Stand Up and Raise Your Heads

Advent in Christian tradition is more than a matter of the preparation for Christmas decoration and activities , but rather the time to prepare ourselves to welcome the coming of Jesus, for tears will be wiped away and justice will be restored. This is the background for the understanding of the text, Lk 21: 25-33.

In order to understand the text, I would like to draw your attention of progressive reading. The first stage is the readers are suffered from injustice, such as, poverty, political oppression from both the Roman Empire and the religious leaders and violence. The text is definitely a word of comfort and encouragement.

There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (v.25-26)

‘What is coming upon the world’ is about the realization of the sovereignty of God’s kingdom. The evil nation and unjust people are distressed by the roaring of the sea and the waves, not the poor and the oppressed, for justice and salvation of God’s kingdom would be established soon. Since this text is placed before the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, God’s kingdom is assumed to be realized in Jesus and this reflects in the aspiration of the people. Due to this, they are encouraged by Jesus’ saying ‘stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near’ (v.28).

The second stage is the delay of the coming of Jesus. The people expect that God’s kingdom is realized in Jesus’ entering in Jerusalem, but they are disappointed. After the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, they expect that Jesus would come soon, but in fact they have been waiting for many years, and nothing has been occurred. In this situation, Jesus says,

Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. (v.29-31)

This is a great comfort, for Jesus keeps his promise. But how do we interpret the natural phenomenon and socio-political development in relation to the nearest of the coming of God’s kingdom? First, we come across of a saying that the darkest the day is, the nearest the daybreak comes. This’ true, but the question is how to know that we are at the moment of the darkest. Ironically, we experience the darkest hasn’t arrived yet. Second, it focuses on the calculation of the time of the coming of Jesus. They endeavor to calculate the frequency of earthquake, the scale of war and all forms of disasters in order to justify that Jesus comes closer. During the 1970s, there is a widespread belief of that the EEC is the anti-Christ mentioned in the Book of Revelation 13. My Norwegian friend tells me that one of the considerations of the people whether Norway should join EEC is that Norway is a Christian nation, and it is unchristian to join the anti-Christ. All we know that the EEC now is more than 20 nations. Speculative argument is always very appealing and interesting, but this is just for fun. Anyway, no matter what they are doing in order to respond to the delay of the coming of Jesus, the purpose is to encourage people to ‘stand up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near.’

Now our current is whether we are in stage 2 or we move to stage 3 when we are reading this text. I suggest we are in stage 3, for what make us unable to stand up and raise our heads is not dominated by our suffering. We are unable to raise our heads, because a woman named 劉霞in our country is under house arrest for 2 years without reasonable reason. How can the so-called great nation China not be able to tolerate a woman? We are unable to raise our heads, for we are shame for our country. We cannot stand up, for the young people have less opportunity and their will are defeated. Several headmasters of secondary schools share with me that it takes 5 years for a young teaching assistant to be a teacher. ‘This city is dying’ is what we have experienced. In this moment of time, Jesus says

Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

It is not about the speculation of the coming of God’s kingdom as what the people in stage 2 are doing, but rather an invitation to live in the nature and to give time to the nature and from there we are not only able to discern the coming of God’s kingdom, but also to feel the presence of God’s graciousness. We need to retrieve our heart back to discern God’s kingdom. Nevertheless, the high-rise buildings have blocked our view to discern the signs, the shopping malls have replaced the sign coming from the nature, and our daily life dominated by calculation and efficiency have hardened our hearts. Let’s be encouraged by living in the nature so that we can stand up to say ‘NO’ to injustice, and raise our heads to speak out, not because we are unbeaten, but because God’s kingdom is coming.