Psalm 97, 99; 1 Maccabees 3:25-41; Revelation 21:1-8; Matthew 17:14-21
The forces raised by Lysias to come against Jerusalem and those who were in the Maccabeean revolt included forty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry. These were to fight against the ultimate rag-tag army hiding among the rocks for the purpose of wiping out the observant and faithful Jews from the earth. The goal was complete annihilation of the faithful. People of faith are problematic for would-be totalitarians since the faithful have a higher and more compelling allegiance. We see time and again in Scripture that people like Nebuchadnezzar and others need to have control, even when it seems benevolent, over all the populace. We see today writers like Christopher Hitchens who makes no distinction between radical and fundamental Islam and fundamental Christianity because he sees religion as an obstacle to true rationality and therefore people of faith are obstacles to the formation of a rational and reasonable society. Will the future bring about such a stance towards faith as Antiochus took?
It’s all about faith. Jesus refers to this as a faithless and twisted generation. He is angry with the disciples but it also extends beyond that group to all who have seen and will not believe. As He comes to the close, it must have seemed that all this had failed, there was no faith and no one could see and believe because of the perversity of their minds, bent on things of earth. We live in such a generation as all have since the times of Noah and without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit we too would be unbelievers. People of faith, however, are to stand out in our world as different. We are to have different concerns and values from the rest of the world. We are to walk in power and say to mountains, move and yet we do not. We need a fresh outpouring and we need Jesus to return.
The old heaven and earth are passed away (see yesterday’s lesson) and a new heaven and a new earth are brought into being and the new Jerusalem comes down. No longer is God’s footstool and judgment seat there, however, now the Lord Himself is in her midst. All the perverse or twisted who would not repent and come to faith in Jesus are gone, there is nothing to cause sin or to bring pain and difficulty into the lives of the saints. Not only is there no sin, there are none of the results of sin, pain, dying, crying or mourning. Do we long for that day or are we still immersed in this life?
At the Lamb's high feast we sing
praise to our victorious King,
who hath washed us in the tide
flowing from his pierced side;
praise we him, whose love divine
gives his sacred Blood for wine,
gives his Body for the feast,
Christ the victim, Christ the priest.
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