3Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"
4And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in My name, saying, "I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. 10And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Deceivers, wars, famines, pestilence, and earthquakes. They will happen. They must happen. These are all things that cause strife, all things that we dread, and yet they are only the beginning of sorrows. And yet Jesus says to see that you are not troubled.
There are so many things that happen in our lives that are beyond our control. We see pain and suffering in those that we love. We see so many bad things happen around us and we wonder what this world is coming to. But Jesus says to not be troubled. How can we not be troubled? I just looked up several definitions of the word trouble in my dictionary. It may mean a state of distress, affliction, danger or need. When terrorists bombed the world trade center, how can we not be put into a state of distress, affliction, danger, or need? Or it may mean to inconvenience or bother. Is it right to not be bothered by the terrible things that happen around us? Or it may mean exertion, efforts, or pains; to agitate or stir up. Shouldn’t we take some action to help make things better? Don’t be troubled? How can we not be? If we emulate even only a fraction of the compassion that Jesus always showed in abundance, we will be troubled by these things.
But Jesus was just talking about Him being the cornerstone upon which your faith should be built. I think here Jesus isn’t saying to not be troubled at all, for even Jesus was troubled by bad things that happened to the ones He loves. But I think He is telling us to not let these things trouble our faith. Yes, you may feel distress, affliction, danger, or need, but make it turn you to your faith, not away from it. Yes, it may inconvenience or bother you, but let your faith be your rock, the thing that can’t be inconvenienced or bothered. Yes, you should go out of your way to make whatever efforts you can to help, but don’t let it agitate or stir up things against your faith. Don’t doubt God’s love for you. Don’t lose faith. Some things must happen.
Just as Jesus says to not be troubled when these things happen at the beginning of the sorrows because these things must happen, we do not know what God has planned or the reasons for things that happen today. Some things must happen. But through it all, do not be troubled, do not lose faith.
I find it interesting that Jesus calls it the beginning of sorrows. Whose sorrow? I first thought it meant the sorrow that the people would feel, but as I study this text, I don’t see an indication of sorrow in what the people would come to. I could understand the believers feeling a time of testing, a time of trials, a time of fear. But Sorrow? And maybe I could understand those who didn’t return to God before the end later feeling sorrow, but this time of sorrows is before the end.
Studying this text again, I am starting to wonder if it is instead God’s time of sorrow, a time of great difficulty for those He loves, a time when so many will be turning away from Him. If it causes Him sorrow, why does He cause these things? Actually, I used to think that these things that will happen at the end of time: wars, famines, earthquakes, will be caused by God. But what Jesus really says here is that they must happen. He doesn’t say they will be caused by God, but they will come to pass.
Wars, famines, and earthquakes will be difficult things, but the great sorrow will come about based on what people do with their own choices in that time. God lets us make our own choices, even to His great sorrow. But if we endure to the end, keep our faith, we will be saved.
This seems like such a depressing outlook for the end times. But there is another word of encouragement. Sure, there will be much happening around us to pull us away from God, but at the same time, the Gospel, the Good News, of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, in all the nations. God won’t be sitting back just feeling sorry for us as we destroy ourselves. He will not give up on any of us even as we approach the end. The Good News will continue to be preached up till the very end.
I can’t imagine what it would be like going through the end times. But I have seen terrible things happen in the world. Again, referring back to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. We saw reports of American citizens who happened to be of Afghanistan origin being taunted and threatened by people who instantly hated anything related all Afghanistan. We saw security tightened at airports and other public places as our level of trust has been decreased. But we also saw a great outpouring of support and aid for those people hurt in the attack, a swelling in the number of people attending church, and more public statements of faith and love of God as our country’s leaders addressed the nation. And everywhere you look, you see signs of “God bless America”.
Will we survive through the end times? God will not give up on us. I am encouraged when I see some of these positive responses to the terrible things that happen today. But in the end, it is our choice.