Being Light in Darkness

17 November 2019 –– Proper 28 Lectionary 33

Luke 21:5-19

Jesus isn’t talking about the end of time. I don’t think he’s even talking about the coming destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. I think he’s speaking metaphorically about something much more profound and something much more important. I think Jesus was trying to tell his followers that the promises made by God to Israel that were represented in the temple were going to be fulfilled, but not in the way they expected. God had promised that Israel would be restored, and the people had understood that in a literal sense: we’ll be a great nation again. . . .

But Jesus was telling them something different. God is going to restore the kingdom all right, but the temple won’t be needed anymore and neither will armed force be a part of the restoration movement. Jesus is urging his followers to give up their ideas of how God will establish the kingdom and the image of the kingdom they have carried in their heads. Jesus proclaims that the kingdom is about turning the other cheek, going the second mile, losing your life to gain it, loving your enemies, forgiving those who do evil against you without measure.

What was so hard to take and the reason there would be arrests and persecution, including his own, is that Jesus is breaking away from the conventions. He hangs out with sinners, announcing in the process that they were members of the kingdom too. And perhaps worst of all, he forgave sins and healed, completely leaving the temple out of the loop. This was the real offense. That’s why Jesus says his followers will be handed over and imprisoned; that’s why they would be betrayed by parents, family members and friends; that’s why they would be put to death. They would be hated for the same reason he was hated. Because he was changing the rules of the game, and that kind of change was just too hard to take.

Ultimately, what Jesus offered was a challenge to embrace what was essentially a subversive plan in which all the religious conventions would be turned on their heads. To follow him would be to accept a terribly risky, if not deadly, vocation: to be the light of the world, but of a world that tends to love darkness. –– Jerry L. Harber

Malachi 4:1-2a

God promises through his prophet that those who revere him will find justice, not today or tomorrow perhaps, but “on the day when I act” (4:3). Then the just shall be God’s special possession, and the difference between the righteous and the wicked will be made clear. –– Joseph McHugh

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Raymond E. Brown observes that Paul’s command in verse 10 made its way into the constitution of the Soviet Union! In that same note, Brown also writes: ‘‘It has been claimed that the practical solution of imitating the work ethic of Paul because the end is not yet at hand makes virtually irrelevant an eschatological outlook. Yet it keeps the necessary Christian tension between the now and the not-yet.’’ (An Introduction to the New Testament [Doubleday, 1997], 592, n. 4) –– Joseph McHugh

Jerry L. Harber, a retired United Methodist pastor, has served as campus minister at Univ. of Tennessee, faculty member at Memphis Theological Seminary, couples counselor, and clergy staff of Church of the Holy Communion, Episcopal, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Joseph McHugh, a freelance writer on scripture and other religious topics, published Getting to Know the Bible: An Introduction to Sacred Scripture for Catholics (ACTA Publications, 2003).

Homily Service 40, no. 12 (2007): 46-57.