Still fleeing Jerusalem

Sermon for Third-to-Last Sunday (Trinity 25)

Isaiah 49:12-17  +  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  +  Matthew 24:15-28

Our Lord urgently warned His disciples in today’s Gospel about future events—scary events—that His Christians would face in this world. His disciples, earlier in the day, had pointed out to Him the beautiful craftsmanship of the temple in Jerusalem, and Jesus had prophesied that destruction was coming to that city and to that temple. In the verses before our Gospel, the disciples asked Jesus this question: “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” It’s really two questions. When will Jerusalem be destroyed, and what will things be like before You come at the end of the age? Jesus’ answer addresses both questions, even though they are separate events—separated by at least 1948 years. The literal tribulation leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. mimics the spiritual tribulation leading up to the second coming of Christ. In both cases, the words of Christ to His dear Christians are the same: Flee to the mountains!

Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Idolatry is that great abomination, the thing that God hates and that brings with it desolation and destruction, as the Old Testament makes clear. Idolatry is the worship of a false god, elevating someone or something above God. Idolatry is man’s attempt to worship God apart from His Word, apart from Jesus Christ, apart from faith in His death on the cross for our sins.

Idolatry is what had firmly taken root in the city of Jerusalem over the forty years following Christ’s death and resurrection. Yes, it was bad that the Jews crucified Jesus. But they could have been forgiven for that. The unforgiveable sin, as Jesus also talked about it in the Gospels, was their sin against the Holy Spirit who preached repentance to them through the apostles and held out the promise of forgiveness through faith in Christ. For a time after the Day of Pentecost, the Gospel was received by some in Jerusalem. But over the years it became increasingly apparent that the people of Jerusalem would continue to trust in their own merits and reject the Holy Spirit’s ministry. They would continue to offer up their own sacrifices to God in the Temple. And those sacrifices, since they were separated from faith in the one true sacrifice of Christ, were pure idolatry in the sight of God. And so Jerusalem would be destroyed by God’s own decree—wiped out by the Roman armies in AD 70 after several years of some of the worst tribulation and horror any nation has ever seen.

So Jesus warned His Christians ahead of time to “flee to the mountains,” without hesitation, without delay, and without looking back. And they did flee. The Christians listened, and were saved.

Ever since that time, the city of Jerusalem has ceased to be “the holy place.” Even Christians through the ages have failed to acknowledge that. There’s nothing holy about that city anymore, nothing special about it, no prophecies that deal with it. Don’t let anyone deceive you with lies about some special place Jerusalem has in the prophecies leading up to the end of the world. All of God’s prophecies about the earthly city of Jerusalem were fulfilled when the city was destroyed in AD 70.

The true “holy place” now is not a single geographic location. The “holy place” is the Christian Church on earth, where the “holy ones” are, the saints, the believers in Christ, and where the holy Word of Christ is preached and the holy Sacraments of Christ are administered. The Church on earth, in its broad sense, is made up of all baptized Christians, all who claim to believe in Jesus Christ. But there will always be weeds among the wheat, as Jesus’ parable says, people within the Christian Church who do not actually trust in Christ or honor His Word. In fact, Scripture declares that within the Church, within this “temple” of Christianity, a man of lawlessness will set himself up over everything that is called “God.” This is the Antichrist, the “one who replaces Christ,” the spiritual “abomination of desolation.”

But the Antichrist is not a single person. It can’t be, because, as Paul describes in 2 Thessalonians, it lasts from shortly after the time of the Apostles until the Second Coming of Christ. The Antichrist—that institution within the temple of the Christian Church that sets itself up as a “replacement-Christ” has been revealed over time as the Roman papacy. Now, we’re careful to make the distinction: Not all Roman Catholics are the Antichrist, nor are they all unbelievers going to hell. That’s just the thing: the abomination of desolation sets itself up right there in the holy place, in the temple of God, where Christians are. It’s represented in the line of popes who, for over a thousand years, have been contradicting Christ and setting up their own papal authority and human traditions over the authority of Christ’s Word. The idolatry that has been set up in “the holy place” is truly an abomination of desolation—the sanctioned idolatry of trusting in saints and their merits, the sacrifice of the Mass, the justification-not-by-faith-alone theology, the trust that is placed in the glorious human institution, not to mention the more recent idolatry of science that Rome has embraced, denying the six-day creation and embracing the doctrine of evolution. All of these are idolatries, setting up manmade doctrines over the Word of Christ. And all of it takes place within the pale and in the name of Christianity.

Lutherans have recognized this abomination of desolation in Rome for some 500 years, and so we are as those who are fleeing to the mountains. We couldn’t stay in communion with Rome, nor can we go back to Rome. We can’t stay and share in her prestige or her glory, because destruction is coming upon her. I think everyone here is well aware of that.

But while the papacy may best represent the Antichrist, its idolatries are not restricted to the Roman Church. Protestants, who have no outward allegiance to the pope, have set up plenty of idolatries in the Christian Church, too. Women pretending to serve as pastors. Homosexuality endorsed and approved as acceptable and God-pleasing. Denying the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. The worship of man, the worship of personal preference, the rejection of the holy ministry, and the elevation of church bodies and synods to the place of God in people’s hearts. These are just a few of the abominations that have been set up in the Christian Church. You don’t have to be Roman Catholic to be in league with Antichrist. All of these share the spirit of Antichrist. To remain in communion with those who promote any of these idolatries is to remain in Jerusalem after the abomination of desolation has been set up.

And so we must always be as those who are fleeing to the mountains. That doesn’t mean we stop going to church. On the contrary, it is still God’s will to create faith and to forgive sins only through the ministry of the Word, through preaching and through the Holy Sacraments. It is still God’s will to save sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified for their sins and by sustaining faith through His Means of Grace. And it’s still God’s will that Christians gather together to encourage one another, and all the more as we see the Day of Judgment drawing nearer. God will most certainly keep us safe from death and the devil as we flee from the idolatry of the Antichrist.

But fleeing to the mountains means we have to give up all our idolatries, too, and keep giving them up, because idolatry is like the mole in the whack-a-mole game. Smack it down in one place, and it pops up in another. We’ve given up the prestige and the comforts and the conveniences of a larger church in order to remain faithful to the Word of Christ. But we could easily start to cling desperately to the external things we still have. We could easily grow more attached to the things of this world than to the Word of Christ, which would mean forfeiting all the benefit of fleeing the abomination of desolation in the first place.

But to guard us against that, God continues to provide for us here in our flight. The Gospel is still being proclaimed in our midst, where the Holy Spirit calls us daily to repentance through His Law, comforts us and forgives us through His Gospel, hedges us in with His warnings to beware of all those false christs and false prophets who will seek to distract us along the way. “Here is Christ! Over here! Over here!” You know how confusing the religious scene is in our world. So confusing, so lonely, and so disheartening that even the elect are close to being deceived, as Jesus said we would be.

That would be more disheartening if we were truly alone. But we aren’t. Not only does the Lord Jesus accompany us always, to the very end of the age, but there are countless others around the world who have also fled Jerusalem and are living as spiritual refugees. Some of them we know, some of them we don’t. But we give thanks for them all, for the entire Holy Christian Church.

And all of this would be scarier, too, if Jesus hadn’t told us it would be this way beforehand. But He did. Right here in our Gospel. And He promises that it will be all right, and better than all right for those who cling in faith to Him above all things. We may be living as those who are fleeing, but God is with us as we flee, our Captain, our Defender, our Savior. He hasn’t sent us out of the city empty-handed, but has poured His love into our hearts by His Holy Spirit, and has given us His Word and His body and blood for food, and His righteousness for a cloak.

And at just the right time, the carcass will appear—the body of Him who was dead, but now lives again forevermore. And when He appears, the eagles will gather around Him, all those who have longed for His appearing. Paul described that in today’s Epistle: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The words of Jesus today paint a frightening picture, but not so frightening when He promises His help and a blessed ending for His Church, for His believers, for His saints. Cling to that promise! And wait patiently here in the mountains for the Lord’s return! Amen.