Did Jesus Get It Wrong?

Luke 21:25-36
James McTyre
Lake Hills Presbyterian Church
Sunday, December 3, 2006

I’ve been doing this for a few years now, but it still seems such a disconnect to start this season with scriptures like these. I mean, for goodness’ sake, it’s Christmas, right? The stores – don’t even get me started. The communities are having parades, with marching bands and civic leaders waving. Santa always arrives at the parade’s very end, throwing out candy to all the children. That’s kind of a parable for Christmas season, isn’t it? A month-long parade, with Santa throwing presents at the end. And you know, as parables go, it’s not a bad one. Folks are generally jollier in December. People are smiling and wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even the employees at Wal-Mart are doing it this year. Like the John and Yoko song goes, “So this is Christmas.” Yup, it is. It’s a happy time. All of which makes me feel like a great big Grinch to have to be reading scripture like this one. In its scriptures of John the Baptist shouting, “Repent, you broods of vipers!” and Jesus telling the world to look for signs of apocalypse, it’s as if the church is poking a finger in Santa’s eye, saying, “Hold on just a darn minute, here.” It’s like the church is saying, “Hey, wait a minute. It’s not Christmas yet. This is Advent Season.” We’re not red and green. We’re purple. The color of repentance. If we did Advent by the books, we wouldn’t sing any Christmas carols, we wouldn’t put up any decorations. Is that what Jesus wants? I have a hard time believing Jesus wants us to prepare to celebrate his birth by sitting around like grim-faced Puritans pondering our sins and waiting for the end of the world. “Merry Christmas, you sinner.” But on the other hand, he does tell us, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.” It seems such a contradiction with everything else. Could Jesus – or at least the church – be missing something?

“Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away….” I don’t want to name any names from the pulpit, but there’s one member of our church who annually pokes a finger in my chest about this scripture and those like it, which say, “This generation will not pass away” until all these things have taken place. “So, preacher,” he says. “Did these things happen and everybody missed them? Or was Jesus wrong?” And every year I give my same answer, (exasperated sigh) “I don’t know. I didn’t write these things. I just read it, and try to make sense of it.” I tell him, “The Lord also says to go home, get in your closet, shut the door, and pray. Which is exactly what I think you should do, right now.” Actually, it’s a very good, if not irritating question. It’s the kind of thing Michael Gant could teach a lesson on, for, I don’t know, six or seven months. Was Jesus wrong? Did the world miss something? Are we missing something?

A few years ago, way back in the 1980’s, the world saw the rise of a very unlikely prophet. Bob Geldof, the lead singer of the British band, the Boomtown Rats, wrote a song called, “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” and sponsored the original Band Aid concert for famine relief for Ethiopia.


It's Christmas time,
there's no need to be afraid
At Christmas time,
we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty
we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
at Christmas time.

But say a prayer,
pray for the other ones
At Christmas time...
...it's hard, but when you're having fun

There's a world outside your window,
and it's a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing
is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them
instead of you!

And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows
No rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Here's to you raise a glass for everyone
Here's to them underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Feed the world
Let them know it's Christmas time again

If you thought the world was in trouble in the 1980’s, compare that to the post-9/11 here and now. We’ve got the horrors of Sudan, North Korea, Afghanistan, Lebanon – and, of course, Iraq, where the pressure cooker gets turned higher every day. You turn on the news, or pick up the paper – you see these signs that the world’s just going nuts, and you think, well, maybe Jesus got it right, after all. I mean, if you think about it too much it really is a poke in the chest or a finger in the eye. How can the world be such a contradiction? Noel – and pure hell. All at the same time.

So Jesus says, “Be on guard…. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” When you think about it in a global sense, then Jesus might not have missed anything. He might have seen more than we would ever want to. “Wake up!” he tells us. He tells us to open our eyes and look around. If the world makes you depressed, then maybe it should. Maybe reality should make you thankful that you’ve escaped these things. Maybe seeing the condition of God’s children across an ocean or across the tracks should motivate you. Maybe it should make us all pray for the coming of the Son of Man, a real, true, and lasting Advent.

It’s like another song we sing,

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

Instead of a disconnect, Advent scriptures call us to re-connect. Jesus isn’t a contradiction to Christmas, he’s its greatest prediction. There will be a day when the world is fed. There will be a day when the soldiers all come home. There will be a day when the captives are freed and we’re all released from the sins and fears that bind us. We will find rest in the dear desire of every nation and there will be joy in every longing heart. It turns out, in the end, Jesus got it right. Jesus will get it right. He’ll get everything right. The question is, will we?