Meditation: 2/2010 - Luke 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the alleged end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. Supposedly, through some natural disaster, or strange alignment of planets, the earth as we know it is going to end. The thought of the impending end of the world is scary. One side of me thinks, “What if they are right? What if this is it? What if all this time I’ve been spending at the gym trying to keep in shape is for naught?” Considering that I’m always looking for an excuse to go to lunch instead of working out at the gym, these are dangerous times, indeed.
So what are we to make of all of this?
In the meditation for today, Jesus speaks of seeing signs, and repenting. I think the key is in Jesus’ last line of the passage, “. . . there is something greater than Jonah here.”
Indeed, there is also something greater than a Mayan calendar here. Perhaps we are being called to review our values. What is important to us? What is worth fighting for? What is worth holding on to during our “last days”? Is there a transgression we’ve done or a bad habit we perpetuate, for which we can repent? We certainly don’t want to do anything rash. And no one is asking us to. This is not a time to sell all of our possessions and stand on a mountain, waiting for the Second Coming. Those who believe that this is what we are being asked to do are truly missing the point. The point is we do not know when Jesus will come again. And as He constantly prods us in the Gospels to always be ready, perhaps the constant end of the world predictions are doing the same thing. If we allow these predictions to help us keep what is important at the front of our minds, and to keep ourselves ready for the coming of the Kingdom of God, how could that be wrong?
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