Sunday, November 18, 2012
Hebrews 10: 11-14 (15-18), 19-25
Day after day every priest stands and performs his duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest (Jesus the Christ) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Mark 13: 1-8
As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginnings of birth pains.
The pivotal wait of 2012 has finally arrived on this day, November 6th. The consequences of this election will resound well into the future centuries of American political life. A decision will have been made that cannot and will not be expunged by any other future election. The disciples that followed Jesus sensed that they were living in just such a time of consequence over two thousand years ago. They did not understand the cosmic gyrations of their happening but they knew that their lives and the lives of future generations of their countrymen would somehow be different.
The religion of Israel had become exclusive and distant from the spiritual needs of most of the everyday folk. These people, including Peter, James, John and Andrew followed Jesus throughout the countryside. This Jesus spoke to them of spiritual things, things about the God of the universe who was about to bring big changes on their behalf because he noticed them and cared for them. These kingdom tidings were conveyed with an intensity that captured the spiritual longings of their hearts and they, the first disciples of the new kingdom, began to ask questions.
In Mark 13 the disciples praised the great stone buildings of their religion. Jesus countered with an alarming prophesy of the coming demise of these great buildings and the religion that placed these stones one upon the other. We can imagine that these men were fearful of such cataclysmic language but they managed to ask of Jesus, when will this happen? The answer of the teacher was confusing, he, Jesus is somehow the focus of the coming change? This man has the wisdom of the ages, spiritual integrity and can do miracles, but how can he tear down these stone buildings? Something more must be going on here.
The more is explained by the writer of Hebrews in this passage from chapter 10. Jesus is more than a man, a prophet, a teacher or a political leader, he is the Christ, the Great High Priest, the promised Messiah, the "I am he” of all Scripture, the risen from the grave extension of God himself who has come into the world to make a forever change in the spiritual fortunes of human kind. Following the final forever sacrifice of God himself upon the cross, on a hill outside Jerusalem, the reunified Godhead waits forever until each of us surrender to the will of God. In this world or the next, he is the waiting Father.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
