My Sunday Sermon: When the Answers Don't Come

I'm preaching again this week, so I'm sharing it here, as I've done before. It's always good as a resource and a place for me to revisit later. 

Matthew 24:1-14

I’ve struggled a little bit recently.

My health makes things hard, but I can cope with that. That’s something people don’t always understand. People worry about sharing their own difficulties with me. I often get “I shouldn’t moan. You have it so much harder.” Yes, it’s horrible. The pain is immense and everywhere. It can be a battle.

This is hard every second of every minute of every hour of every day. This is also my normal, but it’s amazing how well we normalise things.

Do you know what I actually struggle with?

The little things.

The headache that won’t shift. Anxiety. An itch I can’t scratch. A paper cut. Catching a finger nail. Oh, Hannah will tell you how much I whinge.

Then there’s my autism stuff. Social situations. Saying the wrong thing. Being misunderstood. Spending days over analysing. Oh goodness, that’s super stressful.

I even have moments when I find myself saying to God,

“Seriously? Don’t you think I’ve got enough to handle already?”

And guess what? I don’t get an answer.

That’s where this passage becomes very relevant because that’s exactly where the disciples are.

They want answers.

Jesus gives them something else.

The disciples have just heard Jesus say that the Temple will be destroyed. That’s a major problem. The Temple was the centre of their world, religion, identity, history, and security.

So they ask,

“When will this happen?” 

“What will be the sign?” 

 “How will we know?”

They want information, certainty, and a forecast for the future.

Jesus doesn’t give them one.

Instead he starts talking about faithfulness. There will be wars, famines, earthquakes, persecution, suffering, and struggles.

And then Jesus says: “Do not be alarmed.”

That’s like a red rag to a bull, isn’t it? That’s like us husbands stressing our wives out and then telling them to calm down. How are we not meant to be alarmed?

But, we do get the answer: suffering is not evidence of God’s absence. I think that’s something many Christians need to hear because we often assume the opposite.

God is good. Therefore, we must have a good life. If I’m struggling, perhaps God has gone quiet or I did something wrong.

Yet Jesus says exactly the opposite.

The disciples should expect hardship, persecution, betrayal, isolation, and to be killed.

The promise is not that they will always be strong enough, but that God remains faithful.

That’s a much better promise.

There are things in life that exceed our strength. There are situations we never wanted. Questions we can’t answer.

Yet the faithfulness of God is not measured by our ability to cope.

The absence of pain is not proof God is present. Just as the presence of pain is not proof God is absent.

The thing is, we all want answers.

Why did this happen?

How long will it last?

When will things get better?

What is God doing in all of this?

The disciples wanted answers too. That's why they ask about signs and timelines.

What surprises me is that Jesus never really gives them the answers they're looking for. Instead, he prepares them for how to live when the answers don't come.

Not because the future is unimportant, but because discipleship happens in the present. In the mess.

Following Jesus has never been about knowing everything in advance. He doesn't say he’s removing uncertainty.

He teaches the disciples how to live within it. That's very different.

For many of us, there comes a point when the question changes.

It's no longer: "How do I make this disappear or become better?"

It's: "How do I remain faithful while this is still here?"

That's what Jesus is teaching. Then comes what I think is one of the most important verses in the passage.

Jesus says these things are birthing pains. That's such a strange image. Jesus doesn't say these events are signs that everything is ending. He says they're signs that something is being born.

Painful. Real. Significant. True, deep pain. But pain that isn't the final chapter.

That's Christian hope. Hope that looks like the cross before it looks like the resurrection.

Everything won't automatically work out perfectly. Suffering is still horrible. God still won't explain everything. But God specialises in bringing life out of places that look beyond hope.

That's the message here.

Nearly two thousand years later, we're still asking the same questions.

Why? When? What happens next?

While we want to know what happens next, Jesus doesn’t answer those questions.

Instead he says:

Don’t be deceived or alarmed. Endure, and keep going. Trust Him and proclaim the good news. Don’t stagnate.

Stay faithful in the present struggles because Christian hope was never built on having all the answers. Despite everything, God remains faithful. Let’s say it together. [REPEAT]

Let us pray

Lord Jesus, when life is hard and the answers don’t come, help us to trust in your faithfulness. When we are tired, strengthen us. When we are afraid, comfort us. When we are tempted to look for certainty, teach us instead to trust your presence. Remind us that suffering isn’t the end of the story, that your cross leads to resurrection, and that you remain faithful even when we cannot see the way ahead. Teach us to endure, to hope and to follow you day by day.

Amen.