Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
November 16, 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 23C
“He said to them, “See to it that you are not deceived because many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he’ and the time is near. Do not follow them! And when you hear of wars and chaotic confusion, do not be startled because these things must happen first, but the End is not yet.” (Luke 21:8-9) (Luke 21:5-28)
Today’s gospel presents us with a bit of a puzzle.
If a person reads it chronologically or tries to connect it to actual historical events the result is always mass confusion. It’s true that nearly all Christians read it that way, as referring to the Lord’s Second Coming. But not all. Because our Lord says, “See to it that you are not deceived. Many will come in my name saying “I am he,” and the time is near. Do not follow them!”
And so today rather than follow let us consider another view of the Lord’s words that we have before us today. Instead of applying them to the Lord’s Second Coming in glory, let us find out what happens if we apply them to his First Coming. His glorious coming on the cross.
Yes, the cross! Because before our Lord was given the name above all names (Phil. 2:9) he first, “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” as Saint Paul writes. Said another way he was first glorified on the cross, before he ascended into heaven and promised to return in great power and glory. And so let us think of today’s gospel with Jesus as its object, rather than the End Of The World: which is also yet to come.
When our Lord assumed human nature he donned it in full: with all of its troubles, weaknesses, its dim future, the divine judgment due humanity for its crimes against heaven and against one another.
And he assumed its mortality did this Immortal Son of God!
When we consider what Jesus our Savior suffered for us men and for our salvation, we shudder. Some years ago when there was a movie called: The Passion of the Christ that was all the rage. But the universal reaction based on one man’s survey of those who saw it was shock and awe, fear and disgust. What else might one expect when Hollywood tries to preach the gospel?
But as grisly as our Lord’s passion was it was also indicative of the part not open to human observation: namely what was going on inside of him as he cried out: My God My God why have you forsaken me? It is with good reason that James Montgomery in his hymn: Go To Dark Gethsemane pens this line,
“O the pangs his soul sustained.”
And so when the Lord speaks of: wars and rumors of wars. Of nations rising up against nations. Of earthquakes, famines, plagues, terrifying events whereby men’s hearts melt with fear. Of great signs in the heavens, the sun going dark – as it did for three hours while he hung on the cross – let us understand that these are the things took upon his Sacred Head, and downloaded into his own soul. This is what is meant when the Bible says that: by God’s grace he “tasted of death for all men,” (Hebr. 2:9) in order to break the stranglehold by which sin death and Satan held us down.
The cross, Beloved in Christ, is the hinge upon which all creation turns. Before the cross the devil, whom our Lord calls “the prince of this world” held sway. He and his demons bullied men, women and children and no could resist except those looking for the coming Christ.
And when our Lord “appeared to destroy the works of the devil,” (1 John 3:8) he harangued the very Son of God himself. Tempting HIM to fall down and worship the devil! He stirred up his minions to reject and condemn the “Lord of Life” (1 Cor. 2:9) and to shamefully and gruesomely put him to death and be done with him.
But what an error on the part of the Evil One!
Because when Jesus entered the “strong man’s” house of horrors he ransacked it. He broke the power of death and judgment for all sinners. For all victims whom the devil had kidnapped, held captive, darkened their minds, and addicted to every imaginable wrong.
But after the cross the “prince of this world” was expelled. Bound up in chains, and he “knows that his time is short.” (Rev. 12:12) But he still has power over those who will give it to him. But he has no power over us, Beloved. Over those who know the formula for expelling him: the Lord’s own words, “Be Gone! Satan!” (Mt. 4:10)
Nor does he hold any sway over those who believe what St. Peter writes:
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) That is to say he will not keep harassing you, but will run away from you and leave you because he has no choice. But it is not only the words mentioned above that serve as our weapons of righteousness: Be Gone! Satan! But the gesture that protects and defends us from all evil. To trace the sign of the cross over our minds our lips, our hearts and indeed all our members as needed.
And so in conclusion it is true that the Lord’s Second Coming will be a time of unspeakable distress for the whole earth. The sun will fall from the sky, the planets will go off course. Unbelievers will hide in caves and under rocks and call to the mountains to fall on them to protect them from, “the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Rev. 6:16)
Jesus says that while people are carrying on with business as usual: buying, selling, getting married and so on, that the end will come upon them suddenly. All that, and more, is true. But based on other words of Jesus, and not today’s gospel.
All glory be the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit for this salvation. Amen.