The Twenty-fifth Sunday After Pentecost - Proper 28
November 18, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline
Daniel
12:1-3 Hebrews
10:11-25 Mark 13:1-13
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially these words, “All men
will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ. All men will hate you because of
me. These words of Jesus are rather
shocking aren’t they? That people will
hate you for being a Christian. That people
will despise you for the hope which is inside of you. It will turn families upside down, “Brother
will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel
against their parents and have them put to death.” This is the harsh reality of
Christianity. Being hated, being
persecuted, being betrayed into death.
But this should be
no surprise to us. This is the way that
Christianity has existed since the beginning.
Abel was killed by Cain because of his faith. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own
brothers because they despised his trust in God. Jeremiah was thrown in a well, and other
prophets were killed even in the temple ground.
Persecution is a part of Christianity.
And Jesus says as
much in our text. He and the disciples
begin in the temple complex, with the disciples marveling at the on going construction
there. The buildings were getting
larger. The stones were stacking up
higher. They were being polished, and
coated with gold. The temple complex was
a beautiful facility, of a type seen nowhere else on Earth at that time. As the disciples were marveling at the
beautiful buildings, Jesus crushes their excitement. “Not one stone here will be left on another;
every one will be thrown down.”
This is a
shock. How can this be Jesus? How can this happen? And Jesus goes on, “This won’t even be the
worst of it, Brother will turn against brother, there will be great
persecutions. You yourselves will be
handed over to kings and councils. You
will be jailed. You yourselves will be
persecuted. You will suffer because you
are Christians. You will be killed
because you are Christians. This will
happen, there is no doubt.
Jesus words were
fulfilled. St. James Alpheus was stoned
in Jerusalem. St. Peter was crucified in
Rome. The other St. James the brother of
John was stabbed with a sword by King Herod.
Many other Christians were killed, including St. Stephen and
others. And then to top it all off, as
the blood of Christians had just began flowing, the temple was destroyed. In 70A.D., 30 some years after Jesus’ death,
an army of Rome, led by the future emperor Titus, breached the walls of
rebelling Jerusalem, burned the temple to the grown, and threw the stones down
into ruin at its base. Those stones
still sit there to this day. You can go
and see them, and walk among them.
The blood of Christians
continued to flow, even past that fateful day.
Christians were martyred by the thousands and ten thousands in the first
years of the church. Christians were
handed over to be eaten alive by lions, burned alive and more, sometimes at the
hands of their own family. Persecution
continued, even as Christianity became the official religion of Rome. Muslim armies conquered the Christians lands
of the middle east. The Christian lands
of Syria, Egypt, Libya and Turkey were conquered by Turks, and Christians
killed or persecuted. The persecution
continues even to this day, in China, in Russia, and yes, dear friends, even
here in the United States.
We are not immune
from persecution. We too have
strife. We are blessed that today, in
our nation, we have very little worry about shedding our blood for our
faith. But we still can be
mistreated. We still can be walked
on. We still have family and friends who
laugh at our faith, or call us names. We
are called homophobic. We are called
uncaring. We are called hateful. We are called stupid and made fun of on
national T.V. And worst of all and most
painful, are those family members, who have fallen from the faith, and have no
desire to have anything to do with us. Those
broken relationships that occur because of our faith.
Dear friends, the
life of a Christian is a life of suffering, a life of persecution, a life of
struggle. Why? Because this world is a world of sin, and it
will be until at last Christ returns to destroy this world, and recreate it
perfect again, sin free again, and wonderful again. But until that day, Jesus’ words ring true, “All
men will hate you because of me.” This
is reality, because the truth is, they hated Jesus who has come before us.
If you worry about
persecution, about what the price for your faith may be, you need not. Why not?
Because Christ has already faced that persecution. Christ has suffered already. He was arrested, he was whipped and beaten,
he had thorns beaten into his head, he was stripped naked, mocked and nailed to
a cross. He was persecuted, and
martyred, he gave up his life because of our faith. And yet, Christ overcame. Christ was raised from the dead. He lives and reigns today. And what’s more, Christ promises that if he
is raised from the dead, that you too will be raised from the dead. If he overcomes persecution, you too will
overcome persecution.
Christ’s
persecution was complete – even to the point of death, but this world could not
destroy Jesus as it destroyed the temple.
Sin could not conquer Christianity even as it conquered the world. Christ has won the victory, he has overcome
the world, your sins, and even your death.
You are victorious as Christ is victorious.
And Christ
promises to keep you in the victory he has won.
He will continue to pour out his blessings and gifts upon you, even as
you are persecuted. He gives you his
word here, so that you may faithfully leave and face this world with the hope
of victory. He gives you the promise of
your baptism, where you are marked as one belonging to the Lord. He gives you here, his very body and blood,
the same that suffered and died for sin, and the same that lives and reigns
today in heaven. And in that eating, and
in that drinking, you already partake in the heavenly feast.
The world is
falling apart around us. But as
Christians, we fear not this world, or anything in it. As Christians, we know where our hope lies,
and what awaits us in eternity. Yes, all
men hate us because of Jesus, but we know that we who stand firm in Christ to
the end will be saved. Amen.
