Have you read about the fall of Rome, dated 476 A.D.? That culture had become morally corrupt, driven by excessive pleasure, and weakened in will. At the same time, they lived in denial that a foreign people would ever invade and destroy their city. They scoffed at those who warned of their demise. In reading about the fall of Rome, I was struck by the frightening parallels with our own culture.
In noticing the rise of evil in our society today, some raise the question, “Do you think we’re living in the end times?” By “end times,” they mean the end of the world. I suggest that we rephrase the question by changing “end times” to the “end of the age.”
Jesus talked to his disciples about the “end of the age” (Matthew 13:36-43).
When they asked him to explain the parable of the weeds in the field, he said:
“He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.”
By choosing to follow Jesus, the disciples had opted to be children of the Kingdom. At the same time the realized that not everyone accepted Jesus’ message and that some of the leaders opposed him outright. This was not one, big happy world where everyone was a child of God and lived in harmony with one another. There were weeds in the field growing alongside the wheat. Jesus named these weeds as children of the Evil One. Knowing the kind of power Jesus had, the disciples must have wondered why he didn’t say a word and destroy these children of the Devil. Though he opposed them and exposed their wickedness, Jesus let them go on living. He explained that the time was not ripe for this to happen and that the angels, not he, were the harvesters.
“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
People watched farmers take the refuse from a field, put it in a pile, and burn it to the ground. Jesus said that this is what would happen at the end of the age. God’s angels would come and gather the weeds and throw them into the fiery furnace.
When would this happen? When would the “end of the age” come? Jesus did not answer this question. He simply said that just as there is a harvest time for farmers, so there is a harvest time for the age. This was an incentive for the children of the Kingdom to persevere.
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”
The end of the Jerusalem age came in 70 A.D. not long after Jesus spoke this parable.
We are sobered to know that the end of our age will come. Though we know not when or how, we resolve with ever greater faithfulness to stay close to Jesus and live as children of the Kingdom.
