As we close the lectionary year shaped by the Gospel of Luke, we are reminded of a surprising truth at the heart of Jesus’ apocalyptic words: they are not meant to be decoded or dismissed—they are meant to be heard as a mirror held up to every generation, including our own.
Rather than treating passages like Luke 21 as distant metaphors or ancient history, we should see how Jesus’ descriptions of a broken world (war, division, betrayal, fear, etc.) remain painfully familiar. That’s not meant to frighten us, but to free us. Because if the hard words apply to us, then the comforting ones do too. Jesus’ promises of “Do not be afraid,” “Not a hair of your head will perish,” or “By your endurance you will gain your souls” are all spoken into this age, this world, this world.
This Sunday, we also bid farewell to Luke’s Gospel, and celebrate its fierce honesty about the world’s brokenness and its equally fierce insistence that Jesus gives us the promises and practical wisdom we need to survive and flourish in it.
