The Storm

Luke 6:46-49 (Blessed Hope Translation - see sidebar for a link)
"Now, how foolish it is for you to address me with, "Lord, Lord," but not do what I command. Anyone who comes to me and hears my teachings and obeys them - I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundations on bedrock. Now when a flood came, the torrent struck that house but was unable to shake it, because it had been built well. If someone hears my teachings and down not obey them, however, he is like a man who built a house right on top of the ground without any foundation. As soon as a torrent struck it, it collapsed. And the ruin of that house was great."

Matthew 7:21-27
"Not just anyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in the heavens. Many people will say to me in that Day, "Lord, Lord, it was in your name that we prophesied, wasn't it? And it was in your name that we drove out demons, was it not? And yours was the name in which we did many miracles, was it not?" And at that time I will publicly declare to them, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" Given these things, if anyone hears these teachings of mine and obeys them, he may be compared to a wise man, who built his house on bedrock. The rain fell and the floodwaters came and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the bedrock. But if someone hears these teachings of mine and does not obey them, he may be compared to a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain fell and the floodwaters came and the winds blew and struck that house, and it fell. And its fall was great."

I've heard many sermons over the years on what we call "The Sermon on the Mount". There are two accounts of it and I have shared the same excerpt from both versions. Typically, when someone is preaching on this section - they refer to the 'flood' or the 'storm' as the "storms of life". That we need to be well-grounded in order that we not lose our Faith in the trials of this life. While that may be one application that can be made, I don't believe it captures the spirit of what Jesus is saying here. First, a couple observations:

a) Jesus' crowd here is his followers, otherwise known as his disciples. Earlier in Luke 6, verse 20, we read that, "Jesus, then, directed his attention to his disciples and said..." Certainly The Twelve would have been there, and these teaching would have been directed at them, but also there was a greater multitude that was following, who were not considered the inner circle, but were nevertheless disciples.

b) The entire tenor and tone of this sermon is eschatological, meaning, it is about a) what Jesus' eternal Kingdom will be like and b) what Jesus will be looking for upon his second coming. From the beatitudes at the beginning, ("blessed are you who are hungry now, for you WILL in due time eat as much as you want"), to the clarifications of the law in the middle section ("truly I tell you, these have received their reward"), to the very clear exhortations to "obey" at the end - all of it is pointing to a future reality.

It seems clear that the flood or storm that Jesus references at the end of this sermon has to do with a coming time of great distress, or 'tribulation' if you want to use a Biblical word. One indication is that the storm strikes everyone - both the one who built on the bedrock and the one who built on the sand...not only that, it is described as the same kind of storm (just 'flood' in the Luke account and 'rain', 'floods' and 'wind' in the Matthew account). The storms that each of us face in this life are very different. Some people tragically lose children, some people lose parents painfully to accidents or sickness, some people go through life with debilitating illnesses or conditions, and some people seem not to have much tragedy at all in their lives. So this can't be talking about the regular 'storms of life' that each of us faces, because those are very different, person to person. Sure - those storms can certainly test our faith in the God of the Universe, but with time, we usually heal, or the pain becomes more bearable.

But what about THE Storm? As someone who has only recently started wading into the waters of the different opinions on what 'the end times' will be like...I can't claim to know much of anything. I know there are pre-millenialists, post-millenialists, pre-tribulation rapturists, post-tribulation rapturists, and a hundred other (seemingly) positions that people take. I don't know much about any of that, but I know what the Bible has to say about The Storm, the great and terrible Day of the Lord:

Matthew 24:21
"For then [at the second coming] there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be." There is a parallel verse in Mark 13:19, "For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the ginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be."

This passages above seem to be a reference to Daniel 12:1, which says,
"At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time."

Joel 2:31
"The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the mood to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes."

Luke 21:34-36
"But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and care of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Revelation 3-19 has a lot to say about what this period will be like (but again, a reminder, that I do not yet understand much of the nuance of the debate as to the timing of various parts of this such as rapture, resurrection of the dead, etc):

Revelation 6:12-17
"When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree shreds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb..."

Think about this - six million Jews were exterminated in Nazi death camps during WWII. Millions and millions of soldiers died fighting for their countries and millions more civilians were killed as a result of bombings, starvation, etc. AND YET - the Bible promises a period of distress and suffering that will be unparalleled in human history. The Bible says that every human on the face of the earth at that time (and some would argue, anyone who has ever lived) will experience 'it' (Luke 21:34-36 above). The pain and suffering experienced throughout the world during WWI and WWII is incredible - but to think there will be a time worse than that...

I wonder if I'm ready for The Storm. Oftentimes, I doubt that I am. I feel weak in my faith, or I doubt my ability to suffer. It sobers me up - it makes me realize that I have work to do, to prepare myself. The normal storms of life will come, no doubt about it, but will I allow those things to press me in to Jesus and God's promises? Or will I become increasingly focused on myself and my own pain? I talked in a previous blogpost about how we counsel one another through difficulty...and while we certainly need someone, at times, to sit with us in our pain, we also need people who remind us that this isn't all there is. That no matter what happens here in this life, even if death should come for us, it isn't about THIS LIFE. It's about the life to come - it's about faith in Jesus and in the promises of God and about His Kingdom. Paul put it so perfectly in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (a verse I have quoted often here): "There we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and temporary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs our troubles. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Let us, together, fix our eyes on what is to come - and not allow the cares and concerns and troubles and afflictions of this life weigh us down and choke out our faith.