Luke 21:28 “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Our posture tells a lot about us, especially when difficult times come. Those who hang their heads are often about to lose hope. Those who have the ability, or make the conscious effort to look up, are expressing their inner confidence in the LORD. Where we focus for solutions makes a difference, and that difference gets expressed in our physical stance.
We notice that stance when we label someone ‘arrogant.’ Their head is held too high, almost as if they are saying that they are better than other people, smarter, wiser, more worthy of leadership. They can’t bend to hear the voice of others, especially the weak and vulnerable, unless the cameras are running. Once the camera lights are extinguished, they drop the weak like a prop on a Hollywood movie set.
Jesus is helping to prepare His people for the coming judgment on Jerusalem for the centuries of rebellion against the LORD. Terrible, catastrophic things are in their future. But Jesus wants them to be able to look beyond the catastrophes with hope.
The ability to look beyond and above the current turbulence is a vital skill, even today. These disciples needed to be warned about what was coming. If they hadn’t been warned, they could have misinterpreted the collapse of society as a failure of the Gospel. They could have given up. But Jesus warns them so that when the moment comes, it will instead be a confirmation of the message. It will help them endure the temporary because their eternal is solid.
We have to have the ability to “stand up” when hard times come. We can’t lay down and give in to the circumstances. We can’t pull the covers over our heads and and seek comfort at the expense of what is truly important.
It would be easy in the present moment to just shut up and go along with the direction of our country. We could find a way to fit in and keep our heads down, hoping that some day the storm will pass. But what would be the cost to the Gospel if we do this? What about our mandate to “go and preach?” We must speak with words. Actions are not enough.
But if we do this, we have lost our focus beyond the storm. We are not standing up. And we certainly are not lifting our heads. Our gaze is too immediate, too much in the present. But we have a future, a future of hope and redemption. No earthly power can succeed in changing that reality. No government can withstand the awesome power of God’s judgment.
Could it be that the LORD is simply allowing us as a nation to reap the consequences of pushing God out of the public square, attempting to silence the Truth? Killing babies is OK. Check! Selling children is OK. Check! Removing human dignity by excessive government intervention. Check! Theft of personal property through taxation. Check! Creating the Twitter and Facebook gods. Check!
But we as believers in Jesus should not be fooled by these idols. We should not be silenced from proclaiming the Truth. We are called to stand up and lift our heads. Then people will see something different about us and will come. Then we can be ready with the appropriate word in that moment, a word given and guided by the Holy Spirit.
So what is keeping us silent? Has fear so gripped us that death has become so great an enemy that Jesus’ life has less power? Are we closeting the hope we have because we ourselves are not experiencing the hope having let the circumstances overtake even us?
The Arnold Journey 