Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away

Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.   So, you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." 

- Luke 21:29-36

In current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and teaches daily in the temple.  He has made His Triumphal Entry, cleansed the temple, and faced the challenges of the leadership.  He has also returned a few challenges of His own.  He speaks to the leadership, His disciples, and also the public.  (See readings from last Saturday,  Monday,  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).   In Friday's reading, Jesus began to speak about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and how they are to endure what is to come (see By your patience possess your souls).  In Saturday's reading, Jesus taught:  "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.  For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.  And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.  And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.  And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.   So, you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  Elsewhere in the Gospels and in Old Testament Scripture, the fig tree is a symbol for Israel.  Perhaps the budding of the tree is a sign of the fullness of this time of Israel (in yesterday's reading, Jesus spoke of the fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles).  Of the prediction regarding "this generation" my study bible tells us,  "This difficult verse may be interpreted in two ways:  (1) this generation refers to Jesus' contemporaries and all things pertain to the capture of Jerusalem; or (2) this generation is the new Christian generation and all things include the return of Christ.  The later is the preferred interpretation of the Church Fathers."  Regarding Jesus' teaching that "heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away," we recall that in Saturday's reading, Jesus spoke of the powers of heaven being shaken, and we quoted from St. Peter's Second Epistle regarding the heavenly bodies or elements that will be dissolved in great heat. 

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."  Let's observe the things that take us away from our understanding and awareness:  a kind of loss of consciousness into the whirl of life, a loss of proper boundaries, a lack of care about how we conduct ourselves; and that He includes also the burdens of the cares of life as well in this place of forgetfulness of who we are and what we are to be about.  My study bible says, "Jesus concludes His discourse with a final admonition to vigilance in the face of the unpredictable time of His return."

So how do we await Christ's return?  Most of all, there seems to be an awareness He teaches us about that has to do with our "getting lost" into things that take us away from our consciousness of His presence to us, and of the quality of His imminent return.  The things that take us away from this awareness are the things that He warns us about.  Dissipation, and drunkenness, and also being overburdened by the cares of life:  all of these things take us away from our conscious awareness of His presence to us, and His promise of return.  When we remember what we are to be about, we remember most of all His words, His teachings.  These are the things that, even if all the elements of life should dissolve before us, if "heaven and earth" should "pass away" (and we are promised that they will!), still remain.  His words still remain.  In Saturday's reading, we spoke of the essential understanding that our reality includes our inner lives, not merely the outer, and that Scripture hints to us that these are the things that will remain when all else dissolves or passes away.  So our awareness of His word to us, His presence to us, always remains the one constant we can rely on, the thing around which we can build our lives.  It is the things that take us away from this that lead us into a place of forgetfulness of who we are and what we must be about:  a life of dissipation, a kind of heedless running from this thing to that, drunkenness and all that may imply in our modern context, and also a loss of consciousness into the things that burden us with cares, an over-anxiety about life which He's also warned us against (see here and here).  In a modern society, we seem to go to both extremes; perhaps the extreme focus on "success" and all that might mean lead also to problems in the opposite direction.  Jesus therefore advocates the true median.  He Himself is the true pivot around which our lives need to revolve in order to remain in a place of real balance, awareness, and uprightness -- the place of the narrow gate.  His words keep us in the place of awareness of a truth that runs deeper than everything else we know, and all else we may experience.  They keep us in the place of what is truly real, and of what we truly need.  When you feel overburdened, overanxious, or when the temptation to a life of a kind of hedonism that takes you away from yourself becomes great, think about His words and what He teaches us today.  He's the real place we need to be, and His Kingdom is in the center of our hearts, the place we need to return for true awareness of ourselves and of our lives.  As Jesus advises, let us be reminded that prayer may be the quickest way we can get there -- the way to "remember God."  He's the place of reconciliation, and balance, the right middle way, the true center.