I was around 30 or so and had been a
senior pastor for just a few years. One
of the elderly women in our church died and I had preached her funeral. Her family appreciated the way things
went. So they called me a few months
later. One of her distant relatives, someone
who did not have a pastor, was in a coma.
They were considering taking him off life support but they wanted to
talk to me first.
Something occurred to me this week as I
remember that time 15 years ago. It did
not occur to me then, but it struck me this past week. The man was young – only 48. I was not so dense at age 30 that I thought 48
was “old.” I was not foolish to think, ‘OK,
he lived a good life.’ But it didn’t register with me that 48 is young. I am now 45 years old. Forty-eight seems young now. He was 48 and his wife had to make the
agonizing decision to take him off life support and sit with him as he
died. She wanted a pastor present. She hoped I could offer meaning and make
sense of what was taking place.
I don’t know if I was of any help to
her. She was not part of our church
family, so I did not see her after I preached her husband’s funeral. Often people will turn to pastors, even
people who have never been in church, when questions of mortality and ultimate
meaning arise and they have no resources to answer such questions.
The two questions facing us are (1) what
bad news or misfortune hits with such devastation that we find ourselves at
such a loss and so disoriented or overwhelmed that it would indeed be a
crisis? What losses in life knock us
flat on our backs? Your answer will be
different than the person a few rows behind or even the person sitting next to
you. Maybe some of us have been through
such a devastating crisis are in the middle of one.
Syrian refugees are in the midst of
life-changing events and indeed a life and death struggle. In our own community, families locked in
poverty face agonizing decisions that could render them homeless and maybe even
tear their families apart. And even
families who are in relatively safe communities and have financial means, are
middle class or higher, face personal crises that potentially bring suffering
and loss. What is the danger you face or
I face? That is the first question.
The second is what resources do you or I
have to stand as the looming shadow of the approaching threat grows and
threatens to swallow us? What do we have
that enables us not only to survive the threat, but to thrive in the face of
it? Jesus did not just promise he would
get us through, help us survive. He
offered more. He offers abundant
life. When faced with the death of a
loved one at too young an age or the myriad struggles that come with poverty or
the trail of tears refugees must walk or some other crisis, what gets us
through and helps us joyfully thrive even in dark times?
We approach 2 Thessalonians 2 through
these questions because of the first two verses. We beg
you brothers and sisters … do not be quickly alarmed as if the day of the Lord
has already come (paraphrase). The
Thessalonian Church members accepted that persecution would come. They would suffer because they chose to
follow Jesus. That was the course they
had chosen. That was not their
crisis. The letter does not specifically
identify the source of the persecution.
It could have come from many corners.
Whatever the source, there were enemies opposing the preaching of Jesus
in Thessalonica.
The crisis came in continued speculation
and confusion about when the risen Jesus would return, bring history to an end,
judge the word, and usher in the Kingdom of God. Even though this question had been directly
addressed in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, confusion and concern over it
persisted. In fact, the people were very
alarmed. Their faith was beginning to
crack not because of persecution but because of doubt. Did Jesus come and did they miss it?
Our crisis is not theirs but in our
church as in their church, doubt comes when we get blindsided by some major
problem threatens the vibrant relationship we have with God, and robs us of the
joy we have in Christ. The promise to
that ancient church remains for us preserved in this letter.
We see the specific issue for the
Thessalonians beginning in verse 3.
Before the Day of the Lord comes, there will be a rebellion led by the
lawless one. This lawless one is called
the beast in the book of Revelation. In
1st and 2nd John, the term used is antichrist. That term, ‘antichrist,’ is only recorded in
two books in the Bible – 1st John and 2nd John. Lawless one, beast, and antichrist – do these
terms refer to specific individuals? Are
they each ways of identifying the same individual?
James Efird who taught at Duke Divinity
School points out that because Paul did not specifically identify this person
it is futile to try to do so.[i] Paul felt the lawless one would be active
soon, within a decade of his writing.
And, the Roman Emperor Domitian would have fit the bill as his
persecution of Christians in the last decade of the first century AD did make
things hard for Christians. Abraham
Mallherbe believes Paul was not identifying a specific enemy of God but rather
had in mind an end-times “personification of lawlessness, the ultimate
representative of those in whom lawlessness comes to expression.”[ii]
We could fill in names. Hitler was the antichrist, the lawless
one. Osama Bin Laden is who Paul
meant. Or maybe today, the leader of ISIS,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the one. When
he’s off the seen another enemy of humanity will come along. The point is evil is in the world right now.
God has already won the final
battle. That happened when Jesus died on
the cross for the sins of the world and then rose from the grave. Those two events are inseparable. Taken together, we see what God has won – our
freedom from death and sin. There is no
final battle coming.
However, the news of the victory has not
yet made it throughout the world. So for
the time being, we live as people who have the Holy Spirit, are saved, born
again, and are called to be heralds announcing the life people can have in
Christ. We have this truth and the
mission to which we are called in the midst of a world where there is pain and
suffering. Evil has been defeated but
not yet sentenced to eternal death. In
this interim period between resurrection and second coming, we live in the
tension of the eternal power of God and the present reality of evil, suffering,
and death.
The Lawless One of 2 Thessalonians 2
represents the reality that evil is in the world. We have to live within that reality. This chapter falls in with a style of writing
called apocalyptic. This style uses
fantastic images as an artistic way of describing God’s activity within human
history. Many reader mistakenly see in
apocalyptic writing a script or a forecast of the end times. It doesn’t actually work that way. The book of Daniel, Matthew 24 & 25, and
the book of Revelation are examples of apocalyptic writings. In each case, the thing to catch is the
promise of God described in poetic images.
Again, Professor Efird on the lawless
one in 2 Thessalonians: “given the symbolic nature of apocalyptic thinking, it
is possible that Paul did not have anyone or anything in mind as this “man of
lawlessness.” It appears that he speaks
again in traditional symbolic imagery to describe a scene he does not know how
to depict with specifics. Paul always
realized, as some others have not, that the future belongs to God and will be
worked out by God.”[iii]
The urging in 2 Thessalonians is that
the church not be shaken by rumors or lies or threats. Whomever or whatever power opposes God and
injures God’s people will wilt before the force of Jesus. Verse 8, “The Lord Jesus will destroy [the
lawless one] with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the
manifestation of his coming.”
Of course this promise raises a more
immediate concern. It is wonderful to
think that one day Jesus will come and conquer evil and death will no longer
threaten nor will anything else. We can
count on that. But what about between
then and now? Remember, we began with
two questions: (1) what crises threaten us?
And (2) what helps faces these threats?
So, we say, great! One day Jesus
will come and defeat evil. But what
about today? How do we live under
threats to world security and safety, the threat of disease and death, and the
specter of destructive behaviors and relationships that fall apart and leave us
defeated and heartbroken?
I have not mentioned Satan, this
morning. Verse 9 says the lawless one
and Satan are affiliated with each and they use “all power, signs, lying
wonders, and every kind of wicked deception” in the destruction of the lives of
men and women. Satan’s works are made
manifest in antichrists and lawless men and women. We don’t see the devil, but forces of evil
are real and active. We see the results
of their malevolence when we fall prey to temptation and step off the path of
discipleship and onto the way that leads away from God.
This takes different forms in each
person’s life. Evil is extraordinarily
individual. What tempts you has no
allure for me. What leads me into sin
wouldn’t be snare for you at all. In the
promises of this passage, what help do have that enables us to repel these
threats and live an abundant life in Christ?
What assurance do we have for today?
In 2 Thessalonians 1:3-5, we see the
potentially redemptive character of persecution and the concomitant
suffering. As we endure and keep our
eyes on God, we receive his blessing and direct the attention of our
persecutors to Him. Paul prays for God’s
grace for the church. Today people in
the church pray for each other and God answers with encouragement and
transformation. God’s Holy Spirit is
with us. It is God himself with us that
gets us through our trials. Through our
suffering, God can actually work for good.
I don’t believe God causes suffering, but I do believe God works in it.
In 2 Thessalonians 2, that same Holy
Spirit is said to sanctify us. Just as
the forces of evil conspire to tempt us into causing our ruin, the Holy Spirit
God is at work in us, making more God-like.
Sanctification is a fancy word that means we become holy. And as the closing verses the chapter
reaffirm, this is not something we accomplish but a work God does in us. We are told, “stand firm and hold fast to the
tradition of faith,” but immediately after that instruction we see that our
Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father both comfort and strengthen us (from
2:15-17). The fullness of God – each
person of the Trinity - stands by us with the Spirit makes us more like God and
less prone to sin, and the Son and Father comfort us so that our suffering is
muted and our blessing multiplied and strengthens so we can stay faithful when
tempted and tested.
What temptation do you face or what
trial are you suffering through at this moment in your life? Whatever the answer, we have a promise. God is with us in it. With our focus on him, even trials will
become the grounds on which our faith is honed and enlarged and we find
ourselves in the joy of the Lord instead of the clutches of the enemy.
May
our Lord Jesus Christ … carry us into every good work and word.
AMEN
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