Jonah 3:1-5, 10 Mark 1:14-20 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Do you watch cartoons? Or do you read the comics on the funny pages of the newspaper, or online?
I’m not sure exactly what to call it, but there is a cartoon component, image, idea, motif, or stylistic element that has been used, copied, reused so many times that it is impossible to figure out when it first appeared. The image that I am thinking of is that of a person carrying a sandwich board or a sign on a pole that says, “The End is Near.” Often the person carrying the sign is portrayed as a sixties-era hippy, but other times it can be a businessman in a suit, or whatever else fits the point that the cartoonist is trying to convey.
But outside of cartoons and attempts at humor, we have often seen similar doom and gloom, end of the world stories in the real world. These stories once came from a raft of scientists that were predicting the dawn of a new ice age, or those that now predict rising sea levels due to global warming, or to asteroids that will destroy civilization, or a catastrophic x-class solar flare that may one day wipe out all the computers and electricity generation across out entire planet. Not to be outdone, there seem to be regular announcements by various religious groups that the world will end, or that Christ will return, because of their interpretation of scripture, or because of the Mayan calendar, or because of something else. Overall, we have heard that “The End is Near” so often that we no longer bother to pay any attention to such announcements at all.
But maybe we should.
What if the place that we heard “The End is Near” is in the bible? And what if we didn’t hear it just once, but over and over again, generation after generation, from the mouths of prophets, disciples, and from Jesus himself? Would we assume that if the message had been repeated so often, just as we assume today when we listen to the news, that it must not be true, and we are free to ignore it? Or would we notice that sometimes it was true, and things did not go well for the people who didn’t listen?
Let’s take a look at three samples from scripture, and then we will think about what it all means, and just what we might, and might not, want to ignore, and what we should be doing about it in our lives, and in our church, today. We begin with the end of the story in the book of Jonah. First God sent Jonah to preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh, but Jonah didn’t want to do that. Jonah knew that the people of Nineveh were awful, evil, terrible people who hated God, hated the people of Israel, and treated their enemies, criminals, and anyone they took a dislike to, with contempt, abuse, violence, and death. Nineveh was the city that hung the heads, and often the bodies, of their enemies on the gates and the walls of their city to warn everyone what happened to those who dared to oppose them. They were not nice people. In any case, God prevails, and Jonah, after his encounter with a big fish, obeys God. This is the story that we hear in Jonah 3:1-5, 10.
3:1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
The message that Jonah carried into Nineveh, however reluctantly, was a message that God intended to utterly destroy them as a people and as a city. As far as they were concerned, Jonah was predicting the end of the world. But they listened to Jonah, heard his message, they repented of their evil actions, habits, and culture, and God relented and did not bring upon them the destruction that he had planned.
It is worth noting however, that some years later, Nineveh returns to their old ways, continue to do evil, and God declares through the prophet Nahum, that their time is ended. The Babylonians invade and Nineveh is erased from history, disappears from the maps of the world, and its ruins only rediscovered by archaeologists in 1847.
We hear a similar story, though far less violent, in Mark 1:14-20 in which Jesus is the one sharing the message from God:
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James, son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
The message of Jesus was that the kingdom of God had arrived and that everyone should repent and believe the good news. But why is repentance so important, so vital, to the news that the kingdom of God had arrived? It is important because, in the calendar of God, now that the kingdom had arrived, the followers of God now knew that judgement was at hand and could come at any moment. The news that the messiah had come was inescapably tied to an understanding that the end was near, and judgement was coming.
And if you aren’t convinced that these events are so closely tied together, then listen to Paul explain it to the church in Corinth as recorded in 1 Corinthians 7:29-31:
29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
Paul says that the time is short, that the end is indeed near, and because it is, the followers of Jesus Christ must live as if time is important. We should not live as if we have all the time in the world, but as if Jesus could return tomorrow, or this afternoon, or before we draw our next breath. Paul’s words describe a need for urgency in our behavior and in our actions. We must act as if the world might end tomorrow. We must live as if our mission is important and assume that we might not get a second chance to share the good news with the people around us. We should share what we have and not get addicted to the accumulation of possessions. And finally, we should behave as if we aren’t addicted to the things of popular culture and the popularity of fads and famous folk.
Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour of his return and the day of judgement, but scripture says that the end is near.
And we really ought to act like it.
We must live lives that reflect some urgency.
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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
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