[Jesus said,] "So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near." - Luke 21:31
Seen yesterday when I took my son to the dentist:
Miss R,
I am sorry that I was ugly. You are a good teeth cleaner Lady.
Love,
jb
What did Jesus mean when he said, "when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near" (Luke 21:31)? What things will we see? In context, Jesus is clearly saying we'll see new life springing forth from stuff that previously looked dead.
So let's start with what looks dead. Let's start with "jb" and the letter above. When jb was being (to use his mom's, er, I mean, jb's term) "ugly," do you think he thought he was being ugly? My heavens, no! Nobody thinks they're being ugly until after they're done being ugly. And even then, they may not think they were being ugly.
I mean, seriously, I've got a long, long, long list of people who have been ugly to me in my life, and they still don't think they were being ugly. There are so many people who've been ugly to me that they could all start apologizing right now and the line still wouldn't be done when Jesus comes again.
I know you know what I mean. Aren't there a whole bunch of people who owe you an apology for being ugly?
And that's exactly what dead looks like.
What dead looks like is a world full of people who are walking around each day, waiting for the long line of people to form who owe them an apology. And I know some people who are going to be waiting a really long time like a person who recently replied to my apology by telling me that I didn't apologize the right way. There's a lot of "jb"s out there who don't think they've been ugly. It's just everybody else.
But Jesus says that we should stay hopeful, that one day what's dead will spring forth with new life. Jesus says that leaves will start popping out of fig trees. He might as well have said that apology notes will start coming from jb.
Ya see, what beautiful looks like is a world full of people who are walking around each day, not waiting for the long line of people to form who owe them an apology, but instead are starting to address the first person in the long line of people that, (I'll own it), I owe an apology to. And who cares if they apologize back to me. If the only reason I apologize to them is to get them to apologize to me, then I should keep my stinking apology that really is no apology at all.
Hey, y'all, I'm not feeling really bad about something and using all of you to have some dump-my-emotions, healing session. All I know is that I took my son to the dentist yesterday morning, and I saw the note from jb: "Miss R, I am sorry that I was ugly. You are a good teeth cleaner Lady. Love, jb." And it made me smile. And it felt good. And I thought, "I need to write some notes to some people about me being ugly and them being a good teeth cleaner Lady or whatever they're good at."
So, it's your choice whether or not to join in, but I'm declaring today "National Do-like-JB and Apologize-to-Somebody Day." I myself know a long line to whom I should apologize. And if enough people participate, we should be seeing lots of leaves and life springing forth, ya know, seeing lots of smiles, probably seeing lots of tears, and, God's word promises, seeing the kingdom of God a lot more clearly than the day before.
[Jesus said,] "So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near." - Luke 21:31
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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