"OPPORTUNITY"
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28)
November 17, 2019
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
"They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for My name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness."
Luke 21:12, 13 (ESV)
You have to feel for these disciples of Jesus. It's one thing that the Lord should speak in general terms about the end times and all the trials and tribulations that will come upon the earth, and it might perhaps be getting a little closer to home that He should predict the destruction of Jerusalem (which, incidentally, happened about twenty-seven years after the Lord spoke these words). But it's something altogether different that Jesus should tell these disciples, in very personal and graphic terms, what will befall them as individuals. I suppose nobody likes to hear warnings of any kind, but some warnings can be helpful to us as we seek to avoid disaster. However, the warnings that Jesus gives His disciples in this morning's Gospel don't allow for any escape whatsoever. The Lord simply tells the disciples that these catastrophic things will definitely happen--and will happen to them. I think that's why everyone feels at least a little uneasy whenever the subject of the judgment comes up: It is a sure thing and, no matter what we may have grown accustomed to in this life, no one can opt not to participate in it.
The positive thing about these terrible calamities that Jesus says are going to happen to His followers is that the difficulties that will befall them will provide them with the opportunity to do what they have been called and commissioned to do: to "bear witness" "before kings and governors" concerning all the things that Jesus did and taught--particularly what He has done to provide the forgiveness of sins and the sure hope of everlasting life to sinners. This "silver lining" in Jesus' words, if you will, is somewhat reminiscent of the words that Joseph in the Old Testament spoke to his brothers--the same brothers who had maliciously sold him into slavery years before. Joseph told his brothers: "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive" (Genesis 50:20). That's something that God always seems to be doing in the world: taking the evil plans and actions of men and turning them around for His good purposes. Examining what was to befall the disciples of Jesus (and what might yet befall us), let's give some thought this morning to the evil intent of man and the good will of God.
The evil intent of man is probably manifested most clearly in man's desire to be in control--particularly in his desire to control others. Joseph's brothers, in the example that I just mentioned, desired to control their brother, of whom they were very envious. At first they intended to kill him but, influenced by the intervention of Reuben, the eldest among them, they opted instead to sell him into slavery. In either case, their desire was to be in control of Joseph's life and to make it miserable for him in retaliation for the favor that their father had shown toward Joseph. The same motive lay behind the persecution of the early followers of Jesus, which the Lord prophesied in the words of our text. But what the enemies of the Church didn't understand (and apparently still don't understand) is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be silenced or controlled. On the contrary, the Church has always been at its strongest and has grown the most when it was under persecution. Neither the disciples of Jesus nor the Good News that they proclaimed could be neutralized by violence, despite the best efforts of those who sought to put an end to the spread of Christianity.
Another way in which the evil intent of man can be seen is in man's desire to "kill the messenger," as they say, whenever an unpopular message is delivered and received. Even a superficial look at the Old Testament prophets of God will show that they were rejected and persecuted, very often by God's people themselves, whenever the message that they proclaimed was a call to repentance rather than an affirmation of the people's attitudes and actions. It was the same way when the Church was young. You see, the problem is that the proclamation of the Gospel presupposes the proclamation of the Law. People can't even understand (let alone receive) the Good News that Jesus is their Savior from sin unless and until they first hear the bad news that they are sinners who are in need of a Savior. And in case you haven't noticed, that kind of message doesn't usually set too well with most people--and they often register their dissatisfaction with the message by attacking the messenger who delivers it.
But all the evil intentions of man are no match for the good will of God. He makes it His business to turn evil into good for those who are His children through faith in His Son, as the apostle Paul writes to the Romans: "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). God is forever turning trials into blessings and challenges into opportunities for His people. What Jesus is telling His disciples in the text before us is that their persecution, as unpleasant as it is, will be their opportunity to be heralds of the Gospel in the presence of "kings and governors." In this way they will fulfill the words of the psalmist: "I will . . . speak of Your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame" (Psalm 119:46). In a very similar fashion, the persecutions that sent the early Christians running for their lives at the same time carried the Gospel of Christ to every place to which they ran.
What this has to say to us today is that the Lord is able and willing to bring hope to any and every situation in which we might find ourselves as His disciples. No matter how hopeless things may look to us, in the midst of that hopelessness God always provides us with an opportunity for good. We may not always recognize it as good, but it is always a good thing when people hear the Gospel of grace concerning who Jesus is and what He has done for lost sinners and it is always a blessing for us when we are privileged to be the instruments through which the Holy Spirit proclaims that Good News.
A certain parishioner who I used to visit at another place would often say to me: "The Lord has been good to me." That may sound like nothing more than a trite and trivial little slogan at first, but if you bear in mind that this man had lost his wife at an early age, was blinded in an industrial accident, had suffered a series of strokes, and had terminal cancer, it was really quite a remarkable thing for him to say. The Lord is good to us. We just don't always see His goodness. He is always working out His good and gracious will for us and in us and through us. For that we rejoice, knowing that whatever may lie ahead for us, it will be used by our Lord for His glory and our benefit. No matter what, we can, with the apostle, be "sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.