I hate it when networks cancel a perfectly good TV show. No, I am not talking about Modern Family, which turns out to be one of my favs. But some group of writers come up with a really good idea. They pitch it with success. They hire an ensemble cast of actors to give the script life. And great TV is born. However, just because a show is great, does not mean everyone watches it. People are busy. Sometimes there is an even better alternative on another network. Sometimes the DVR just never seems to get watched. And for reasons completely mysterious to a fan like me, the great TV, becomes extinct TV. And I am left buying whatever seasons they make and adding them into my Vudu account. I’m also left wishing some other network would buy the show, and restart it, picking up right where the story last ended. But most often, those idealized episodes never come to be, and they remain something I will never watch.
Something else I never seem to watch, is a fig tree. I would bet most of us are not fig tree farmers, and even the ones who like fig newtons get them at the supermarket. So why would any of us take the time to watch a fig tree? Matthew provides a metaphorical answer in his gospel in chapter 24 picking up with the words of Jesus about what we watch, what we pay attention to, and why it matters. Jesus begins to transition His conversation with His disciples from the signs they will witness before His coming – to the conditions they will see. It begins in verse 32 saying … “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: [verse 33] So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Turns out fig trees have a “tell”. That is when leaves start coming out, summer is near. A metaphor for us, in that when we see the signs Jesus previously outlines in this chapter, we would know the Temple destruction is near, as well as looking across time, His second coming would be near as well. Right at the door.
Despite the text, I still have never paid attention to a fig tree. But it does make me wonder, do I pay any more attention to the signs that have already come to pass, or the ones currently taking place. Or am I just as blind to them, as I am to TV shows that never seem to materialize? But Jesus is steadfast as He continues in verse 34 saying … “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. [verse 35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. [verse 36] But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” The certainty of what Jesus prophecies is sure. The Temple was destroyed exactly as He described within the lifespan of the generation He was talking to. No Christian died in that tragedy because they all read the signs and fled as Christ had instructed. History bears that out. But as certain as the signs are of the second coming, no one will know what day that will occur on except the Father in Heaven. Angels don’t know it. Only the Father. Despite how many Christian sects, or movements, have thought they knew better. They don’t.
There is another kind of TV show that I have enjoyed over the years. Family style dramas. Shows like “This is Us”, “Desperate Housewives”, “The OC”, etc. They depict Hollywood versions of what real life looks like. We get engrossed in the characters and start wondering what they will do next, or how they will react to the next thing life throws at them. But Hollywood understands well, these characters need to include some pretty folks for us to look at. The shows seem to do better if there is some passion and intimacy thrown in. But fidelity? It would appear by dissecting a litany of network TV family drama’s that fidelity is not as good for ratings as variety in the bedroom. Recent TV is starting to buck this trend, but it is not gone altogether. Of course, the latest trend today is to “normalize” what used to be “unusual” behavior at least in the Christian community. Divorce has long since been transformed from the shame of broken relationships to a simple alterative choice if things get bad, or the wind blows. Gay relationships look just like traditional ones (fidelity, divorce, adoption, all the same). When transgender issues come to the forefront, you can bet they will introduce characters in “lifestyle” TV that deal with these issues until fluid sexuality is accepted as commonplace. It’s not about judging these things it is just about how quickly we normalize them into our societal view as we watch them over and over on TV.
It is the ability of great TV to normalize for us, what we do not even realize is being normalized. Constant exposure to ideas, embedded in characters, shows us a portrait of the struggles people have until we identify with them. But when how we live is something we think so normal, we just stop paying attention to it. It becomes something we just do not watch. But this condition we find ourselves in was exactly what Jesus predicted we would face before His coming. He continues in verse 37 saying … “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [verse 38] For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, [verse 39] And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” In a word unexpected. Because what we think of as normal life, will be the conditions that prevail all the way up until when Jesus does return. It is what we never watch. Or perhaps more accurately, what we never see coming.
And what do you think Jesus will find when He does return, if our version of normal life is what He predicted? I would imagine there will be thousands of Christian churches, because there are nearly that many denominations (or variants of denominations) that exist today. That would be normal. I would imagine there a great many people who claim the name of Christ, but look just like their worldly counterparts. They live the same, sin the same, love the same. That would be normal. It is what exists today. But even in normality, there are a few odd balls. Noah and his family were odd balls back in their day. Noah actually listened to God who spoke to him. In our world today, there are a few Christians who are not as interested in that moniker as they are in watching Jesus transform who they are into something else. There are a few odd ball Christians who have discovered love is what it is all about. Not some mamby-pamby love people use as an excuse to do anything they want – but real transformative love that seems to burn the sin right out of you while you were not paying attention to it. Mysterious love that makes the life of another person worth more to you, than your own.
That kind of transformation over time makes you different. It gives you a different set of priorities. It may not change your career, or the fact that you still function in the same society everyone else does. But it makes you a different person on the inside, which begins to infect what you do, how you love, and how you make the world around you a better place. Not to earn points, not to earn anything, but because it is just who you become. To a casual observer you look just like everyone else. But to those you encounter, you look totally different. Because what emanates from within you is totally different. It is the love of Jesus flowing through you like Niagara Falls. And to the world, you would be considered an odd ball, because that kind of love is just not normal. Judgment, condemnation, and hate speech, the world is used to. But that kind of redemptive love is a new thing, a rare thing, and remains bottled up in a bunch of odd balls across all walks of life you would never expect. That is, you would never see coming.
Jesus continues describing what He finds upon His return in verse 40 saying … “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [verse 41] Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [verse 42] Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” Not everyone who carries the banner Christian, has discovered Jesus yet. This is the sad fact the Lord describes upon His return. One is ready. One is not. Whether you live and work in a rural area, or in the city. One is ready. One is not. This is not about the manner of the Lord’s return. Jesus has just described the manner of His return only a few verses ago as being something “everyone” will see (at once). It will be as lightning that shines from east unto west. That is the “how”. This is the conditions Jesus will find upon His return, when our version of “normal” Christian pervades across the Christian church. And only a few odd balls remain across all walks of life. Odd balls running over with the love of Jesus.
We are told right here specifically to “watch”. But for most of us “normal” Christians it is as if Jesus asked us to watch a network that is just not on TV. We are more like the disciples who were asked to watch and pray with Him in Gethsemane, and instead we find ourselves asleep comfortably in the normality of our lives, and the normality of our Christian experience. But “normal” is not ever what was called for. And what we watch, even great TV, was not the thing we were supposed to keep our eyes on. What we do watch is changing us. But sadly, even great TV is probably not changing us for the better. And it is totally devoid of transforming who we are for the better. It is more adept at normalizing. That it excels at. Meanwhile Jesus is asking us to wake up and keep our eyes planted on Him. And as we watch Jesus, read scripture through the lens of Jesus, submit our very thinking over to Jesus – we do change. And that change is for the better. It makes odd balls out of us all. Odd balls that just can’t seem to stop loving others. In that alone are we odd. Everything may look the same, but how we love makes us different people.
We were told to watch. Are you watching Jesus yet? Or as it turns out, is Jesus the channel you just never get around to watching at all …
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