SCRIPTURE: Luke 23:26-31
Jesus is predicting a time of frightening violence.
He basically tells these women to save their tears for another time.
We do know that the fall of Jerusalem (AD 70) was a time like this.
Jesus quotes Hosea, comparing this time of violence to the destruction of Israel (Hosea 10:8).
A time so horrible, people cry out to be buried alive by the rocks…
Or more figuratively, people go underground, or into caves, for protection.
And the apostle John also uses this same image to describe the end times (Revelation 6:15-17).
This is not God’s revenge, THIS is the natural consequence of letting go of God.
At first, everything seems OK; we’re like a tree uprooted from the soil (its source of life).
But as time goes on, the life in the tree slowly dissipates, and it’s branches go dry.
Our world has been running on reserves, but in time things will go dry.
Eventually, slowly, everything goes from bad to worse.
Contrary to the idea that life in this world is evolving better and better, it’s devolving.
What happens to Jesus is what happens to all goodness in the world, it eventually dies out.
Unless we are reconnected to God; unless we are replanted in the soil.
This is why Jesus came, this is what Jesus has done, this is how we find hope.
God is not to blame for suffering and evil, but He does take the credit for overcoming it.
Plant your roots deep into the soil of God, and you will not need to be buried alive by the rocks.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, this is symbolic language. But it’s meaning is plain. We need God, we need You, otherwise everything will slowly, but surely, die.