THE BEGINNING OF BIRTH PAINS

 

APRIL 24, 2024



MATTHEW 24:6-8

6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8All these are the beginning of birth pains.

THE BEGINNING OF BIRTH PAINS

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a Somali refugee who is the only surviving member of his entire family. His family were killed during the genocide which took place in his country. I was deeply moved by his story, but at the same time I was profoundly aware that I could not possibly identify with this person’s sorrow, pain, or experience. After all, within a few blocks of where we were standing, I could visit with my family members.

In my experience, the veterans that I have met never want to talk about what they have experienced in war. I was reading of a veteran recently, who when asked by his family members “what did you do in the war?” His answer was always the same, “I passed out flowers.” Makes me wonder what happened. What memories this man lived through that he did not want to think about or discuss.

Some of you reading this today, can relate, either from your own experience, or the experience of friends or family who served in a place like Iraq or Afghanistan, who still live with the scars of war and struggle to cope, or try to stay healthy as they live out of the brokenness of PTSD.

Maybe you know what that's like. Maybe someone you love has served in war efforts and have come home silent and reluctant to talk about the memories of what they saw and heard and did.

With this as a backdrop, I am drawn to the Gospel of Matthew and Jesus words.

Now remember, Jesus, was living in the midst of the Jewish and Roman tension, he was thinking and speaking about things to come when the Romans would besiege Jerusalem and destroy it.

In Matthew 24, Jesus spoke these words.

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you're not alarmed. Nation will rise against Nation and Kingdom against Kingdom that there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of birth pains.”

Think about that last phrase, birth pains. Pains. I mean, Jesus was brutally honest about what life on Earth can be like.

If some of you ladies have experienced birth pains, you know what Jesus is talking about. I have heard that such pains are almost unbearable, they're torturous. You just feel like you can't even take another moment.

And that's what Jesus said about this world, and especially a world that's at war.

I don’t know how war impacts on you, but perhaps some of you feel like you can’t live through it. You can't survive another day. You can't read another headline. It breaks your heart too badly, and it takes your peace. What some people will do for the sake of more land, more oil, more power, more money, more ….

But notice Jesus didn't just talk about pains. He talked about Birth pains. You know the great thing about birth pains is that after the pains comes a birth. The pains might be the worst that you've ever been through, but something comes that is actually so good, so blissful, so, so beautiful and so much better that it makes all of the pain worthwhile. It makes all of it seem small by comparison.

I wonder if Jesus doesn’t want to put that image in our hearts today.

In Matthew Chapter 24, in the first 14 verses, Jesus uses the phrase “the end” four separate times. The end is coming. The end is coming and then the end will come. Jesus knows how bad your life can be. How you feel like you just can't keep going, especially during a war and rumors of war. But he says when the end comes, when Jesus, who is the beginning and the end, shows up again, then war will end, and pain will End. Your fear will end. Your anxiety will end. Your depression will end, the pills will end. The heartbreak will end. The divorce will end. The drama will end. The temptation will end. And something so good will start that it will make all of that seem small.

A birth so joyful, of seeing God face to face. Jesus says don't forget this. These are just the beginning of birth pains.

Near the end of the Lord’s prayer there is a line that speaks to me today, “Deliver us from evil.” Deliver, a delivery is what changes the birth pains into the birth. When the hard stuff ends, and the beautiful stuff begins.

"Lord, deliver us from evil. Come quickly. Lord Jesus, may you, the beginning and the end, put an end to our suffering so that our celebration can begin." Amen