The Two Witnesses

Scripture: Malachi 4, Mark 9: 9-13, Revelation 11: 1-4

Sermon: The Two Witnesses

Topics: eschatology, waiting, Messiah, witness,

Preached: December 11, 2005

Rev. Mike Abma

INTRODUCTION — WAITING

When haven’t God’s people been a waiting people?

When haven’t they been looking for signs of his appearing?

The Jewish community, unfortunately, still feels as if they are waiting for the Messiah’s first coming. They are resigned to waiting as is reflected in one of their oldest stories.

It is about a traveler who arrives in a village in the middle of the winter to find an old man shivering in the cold outside the synagogue.

“What are you doing here?” asked the traveler.

“I am waiting for the coming of the Messiah.”

“That must be an important job,” said the traveler. “The community must pay you a lot of money.”

“No, not at all. They just let me sit here on this bench. Once in a while someone will give me a little food.”

“That must be hard.” The traveler noted. “But even if they do not pay you, they must honor you for doing this important work.”

“No, not at all. They think I am crazy.”

“I don’t understand,” the traveler asked puzzled, “They don’t pay you, they don’t respect you. You sit in the cold, shivering and hungry. What kind of job is this?”

“Well, it is steady work.”

Steady work.

This is a Jewish story, but we have been waiting for Jesus’ return for 2000 years now.

That is also pretty steady work.

SIGNS — Elijah

For the Jewish community, a sign that the Messiah is coming is the re-appearance of the prophet Elijah. In some of the last words of our Old Testament, the prophet Malachi, proclaims,

Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

For the 400 years since Malachi proclaimed that, people kept their eyes open for Elijah to re-appear.

This explains why people always asked John the Baptist whether he was Elijah.

This explains why people always asked Jesus whether he was Elijah

This even explains why, when Jesus was moaning and groaning on the cross,

people thought he was calling for Elijah.

People were on the lookout for Elijah.

Elijah was the precursor to the Day of the Lord.

JESUS: Elijah and John the Baptist

In Mark 9, we read about Peter, James, and John going up the mountain with Jesus and being astounded in seeing Jesus in the company of Moses and Elijah. They had seen Elijah! But Jesus told them to keep it quiet until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Sure, they would keep it quiet, but they couldn’t quite figure out what Jesus meant by the Son of Man rising from the dead.

So they asked another question on their mind, a question about Elijah.

“Why is it that the scribes say Elijah has to come first.”

Jesus gives a rather cryptic answer but we have to keep in mind how two Old Testament people have two New Testament parallels.

In other words, Jesus first talks about Elijah and the Son of Man – two Old Testament subjects.

Then he talks about how Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased.

Things in Mark are pretty cloudy, but if we read this same passage in Matthew 17, it would be clearer that for Jesus,

* the Old Testament prophecy of Elijah is fulfilled in the New Testament John the Baptist

* and the Old Testament prophecy of the Son of Man is fulfilled in himself, the Savior of the world.

This connection between Elijah and John the Baptist is what we need to see:

both wearing sackcloth and camel-hair,

both preaching repentance,

both standing against the powers and currents of their time,

both witnesses to the coming of the Lord.

But the disciples were slow to connect the dots.

They were slow to see the re-appearance of Elijah in John the Baptist.

They were slow to see the coming of the Son of Man in Jesus.

Things did not become clear to them until after Jesus rose from the dead

and after the Spirit descended on them at Pentecost.

END OF TIME FOLLIES

Throughout history, the church has tried to do a better job of connecting the dots between Biblical prophecy and current events.

The church has tried to be more ready for Jesus’ second coming than we were for his first.

But we have, at times, been over-eager.

Take the time period of the Reformation.

The Reformers were calling the Pope the Anti-Christ.

The Roman Catholics were calling Martin Luther the Anti-Christ.

Into this volatile mix came what some have called the Radical Reformers, who called both the Pope and Luther Anti-Christ’s.

A number of these radical reformers gathered in the city of Munster, in Germany in 1534.

They declared it the New Jerusalem.

They declared that Christ was about to return.

The rich and powerful were kicked out of the city.

Private property was banned and everything was held in common.

But in no time at all, this New Jerusalem was slipping back into Old Jerusalem.

Some leaders declared polygamy Biblical, and eagerly took a number of brides.

Then, when the rich returned with an army and began to besiege the city,

the leaders were eating 3 square meals a day while the poor starved. So much for having all things in common. So much for the New Jerusalem.

Here in the United States, we have our own long legacy of people convinced they have seen the signs of Christ’s imminent return.

Take the Shakers (or the shaking Quakers). They were officially the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming – no wonder we call them Shakers. Between 1790 and 1840 they attracted a large following and founded a number of flourishing communities. But for them, sex was the worst of sins. What if Christ returned while you were having sex? Is it any wonder that in 50 years there really wasn’t much left of the Shakers?

Look back over American Church history and there is always one group or another sure that is sure they have seen the signs of Christ’s immediate return. A date would be declared. It would come. Nothing happened. There would be a flurry of re-calculations. Another date set. Nothing happened.^[1]

We don’t have to look far back to see some of this same End of Time frenzy.

Just look at the last 10 years.

With the change in the millennium, the Y2K bug, the Gulf War, the Left Behind series – they have all added umph to the mantra The End is Near.

Now instead of sightings of Elijah, or the Anti-Christ, we have sightings of Elvis, which in its own very odd way, is taken as yet another sign that the End is Near.

SMUG, SLEEPY and SLOPPY?

It has gotten to the point where to many of us, all this End of Times talk seems downright silly.

I read about Barbara Rossing’s Seminary class. She teaches in a Lutheran Seminary, and teaches a class on Eschatology – a study of the End Times. One day, she came into her class and there was no one there. All she found was shoes, a pair of jeans, a shirt, even underwear at every desk. Of course, the joke was that they pretended that the Rapture had occurred! When I read about this, I thought it was pretty hilarious and wish I had thought of it when I was in Seminary.

Perhaps that is mainly what we do with all this end of time business – treat it as a joke. In our Reformed smugness, we smile self-contentedly at all these poor benighted souls who fall for all these so-called signs of the times. We smile and go about our business.

And yet….yet the New Testament is full of talk about being ready, being awake, being prepared. It is full of warnings not to fall asleep and not to be lulled by the lies of this world, not to let our minds be fixed on earthly things.

Could it be that our smugness has made us both sleepy and sloppy?

Could it be that in not really feeling the pinch of Jesus’ imminent presence, we have simply nodded off with the rest of the world?

Could it be that we have simply swallowed all the solutions that the rest of society has swallowed – our therapeutic, technological, and consumeristic solutions.

By that I mean that we assume

there is a treatment for every pain,

a fix for every problem,

and a product for every want.

And life is about protecting and promoting all these so we can be happy.

Could it be that we have become so sleepy,

we don’t know what we are waiting for?

We have become so sloppy,

we don’t know what we are working for?

WAKE UP! BE WITNESSES!

If Elijah and John the Baptist did anything, they were great at Waking People UP!

Here were two witnesses who were something to see and hear!

Here were two witnesses who breathed fire from their mouths,

flashed sparks from their eyes,

and had tongues of flame dancing on their heads.

Here were two witnesses who demanded faithfulness, not happiness.

Here were two witnesses who turned people around and pointed them in the

direction of the Lord.

Here were two witnesses who proclaimed, “The kingdom of heaven is near.”

If the vision of the two witnesses at the beginning of Revelation 11

is about anyone,

it is about us, the church.

It is about how we are to be like the two witnesses of old –

Elijah and John the Baptist.

Sackcloth wearing, fire-spitting witnesses to the reality and power of

God.

We are the 2 witnesses, the 2 lamp-stands, the 2 olive trees.

Jesus sends us 2 by 2 into the world as witnesses to proclaim his Kingdom.

We are awake, alert, alight, burning with the truth that the Kingdom is already here.

Like olive trees, we are bearing the fruit of the Spirit who is at work in us right now!

With the tongue of flame dancing on our heads, we proclaim:

Christ has died

Christ is risen

Christ will come again!

I know C.S. Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, is all the rage now, but remember those two beavers, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Rememeber those two friendly, warm, welcoming, busy beavers? They play the role of the two witnesses — alert, awake, and witnessing to the reality that Aslan is on the move!

That is our role.

Not simply waiting and shivering in the cold.

But working to make our world aware the Jesus is King!

THE END IS NEAR

Perhaps especially in light of all the folly’s of history, we need to live knowing the End is Near.

What Jack Roeda writes in this month’s TODAY devotional is helpful.

He notes that we need to understand “near” is a relative term.

If a relative says to you, “I’m coming for a visit this summer,” you might think, “Okay, that’s not so near.”

But if the doctor said to you, “You have cancer. It is bad. You might make it to summer,” you might think, “O no, that near?”

Or say the doctor says something completely different. Suppose she says, “You could live to the year 2050.” You might yawn and think, “Okay, that’s not near.”

But if a coalition of environmentalists came on the television and said that we will experience such a great ecological disaster by 2050 that our planet will no longer be able to sustain human life, you might think, “What? That soon?”

Things may be equally near, but they do not feel equally near.

The one that we “feel” as near is the one that makes an impact on us Today.

The one we feel as near is the one that determines how we live, today.

Not next year, not next week, not tomorrow, but today.

So often it takes a catastrophe to make us feel something is near.

We only wake up when there is bad news.

We only get to work in the wake of some disaster.

But Christ’s return is not a nightmare.

It is the fulfillment of our deepest dreams.

The End is not something to fear.

It will be the end of fear, and death, and tears.

We shouldn’t be hiding, like Adam and Eve, when Jesus returns.

Rather we should be standing on tiptoe, longing to hear his footsteps coming.

We are called to be witnesses –

Witnesses that the night of our suffering is almost over,

and day is almost here.

Witnesses that the cold of this creation’s winter will soon give way

to the warmth of the new creation’s spring.

Prophetic witnesses that Jesus, the King, is on move.

1. For a full discussion of this history see Paul Boyer, When Time Shall be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture. Harvard Univ. Press, 1992 ↑