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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 our recent readings, Jesus is in the temple at Jerusalem, and He's been teaching daily since He made His Triumphal Entry into the holy city. He has cleansed the temple, been questioned as to His authority to do what He's doing, and challenged by the leadership. He's done some seriously challenging of His own in return. As some of His disciples admired the great, fabulous building of the temple, Jesus began to prophesy about its destruction, and the times before His Return. In Saturday's reading, He warned: "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." Jesus gives a parable of the fig tree (often used as a symbol of Israel in Scripture). The fruit comes in the summer; the buds are signs of what is coming. "This generation" is true for the destruction that He has warned about that is coming to the city of Jerusalem -- as we've discussed in recent readings, that would happen in 70 AD with the Siege of the Jerusalem, the time when the temple was destroyed by the Romans, and not one stone was left upon another. There is another prophesy here, tied in with the powerful reality of the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and that is the time of His return; in that sense "generation" refers to the believers of the present age which was initiated by His Incarnation and mission in the world. That "heaven and earth will pass away" but His words "will by no means pass away" is a solemn affirmation of the prophesy. The message for all of us is that we must be watchful, aware.
"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." Here is the most important part of the warning: in this time period, as we await His return, what are we to be about? What is our concern and focus? Our concern is precisely to stay focused, alert, aware. Watch ourselves, we're told, so that we don't forget who we are, how we're to live, and what our lives are supposed to be about in the world. Jesus repeatedly teaches that this will come "as a snare," that nobody will know the time of His return, it will catch us all unaware. That's the most pertinent message He gives -- a strong signal about our own watchfulness and awareness of what our lives are to be about.
Jesus ends with a teaching that we must watch and pray, "that we may be counted worthy to . . . stand before the Son of Man." It's a way of teaching us to be aware not just of judgment, but of the discerning eye of Christ that's always aware of what we're doing and what we're about. We're supposed to have that eye on ourselves and awareness of ourselves: What's our focus? Are we alert to His teachings in our daily lives? Are we practicing mercy? The Fathers of the Church, the patristic writers, have consistently commented on the one most important thing: the practice of mercy in our lives. Indeed, Christ has taught that "blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." We're to be like Him, who came into the world not to condemn, but to save. And I think that at this time in our history, we really need to think about what that means. What does it mean to save and not to condemn? He took the most notorious sinners -- the chief tax collector Zacchaeus might make a good example here -- and taught that "those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." In fact, if we look closely at this statement, made in Luke's chapter 5, after Jesus was criticized for dining with tax collectors, what we see in a careful reading is that for the word "sick," Jesus actually uses "kakos" in the Greek. Kakos generally means "bad" or "evil." It implies misery and affliction, and also a place that is "wrong." In its form as a noun (rather than adverb), it's a word that designates the evil in the world. If our place is way on the wrong side of things, then, we need correction, healing, strong medicine, repentance. But that isn't administered through a regime of force; it's the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ in the world. That's what His saving mission is all about. In the end, as He makes very clear to us in His warnings about His Second Coming, we're the ones responsible for a decision to be healed or to remain ill, stuck in the "wrong" or the "evil" or "bad," the things that give us pain, misery, affliction -- those places where we might be lost in carousing, or cares of the world, or drunkenness (unawareness of ourselves and our true purpose). But His healing is always on offer; our condemnation or loss to Him is not what He wants. It also becomes a question of whether or not we understand that His saving mission should be our concern as well. What needs healing around you? Where do you need to turn to Him for His healing in yourself? The act of forgiveness, we might remember in our practice of mercy, isn't a justification of sin. It's a giving up of the "kakos" around us to God, and asking for God's perspective and mission in our own lives instead: His guidance, His way. That is, how He wants us to go through it, to deal with it, to handle things. For this, we watch and pray.
