Luke 21:25-36 Commentary

We open the Advent season by naming hardship and hope as our bedfellows.

Jesus warns us that things will look and feel worse and worse—that chaos will threaten to overwhelm and even shake the foundations of heaven. Some of us will numb ourselves to the hardship, like how alcohol numbs our senses and thoughts so that we feel like we have a small reprieve from all that weighs us down. It may seem like things will not get better and the hardships will cause us pain and suffering. We will be tempted, and some of us will give in, to despair.

The fact that the Son of Man is coming with power and glory does not change the reality of hardship. Even as we consider the Son of Man himself, we soberly realize that hardship was his constant companion. In fact, he warned us repeatedly that we would have hardships as we waited. Yes, the Advent story has a Merry Christmas ending, but if we are telling the truth as Christians, then we must also say that the ending is still being written.

This Advent, after climate change intensified hurricanes, floods, and fires, after another American federal election cycle and another year of war in Ukraine and a spreading conflict in the Middle East, after growing polarization and rising radical political movements around the world, there is much that seems worse than ever before. It’s as though everything that does not belong to the Kingdom of God is in rebellion, trying to shake the gates of heaven by damaging the things God loves here on earth.

And when it looks this way, Jesus says, we are to “stand up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near.” Who is foolish enough to stand up when they are in the trenches? Doing so exposes you to the sniper’s fire. And yet, Jesus says to look up and to look out because awfulness and hardship are not the only things to see.

There are also fig trees sprouting: new life is happening because the season has turned and “summer is already near.” In this in-between when we feel both the hardship and the new life, Jesus says, “you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Hope! We will see the kingdom come, even if we die—we will not pass away into nothingness before we see the goodness of God in the land of the living because this earth and this heaven will be renewed into the everlasting new heaven and new earth when Christ returns. Hope!

So “be on guard,” Jesus says, “so that your hearts are not weighed down” and lead you to give in to despair. Look up and look out for new life instead of numbing yourself to the hardship. Doing so will give you hope. Live in the reality that the weather patterns of this in-between season are carried on two very different yet overlapping jet streams. The winds of hope will lift you up when the winds of hardship knock you off your feet.

Jesus’s closing words stick with me: “pray that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” The hardships are serious enough that getting through this life will feel like we escaped by the skin of our teeth. And the hope comes from being in the presence of our Redeemer—both on Judgement Day at his return, but also now through the Holy Spirit. Learning to look up and to look out for new life is to believe that we are already in God’s presence even as he is still in the process of coming near.

Over these next few weeks of Advent, we’ll be reading Scripture’s teachings on how to grow the strength that is needed for this in-between time. We’ll join in the prayers of the brave who endured hardship even before Jesus started his public ministry. They did so because they had hope that the world’s redemption was drawing near in his very person.We’ll stand up when John the Baptist calls us to the Jordan to be baptized and pray with Mary as she sings her song of God’s war against evil. We’ll be on your guard when Satan tempts us to despair because things are not as they should be. And we’ll pray to be able to see the new life that Jesus has begun here on earth as we hope in spite of the hardships.

Textual Point

The sky and earth showing signs of God’s judgement is an Old Testament prophet motif. For example, see Isaiah 3.9-11 or the opening verses of Isaiah 34. Does the darkness the covered the land at mid-day as Christ died on the cross fulfill such a sign?

Illustration Idea

There are a set of scenes from the “Breaking Bad” that encapsulate the danger of despair and the sustaining power of hope. The first happens much earlier in the show’s run, as Jesse Pinkman tries to deal with his stress, loneliness, and fear by throwing a huge party with tons of dancing, drinking, and drugs; he is clearly trying to numb himself. The next morning, with the people all gone and the trash strewn around, strobe lights still flashing, Jesse turns the music up even louder and sits, shaking in his despair. The second scene comes at the end of the series. The scene opens on Jesse in a woodworking room, carefully crafting a wooden box by hand in silence. As he lifts the box to smell the wood, the scene cuts to reality, where Jesse is enslaved in a warehouse making drugs. It was hope, visualized in making something beautiful, that kept Jesse alive during his captivity.