Readings: Malachi 3:19-20a; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19
In today’s Gospel,
hearing a group of people
admiring the Jerusalem Temple
and its rich adornments,
Jesus tells them: “All that you see here—
the days will come when there will not be left
a stone upon another stone
that will not be thrown down.”
Jesus knows that the Temple,
as magnificent and awe-inspiring as it is,
will one day fall to dust.
And, sure enough, some thirty-five years
after Jesus issued his warning
the Temple was thrown down by a Roman Army
that put the city of Jerusalem to the torch.
Jesus speaks as a prophet,
but you don’t need to be a prophet to know
that everything we human beings make—
our architecture and our art,
our monuments and our museums,
our civilizations and our cultures—
have their day and then are gone,
not unlike us ourselves.
The psalmist says that we mortals are
“like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers” (Psalm 90).
This is a knowledge that lurks in the back of our mind,
something that haunts us
because it can make our lives seem frightening and futile,
because it reminds us that our life in this passing world
is one of exile and pilgrimage.
But Jesus is not simply trying to rain on our parade,
to dampen our enjoyment of impressive edifices,
to make us fear the loss of all our achievements,
to cast a gloomy pall over our lives.
He is trying to warn us:
“many will come in my name, saying,
‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’”
He is trying to warn us that there are those
who would exploit the fear that haunts us,
the fear of losing what we have,
the fear that all our achievements and even we ourselves
will be thrown down into oblivion.
He is trying to warn us
that there are those who would seek to heighten that fear
by convincing us that the ordinary trials of human life,
the ordinary losses and conflicts that we all experience,
are in fact the final cosmic battle between good and evil,
a battle between “us” and “them”
in which we must prevail at any cost.
He is trying to warn us about those who would tell us
that they and they alone can save us from loss,
that they and they alone can guarantee
that stone remains on stone,
that all that we value and fear losing can be safely ours
if only we place our trust in them and them alone.
He is trying to warn us about false Messiahs,
false saviors who exploit fear
and place the blame on whatever scapegoat is ready to hand.
And Jesus’ message is clear: “Do not follow them!”
Do not follow those who exploit fear
in order to gain power for themselves.
Do not follow those who would turn
people who disagree with them
into demonic figures of cosmic significance,
unworthy of our love or even common human decency.
Do not follow those who promise us that they and they alone
can save us from the struggle and loss and vulnerability
that inevitably enters every human life.
Do not follow them;
follow Jesus the crucified and risen savior instead.
Jesus knows, however, that those who follow him,
those who refuse to follow false saviors who exploit fear,
will make themselves even more vulnerable.
He warns his followers that they will be persecuted,
that they will be dragged before kings and governors because of his name,
that they will even be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends.
They will become the scapegoats whose elimination promises salvation.
But, Jesus tells them, they should not be afraid
because the one whom they follow is the Lord of life,
who will give them words of truth to speak
and a way of living that will endure beyond this world
even unto life eternal.
Perhaps the point of Jesus’s words
for our world today is clear.
But just in case it’s not:
we are living in a time of great anxiety and division,
both in the world and in the Church;
we are plagued by scandals and wars,
nation rising against nation,
faction rising against faction,
and there are those on all sides of our divisions
who would exploit our fears
and demonize their opponents,
casting them as figures of cosmic evil,
unworthy of our love or even common human decency,
and presenting themselves as those who
will keep that evil at bay by any means necessary.
Jesus’ tells us: do not follow them.
Do not follow those who exploit fear and division.
Do not follow those who demonize their opponents.
Do not follow those who offer themselves as saviors
who can do what only God can do:
save our lives from being thrown down into oblivion.
Rather, follow Jesus no matter the cost.
He is the sun of justice who rises with healing rays,
the one who will raise us up when we are thrown down.
Cling tightly to him as the one true savior,
and by your perseverance you shall secure your lives.
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