As they led Jesus away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:26-31)
The wood is dry. It’s been dry for a long time. There is no moisture of the knowledge of God left inside. Men do not worship the Creator, but the creation. We are the product of evolution, after all, not the special creation of a God who made all things by His powerful Word. Human life in the womb has no value. Reality itself is denied, even the reality of male and female, husband and wife, parents and children. All that matters is pleasure and self and self-determination. The truth of God is abandoned for the feeling of the moment. Christians are scolded and hated by society for trying to hold people back from “progress,” when in reality, Christianity is the only thing holding back the final Judgment that is coming on the world, as the Lord Christ, through His Church, searches for the last few souls who will be converted by His Gospel and saved from a wicked and adulterous generation.
Meanwhile, as the wood has dried up, suffering and violence have increased, as they did leading up to the Great Flood, at which time God’s solution to man’s wickedness was judgment for the many and salvation for the few.
It wouldn’t have to be this way. Salvation is offered to the many. All have sinned, but Christ suffered for all and wants all men to be saved. His command to repent and His invitation to believe are for everyone. Repentance and faith and the new life in Christ would make our world a safe and lovely place. But the many won’t hear of it.
So we Christians bide our time until Christ returns. And He will return. He’s coming soon. We gather around His Word and Sacrament. We pray for the world and for ourselves. We strive to be lights shining in a dark place, reflecting the love of Christ and speaking the truth of Christ. We teach our children to know the Lord and to follow the Lord, both so that they will not become the mass murderers and so that they need not fear the mass murderers and the many dangers of the world, because they are baptized children of the one true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and their lives are in His keeping, for time and for eternity.
Mourn with those who mourn. Acknowledge the darkness in the world. But don’t spend too much time staring at the darkness. Look to Christ. He is the Light that is coming at the end of this dark tunnel, and His Word shines in the world even now. “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Peace be with you,
Pastor Rydecki
