Fire in the Hole

“Remember Lot’s wife.” Luke 17:32

The Pharisees were at it again.  They started needling Jesus about when the end of the world would be.  Surely they were righteous, and this young upstart from Galilee of the Gentiles was no more than a fraud to deceive the people to stray from the established laws of Moses.  They were sure that they were bound to catch him in his words sooner or later … but it kept looking like later and later.

So Jesus uses the stories of Noah and of Lot to describe the suddenness of His Coming.  It wasn’t that judgment is fickle – it was that the longsuffering of God’s mercy has an end, and that end can come in an instant when you are not looking for it.

And then He says, “Remember Lot’s wife”.  Do you remember her story?  She followed her husband all the way from the sheepcotes of Abraham, through the division of their herds, and through Lot’s fatal decision to move to the fields around Sodom.  Through all this, she kept close to her husband.

But it was that last longing for the world that turned her head at the last moment and decided her final destiny.

But she was faithful for so long!  Why did mercy fail her at this last moment of indiscretion?  Ah, but was it really a last moment of indiscretion, or was it comfortable longing that had nestled in and taken root in her heart, an that had been dismissed over the years as being insignificant?  No big deal.  Just a little leaven.

Jesus then relates how that the final division of judgment will cut between even those of the same house, the same laboring of grinding the wheat, even the same fields of harvest – all descriptive analogies of the Church. 

“Where will this division be?”, they asked. 

And His answer is, “Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.”

I had to ask, what’s the deal with the eagles?  Well, the word is “aeros”, which is translated as “eagles”, taking it’s root meaning from the word “air”, describing how eagles fly.  While it may be used to describe an eagle, it also brings up an image of “the Prince of the powers of the air”, the devil himself.

So wherever you see the Body of Christ, you will see the devil trying to get in to rip, tear, and divide.

Okay, I understand all that.  That’s pretty much standard Gospel.  But what has that got to do with the Coming of the Lord?

The answer is in verse 33.

“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

Some people seek to serve the Lord with all their hearts and are not only willing, but pressing to sacrifice the things of this world to serve God.  Ask them to give up all their possessions, their hard-earned career, their dreams and goals that they had for their futures, everything that the world has offered them, and what do they say?  Yes!  Without hesitation or regret.

But there are others sitting in the same pew, singing the same Gospel songs, professing the same Jesus, grinding the same wheat, and laboring in the same harvest fields.  Everything in their lives run right along in synch with the Church and you would hardly see any difference between them and those who they are mingled with.

But place them in a position of tribulation, of sacrifice, and of deep personal subjection, and suddenly their whole perspective changes.  Why look for trouble instead of ease?  Why not enjoy prosperity and money instead of poverty and self-sacrifice?  Why not seek after blessings instead of suffering? 

“After all,” they say, “since Jesus suffered on the Cross, we shouldn’t have to suffer.”  Um, that sounds appealing, but it appears you’ve been skipping over some long passages in your Bible reading … that is, if you read at all.

The ultimate test of Christianity is not whether or not you believe that the Gospel is true, but whether or not you will give your life for it – either figuratively or physically.

Yes, you believe in God.  Why, you even said a prayer once upon a time up at the altar!  But is your heart crucified with Christ?  Does the world hold a tether to your heart that you don’t want to give up?  Is this Reality more important to you than the next?  In the end, people follow their hearts.

It’s easy to be a Christian when life is good, but it is to those pilgrims in this world who look to the Cross for their eternal home who hunger for something different.  They are willing to go through valleys, take part in the sufferings of Christ, and refuse what this world has to offer in order to gain that which can only be found at the foot of the Cross. 

 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”  Hebrews 11:13

 

And that makes all the difference.

Remember Lot’s wife.