The Beginning and The End

To Him Who loves us and freed us from our sins by His blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.  Look!  He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and on His account all the tribes of the earth will wail.  So it is to be.  Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:5b-8)

During the last few weeks of the liturgical year, the Church turns its attention to what it calls Eschatology, the discussion of the last things.  This portion of theology is concerned with death, judgment and the final destiny of each person.

The readings from the final few Sundays of the liturgical year are be taken from the final chapters of the Gospel of St. Luke.  This comes following the arrival of our Lord within the city of Jerusalem.  During the many weeks from the 19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time to the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time we were walking along with our Lord as He traveled from Galilee to Jerusalem.  And we weren’t only following Jesus in this historical journey that He took with His disciples 2000 years ago, but we are also contemplating a present journey that we are all called to take with our Lord in the present.  We have been seeking in these many weeks to find our own ways of discipleship, our present journey of life together with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In these weeks we have learned lessons on the importance of prayer as we heard Jesus give the “Our Father” to His followers.  We also heard about the importance of being persistent in these lives of
prayer, since God the Father desires to give good things to those who continue to call upon Him.

We also learned to balance this life of prayer with a life of accomplishing good and serving those around us.  With these many lessons showing us, the ways of loving kindness we have also celebrated within the P.N.C.C. the Solemnities of Brotherly Love and the Christian Family.  These special days remind us to care for those we encounter like the Good Samaritan on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and also to seek to incorporate others into the Family of Faith that is the Church.

And we must remind ourselves that each of these weekly lessons are not to be considered separately or in isolation, but rather we must strive to incorporate each of them into a consistent life of discipleship, a life of growing ever closer to Jesus and our brothers and sisters.

It is at this time of year though that we also turn our attention to the goal of this journeying together with Christ.  We seek to be united fully with Him and to Him.  It is something that begins in our ways of discipleship, but we seek to conclude it as well in the kingdom of Heaven.

In Luke’s Gospel, where we find ourselves in these last weeks of the liturgical year, Jesus has arrived in Jersualem and we know that these are the final days before His Passion, His Death and His Resurrection.  These final days of His teachings are therefore certainly important for the disciples then and us now as well.

In the first of these Sundays, Jesus is questioned by the Sadducees, those who believed there was no resurrection.  The question concerned what is known as “levirate marriage,” the practice within ancient
Judaism that if a man died with a wife but no children, his brother would marry the widow to care for her and ensure the deceased’s lineage.  The
Sadducees pose a question to Jesus, “Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless.  Finally, the women also died.  In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the women be?” (Luke 21:29-32)

Jesus reminds the Sadducees then and us today that, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.  Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” (Luke 20:34-36)

Jesus tells us here that in the resurrection we will each have an ever closer relationship to Almighty God and in fact we will be children of God and like angels. 

In the following week our Lord reminds us that the challenges we face in our journey of faith will be rewarded in that close relationship as well.  Again, Jesus says, “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.  But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you… This will give you an opportunity to testify.  So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” (Luke 21:11-15)  And lastly Jesus tells us, “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” (Luke 21:19)  Whether we take these signs to be actual events to come, or metaphors for difficult times really doesn’t matter.  What is at stake is the opportunity given to us to testify and witness to Jesus in the present.

Through this opportunity to witness, our Lord reminds us that we are seeking something greater than anything that can be found on this earth.  We are seeking to be united fully with Him in the glory of the reign of God. 

On the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the Sunday we know as the Solemnity of Christ the King, we will finally read the gospel from the Crucifixion of our Lord.  Although there is a connection to the inscription on the Cross which reads, “This is the King of Jews,” at first consideration we might not see this as a kingly experience.  But of course, if we only look a bit deeper, we will see the truth that it is.

“And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at Him, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Messiah of God, His chosen one!’  The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up and offering Him sour wine, and saying, ‘If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!’  There was also an inscription over Him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’  (Luke 23:35-38)

It seems here as if the whole world is against our Lord, but then there is the interaction of the criminals on the cross with Jesus.  This interaction sums up the entirety of what is at stake.  “One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding Him and saying, “Are You not the Messiah?  Save Yourself and us!  But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this Man has done nothing wrong.’  Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’  Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23:39-43)

We see in this reading that, strive as we might throughout our entire lives to grow closer to Jesus in good works and discipleship, all done because of our love for Jesus, in the end we must allow all of it to lead us to say, “Jesus remember me.”  We must cast all that we are, all that we have, all that we do, upon the Lord, Who went to the Cross for love of us.

This reading then truly is a kingly one, because although Jesus is on the Cross suffering, He suffers to allow each of us to receive the forgiveness of our sins and then forgiven, to be united fully to Him.  And united with Him, we will live forever in the Kingdom of Heaven.