A Lenten Reading of Matthew - Day Thirty-Three

Scripture Reading: Matthew 24:1-28 (NRSVUE)

Matthew pivots from the hypocrisy of the Pharisees to the destruction of the Temple.  Of course, he is writing this with the hindsight of the razing of Jerusalem in 70 CE.  

When Jesus says, "Not one stone will be left upon another," Matthew knows that this has already come to pass.

The wars and destruction have already taken place.  But the early church would also be in the midst of persecution.  They may hear this as a reassurance - this was known and predicted, and things will be okay in the end.

Sometimes the chaos is metaphorical
and sometimes it is actual.

Sometimes, when we are lost, we look for some signs of recognition that we might find our way again.  We seek for familiarity and when we find it, we are relieved.  There is comfort in the prediction as well, for the early church to know that these things are a part of life.

As we experience wars and chaos in the 21st century, we may have our own anxieties.  While the wars have not touched us in the United States as dramatically as in other countries, we still know what it is to experience chaos here.

It is unsettling. 

We would like to find the familiar.

Does verse twelve ring true for us today?  "And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold."

It may be that we need our faith to help us endure.  We remember the call of Jesus to love God and to love our neighbors.  How does chaos make it difficult to love?

May we remember that love is not a feeling for the Christian as much as it is an action.

Prayer for the day:

Give us, O God, the power to go on, to carry our share of your burden through to the end, to live all the years of our life faithful to the highest we have seen.  Give us the power to give ourselves, to break the bread of our lives unto starving humanity; in humble self-subjection to serve others, as you, O God, do serve the world.  Amen.

Prayer by J.S. Hoyland, Quaker, 20th Century

Photo by James Guppy via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.