Bible Text: St. Luke 21:25–36 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
The world is evil. That’s often how the Bible talks. Jesus says, “In the world you will have trouble.” He calls the devil the prince of this world. And his apostle urges us to be in the world but not of it. And we sing this. What is the world to me, with all its vaunted pleasure? The hymn “Jerusalem the Golden,” is actually from a much longer hymn by Bernard of Cluny named, “The world is very evil.” When the Bible talks about the world this way it’s talking about the evil that dominates this world, which we see every day if we’re not purposefully blinding ourselves to it, the corruption of our sinful nature, the rejection of God and His Christ, the hating, the hypocritical judging, the political conniving, the sexual filth that dominates the airwaves and screens and minds of this world, the worship of money, and the list goes on. All this stands against Christ and His Church and so we want God to put an end to it and we count the world our enemy. St. John instructs us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
But this isn’t the only way the Bible talks about the world. The psalms praise the world constantly as God’s creation, they praise its beauty, that it’s a witness to God’s glory, “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” This world, the stuff of it, is good, it’s God’s creation, and what God makes is good. That’s what he says over and over again when He creates the world. It is good.
So when we condemn “the world” we’re not condemning the stuff of this world, we’re condemning the evil that corrupts it. God is good and what He made is good and it’s meant to be enjoyed by us who love God. But we can’t enjoy it as we should. We abuse it, love the stuff of this world more than we love the God who made it, and then it disappoints us, because God never made the things of this world to replace Him in our hearts. We get so prideful and selfish and worried about our own things, that we fail to enjoy anything in creation God gives us, family, sunsets, food. This is sin and we need to repent of it. God’s creation is good, but we make it bad in our own hearts when we forget the God who gave it.
This is why we want Judgment Day to come. Judgment Day will mean finally enjoying God and His creation like we should, like we were created to do. Because Judgment Day will be the end of the world as we know it. But it will not be the end of creation. Christians will experience no loss in the resurrection, except for loss of the bad. You’ll be rid of all sin and pride and selfishness and pain and filth and broken hearts and loneliness and depression and guilty conscience. You’ll be rid of worshipping stuff that only disappoints. The only thing you will lose is sin and corruption, the very things the Spirit groans within you to be rid of now. You’ll lose only your sinful desires, and that will make everything a thousand times more beautiful, infinitely more enjoyable, to see with eye undimmed God and His Creation as he meant us to see. You will gain more than you can imagine. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But eye will see it. Your eyes will see it all. Judgment Day is the Day of Resurrection. It’s the day of stuff, of creation restored. Your body perfect, made to be like the body of your Savior, which He has now and will have forever, incorruptible. And a new heavens and a new earth, where no moth and rust destroy and no thieves break in and steal. God will not give up on creation. If He’s going to restore your body, He’s going to restore your mountains, your rivers, all creation.
Our Gospel gives us the signs of the end of the world and they are all signs in creation, in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, the churning of the ocean. There are other signs Jesus talks about, but in our reading, it’s all physical stuff. This is because the world, creation itself, agrees with us. It wants the same thing Christians do. It wants release from corruption. That’s why as the last day comes, the earth and the heavens will express their hope in the roaring of the sea and the waves and in the powers of heaven being shaken. St. Paul talks about this same thing. He says creation itself waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. That’s us, Christians – creation’s waiting to see us perfect again, because it knows when we are perfect on the last day, it will return to perfection. “For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that all creation has been groaning together in birth pangs until now.”
On Judgment Day the seas will clap their hands, the mountains will bow, the valleys will rise to meet their Lord, the sun, the stars, the moon, all creation, will join the angels and us, the sons of God, in welcoming their Lord, our Deliverer. This isn’t mere poetic language. It’s poetic because it’s too beautiful for human words to express. Creation is waiting for its release, and in its own way, it knows its Lord is coming to bring that release.
All the stuff you put your trust in will fail you. Not because the stuff is bad, but because the stuff is on God’s side, it’s waiting for the new heavens and the new earth, where all will worship God and no one will worship creation. The wine that gets you drunk does so unwillingly, it itself objects to your abuse of it, and it waits for its redemption, when it will never be abused again. The bodies we use for sin, they object to it, and wait for the day when this cannot happen anymore. All creation agrees with Jesus’ warning against drunkenness and dissipation and the cares of this world. He says they’ll weigh you down. And if you let them reign in your life, make no mistake, they will not only weigh your life down on earth, they’ll drag you down to hell. Why do people get drunk? Why do we seek after sinful thrills? Because we want to be lifted up! That’s what drinking is for. It’s to make you happy. But when you worship it, when you abuse it, and make it your god and drink more and more of it, what you wanted to lift you up will only weigh you down, make you more depressed, make you less productive, make you care less about everyone else and more and more about yourself and the cares of this world. And this goes for every sinful pleasure, what we think will lift us up, weighs us down.
That’s all the more reason for us to wait with longing for our Lord’s coming. You want to be rid of sin, of pain, of temptation, of fear, of disease, of lies, of betrayal, of cancer, of filth. So does creation. The very ground under your feet is waiting for what we Christians wait for. And if that ground quakes and the sea roars, then take it as the sign Jesus says it is, that He is coming soon, to release creation from its bondage together with you. And not only creation, St. Paul says, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. This is why we can confess with the Psalmist, “Though the earth give way and the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, we will not fear.” For God is with us. Immanuel. He has joined our creation. He is one of us. He has faced the sin that corrupts us and gives us all our pain and causes our death. He’s borne it, borne its judgment, borne its punishment, taken it off of us and off of this world He loves.
That means judgment day is what we look forward to. The One who has faced our judgment will come to free us from all sin forever. So Jesus says lift up your heads. That’s an echo of Psalm 24, what we sing so often during this Advent season, “Lift up your heads, O gates. And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” Lift up your heads and look to Jesus, who will lift you up and never let you down. Heaven and earth will pass away that day. But His Word created this world and it will create a new one. His Word created you. His Word forgave your every sin. And His Word on that final day will free you and all creation from all evil forever. His Word never passes away.
Jesus lifts you up. He doesn’t let you down. Even when all life falls apart, and everything you trusted in fails you. Jesus doesn’t. His Baptism still saves you. It still has the promise of the Spirit and eternal life with your Father in heaven. Jesus’ body and blood never lie to you. You come in sorrow over sin and faith in your Savior, and He tells you with certainty, guaranteed by His own death for you, your sins are forgiven and you are His and He is yours, that He will give you the strength to stand before the Son of Man and live. Here is something you know you can pray for and Jesus will give every single time. So pray for it. Jesus told you to and He wants to give it. Pray for strength to live the Christian life and to receive from your Lord’s hand double for all your sins. And He will give it. He died and He lives to give it to you. He will give the Spirit to strengthen you to live godly lives and forsake all willful sinning. And He will give the purity of a clean conscience, a thing more precious than gold that perishes, because washed in your Baptism and given peace in our Lord’s Supper, forgiven and blameless, you are clothed with the righteousness and innocence of Christ.
And when the last day comes, you will stand before the Son of Man. All creation will be released from its groaning and its long wait for the revelation of the sons of God will be complete. And it, along with the angels in heaven, will rejoice to see you, saints, Christians, the apple of God’s eye, as your eyes behold the glorious face of your Savior, and we all live the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.