This challenging passage from Luke shows how well Jesus knows our human condition. If we were not so easily deceived, we would not be told to ”watch out.” But we are too easily deceived and we too easily follow people who would use our fears for their own purposes. In fact, we spend a lot of time engaging in fear and fear-relief daily.
Small fears, big fears, unrecognized fears creep in when we least expect them. And we respond to them with many different things - good movie, keeping busy, a good drink, yelling at someone - these are but a few.
Perhaps we were not swayed by the Mayan calendar’s prediction of the end of the world, but how many times do we indulge in feelings of gloom and despair and fear our own end of the world? We say, “Oh, I knew that would happen. Things have a way of going wrong,” and when we talk like that we are not inviting God’s grace into our lives and trusting God’s uncanny ability to bring good out of evil!
Of course, Luke wrote these words of Jesus for his generation of followers of Jesus. Already they were beginning to suffer the hatred and disdain of others for their new beliefs. They needed to hear His reassurance. But His words are important to us as well. There is no place we can go, no challenge we can face which can outflank the love God in Christ Jesus has for us!
“Do not be frightened.” Do not follow the people who would try to control you by keeping you in fear. Changes will happen, wars will come and go. But the end of things will happen only in God’s timing. Through it all, we can trust the gift of God’s unusual peace, timeless wisdom and infinite love to carry us to a safe place!
Fran Peel
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