Looking at the Fig Tree

And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.  Luke 21: 9

It is clear that nothing in the headlines should take me by surprise.  It’s all here spelled out just before Jesus enters the gates of Jerusalem: There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

It is also clear that none of us really understand what the end will look like exactly, and certainly not when it will come.  And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,  people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.

But it is clear how we should react to the headlines.  Beyond not being terrified.  We are to settle it therefore in our minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer when we are hauled before the courts for His name’s sake.  This means not to fret and worry or even to plot out possible scenarios.  We are to wholly trust in Him to give us words of wisdom.  

We will be hated and betrayed and maybe even put to death.  And here is an odd seemingly contradiction: not a hair of your head will perish.  Not what really matters.  Not the everlasting me.  This clay pot where I now dwell might be smashed.  And that’s o.k.  My endurance will gain me life.

Until these times we are to be alert, not caught up in the systems of this world.  We are to live clean and unencumbered by the cares of this world, because it is indeed going to be rolled up like an old stained carpet and crammed in the dumpster of eternity.  We are reminded to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us.  We are to occupy and invest in what is of eternal value- those sheep, those bewildered wandering sheep.  Keep chasing them down with love and grace.  

And when at last these things begin to take place, we are to straighten up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near.  This is a good thing, as ugly and painful as it might be, the final purge and surging push forward.  Giving birth to a new heaven and a new earth.  Justice and glory will have arrived.