Beware False Prophets

Today, we continue our journey on the path to Palm Sunday.

Today’s gospel references the destruction of the Temple in 70CE and goes on to describe what many believe to be the “end times”.

The war in the Middle East is resurfacing speculation about Armageddon and the Apocalypse.

So, let’s spend a bit of time looking at the text and trying to discern what it really says.

Biblical scholars remind us that there are three things that affect every text.

The first is what is behind the text—the historical and cultural context as well as the bias of the author.

The second is what is in the text—things like language, grammar, and style.

Is the text meant to be read as a parable? A metaphor? An allegory? A historical record?

The last is what is in front of the text—our historical and cultural context and what bias we bring to interpreting the text.

Although there is some disagreement, most biblical scholars agree that Matthew’s gospel was written down in 80-90CE—AFTER the destruction of the Temple.

The timing is important when we look at what is behind the text.

So, what was happening as the gospel of Matthew was being written?

Israel was under Roman occupation.

Most people were living subsistence lives and bore a heavy tax burden.

The persecution of Jesus followers had already begun.

Josephus, a Jewish historian of the time, recorded a bunch of messianic figures in the first century, after the death of Jesus.

It was a violent and disturbing time.

And the lesson reflects all of that—the destruction of the temple, the false messiahs, and the persecution of Christians.

The gospel of Matthew is a bit of a paradox.

Matthew is considered the most Jewish of the gospels.

He quotes passages from the Hebrew Bible often and his settings often draw inspiration from Scripture.

At the same time, Matthew is very critical of Jewish leaders, and many antisemites point to Matthew for validation.

The talk about being “handed over to be tortured and executed” and being “despised by all nations” was a reference to Christian persecution.

Underlying actual events, many of Jesus’ followers had expected him to return in their lifetime.

So, when Matthew was written down two or three generations after Jesus’ death, people were becoming disillusioned.

The community leaders—the ones who took the oral tradition of Matthew and wrote it down—they needed to reassure people.

They needed to remind people that “those who persevere to the end will be saved”.

When we shift and look at what is in the text, the passage is not presented as historical record.

It is presented as prophecy.

It also contains metaphors.

The destruction of the temple, although an actual event, was also a metaphor for the end of traditional Judaism and the beginning of a Christ-centered Judaism.

The passage also talks about war, famine, and earthquakes as the beginning of “labor pains”—a reference to the birth of a new creation: God’s Kin-dom.

So, having looked at what is behind and in the text, let’s look at what is in front of the text.

What does our historical and cultural context bring to this passage from Matthew?

Although we don’t hear much about false messiahs, there is certainly no shortage of false prophets.

Some are even claiming that political leaders have been anointed by God.

And these chosen leaders are instruments of God to fulfill a divine plan.

There are false prophets who claim that we must support Israel at all costs, even as they commit genocide against Palestinians.

These Christian Zionists believe that Jewish occupation of Israel is a prerequisite for the second coming of Jesus.

We are certainly seeing nation war against nation—Israel against Palestine, Russia against Ukraine, and the United States against Iran.

Are these labor pains that foretell the birth of God’s Kin-dom?

Or is it prophecy fulfilled that the end times are approaching?

I can’t say definitively.

But I can say that what I know about Scripture and the nature of God leans very heavily towards the former.

Those who would believe that we are entering the end times are ignoring that God’s time is not our time.

A little further into this chapter in Matthew, we read, “No one knows that day and that hour—not the angels of heaven, nor even the Only Begotten—only Abba God.”

And in 2 Peter, we read, “This point must not be overlooked, dear friends: in the eyes of the Most High, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”

There is a lot that we don’t know.

Acknowledging that ignorance, we must focus on what we do know.

What we know is that Jesus told us to do two things: love God and love our neighbor.

So, I ask you, are we loving God when we claim greedy, power-hungry men are sent from God?

Are we loving God when we claim to be a nation favored by God?

Are we loving God when we say violence is part of God’s plan?

Are we loving God when Jesus is used as a political prop, instead of being seen as the savior of the world?

Yet we do all those things.

Are we loving our neighbor when we discriminate against black, brown, and indigenous people?

Are we loving our neighbor when we allow the wealth gap to continue to widen with no checks in place?

Are we loving our neighbor when we eliminate social safety net programs to give tax breaks to corporations and billionaires?

Are we loving our neighbor when we eliminate refugee programs and aid to developing countries?

Are we loving our neighbor when we rationalize the deaths of innocent children as “collateral damage” and call it acceptable because the end justifies the means?

Yet we do all those things as well.

I would say our report card looks pretty bad.

Our love has grown cold.

Our love of God AND our love of neighbor.

So, what do we do?

Where do we go from here?

The answer is simple: we follow Jesus.

It’s simple but by no means easy.

We love God, in both our worship and in our actions.

We are God’s hands and feet in this world, spreading God’s love to everyone who needs it.

We also call out language and actions that we know would be offensive to God.

Like using God’s name and God’s Holy Scripture to justify waging war.

Like using a flag-draped Jesus to rationalize xenophobia and discriminatory immigration enforcement.

We follow Jesus.

We love our neighbor without exception.

We seek out the margins as Jesus did.

We also call out false witness against our neighbors.

We don’t allow our black and brown neighbors to be cast as murderers, rapists, and drug dealers.

We don’t allow neighbors exercising their First Amendment rights to be smeared as “domestic terrorists”.

These false witnesses must be challenged.

We need to help our neighbors who are afraid to leave their homes because masked federal agents are abducting people with groceries and with completing errands.

We need to keep hospitals, churches, and schools as safe spaces.

There is plenty we can do.

We need to call out those false prophets.

We need to keep our love from growing cold.

We need to persevere until the end.

We seek the Kin-dom, not Armageddon.

And God’s Kin-dom requires justice—for all people, not just a privileged minority.

It’s a lot, I know.

But as people of God, it is what we are called to do.

Not because I say so but because Jesus does.

May this meditation on God’s Word keep our hearts and minds on Christ Jesus. Amen.