Jesus’s alternative to fear
Advent 1A | Matthew 24:36-44
Noah, Rapture, “But about that day and hour no one knows” . . . apocalyptic talk of flooding and separating, the Lord coming here and a thief breaking in . . . there is a lot hitting us today and we should take a breath and consider for a second what is all happening here.
Jesus was leaving the Temple. Holy Week. His disciples were oohing and ahhing over the grandeur of this incredible human achievement to glorify God. And Jesus tells them that it will be destroyed. That a time will come when all things will change. It must be a terrifying moment for them. And one of the things he does here, too, is tell them to notice what is happening. In the verses right before this one, he says: “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near” (Matthew 24:32). Just like a farmer can smell the rain coming, you can tell when junk is about to get real.
Pay attention, in other words. Keep your wits about you. This is a kind of urgency Jesus evokes. A sort of necessary attention. But this isn’t the whole lesson. In fact, he seems to shift here and take it in the opposite direction. “But about that day and hour no one knows”. So . . . predict the unpredictable? …
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