about His creations, He is more so life-affirming when He tells you about Himself—He Who is Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
Is Winter in all its fury coming? Oh, you know it is, look to the “fig” tree. Is Christ coming back with a sword out of His mouth to sift all the pagan unbelievers and throw them into hell? You know so because you know The Word. But, Is The Lamb Who was slain for you from before eternity, and on Calvary, and Who gives you the fruit of That Resurrected Life this very morning, coming back with tender love and healing in “His wings” for you who cling tightly to His Gospel forgiveness? You know so because you know The Word.
Hear the Word, hear Christ: “This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.” The “this generation” is the complete New Testament era and the total ingathering of all His sheep—from Adam to the last baby baptized at the “sound of the archangels trumpet. His Words shall never pass away because His love for you and His supper for you will never pas away. While the snares of the world, this very morning, continue to entangle those of the world; you of The Word are about your business as believing, teaching, and confessing Saints. Come to the rail. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always…” Look to The Cross and Christ Crucified.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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