Tomorrow's History

"And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days...Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mark 13:20-31)

General Motors, one of the greatest manufacturers of modern history, faces bankruptcy. This is a serious blow to the United States of America and Canada. Many will lose their jobs. Cities that depend on automobile plants and related industries will suffer. Our identity as North Americans will suffer, even if temporarily we spitefully think that it is about time one of the giants came tumbling down. Even the enemies of the West and its economic power will find themselves hurting if the recession continues to grow. Critics of industry should remember that it is easy to forget how in so many ways we depend on the giants. And an even more shocking thought--we often depend on our enemies. This is why Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies, and not revile them (Matthew 5:43-48). The anarchist naturalist Peter Kropotkin discovered that nature achieves far more through mutualism and interdependence than it does through adversarial competition. Times of sorrow remind us of how much we need other humans, even the ones we do not especially like.

The fall of an industrial giant seems tragic, and history often seems to wear the tragic mask. Empires rise and fall. Philosophical systems come and go. Jesus explained this to his disciples: "And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.'" (Mark 13:2). This makes many people uneasy. Is our time up? Will we make it? What is going to happen? All of these questions contain a kind of absurdity: the attempt to know the history of tomorrow. For mankind, history is not about tomorrow, though. Only the Lord may speak of the future in the past tense, as we read so often in prophets, because His will is perfect and accomplished, and He presides over the world and the entire universe in His eternity without our mortal limitations. Our Lord, however, teaches us some important things about history, even tomorrow's history, that should give us hope as Christians.

First, the most important thing in history will always be the death and resurrection of Jesus. Not only is this true for Christians--it is true for the entire human race, whether or not men acknowledge him as Lord. As John Lukacs the renowned historian has written, "And now--especially, but perhaps not exclusively for Christians--I must argue for the recognition of our central situation not only in space but also in time. In sum, that the cmoing of Christ to this earth may have been? no, that it was, the central event of the universe; that the greatest, the most consequential event in the entire universe has occurred here, on this earth. The Son of God has not visited the earth during a tour of stars or planets, making a Command Performance for us, arriving from some other place and --perhaps--going off to some other place. And: only two thousand years ago!" (At the End of the Age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. 223). Though Jesus' mortal life ended two thousand years ago, He continues to live and advocate for the human race, especially for Christians. And because He never changes, Jesus is relevant to every age. Every generation faces the same trials and sorrows, and is bothered by the same absurdities--especially, the dark questions of sin and death. And only Jesus can give life to those who are dead. Thus, Jesus is forever relevant, because He never changes, and He always offers life. Only if life is irrelevant can He be irrelevant. As Scripture says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). As history progresses, His Cross will continue to be the sign of hope and the sign of His Lordship.

Second, history--the past that we may know to an extent through investigation as well as the unwritten history of the future that we may not know--belongs to Jesus Christ. The Cross and Resurrection placed all things under His feet: "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:8-11). The universe, and all of the time and history therein, belong to Jesus. Jesus is the meaning of history, "the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to the saints" (Colossians 2:26). We cannot understand our existence, our mystical yearnings, our clumsy attempts at religiosity, our philosophical, artistic and scientific endeavors, our wars and economic struggles, our plagues and our renaissances, without knowing who Jesus is and what He did. Without Him, history is just an absurd tragedy, and all things should be damnatio memoriae. Nevertheless, thanks be to God our Father who sent Jesus Christ to save the world and to invite us out of the death of history and into everlasting life! Only death and sin should suffer damnatio memoriae; our lives will be kept forever in His glory.

Our last thing to remember is that history, especially tomorrow's history that we face, is shaped by Christ for the sake of the Gospel. This is why Jesus said that the days of trials were shortened, "for the sake of the elect" (Mark 13:20). Jesus warned us not to speculate about apocalyptic things (Mark 13:5-8; 13:21-23), nor to live in fear. Our path is one of faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13). As Jesus told the disciples, God intervenes in historical events for the sake of the elect. Who are the elect? They are those who believe in Jesus the Son of God. It is the believers whom God chooses to be His own. Moreover, the words of Christ, the light that breathes forth from the Gospels, will endure and continue to illuminate generation after generation: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mark 13:31). Nothing can strip the Gospels of their power to convert, transform and enlighten people. Tomorrow's history is in the work of the Gospels. After Jesus came into history, history became a part of Jesus' work (John 3). It is no longer the story of mankind alone. It is the story of the Son of Man, bringing all things into reconciliation with God (2 Corinthians 5). And where is this history going? As Paul said, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28).

Our Savior Jesus is real. The photograph above is of the gate where Pilate said Ecce homo! Behold the man! when presenting the Son of Man to the angry crowds that called out for his crucifixion.