Paul Lindemann, “The Sermon and the Propers”
[The preacher] is speaking to people who have…put their trust in God, who put no trust in their own merits, who have prayed that the Lord would not let them be put to shame but deal with them according to His mercy.
When the world has become a hopeless, polluting carcass, the end will come, without special preceding signs, suddenly, unexpectedly. Therefore be ready always.
The purpose is not to satisfy curiosity but to give the Christian life a mighty tension and tenseness. For it reaches its climax in the thought that the end is uncertain. This holds true of death. For the individual, death is the return of Christ. Time ends with death, and eternity begins. There is no passing of time, no intervening time between death and Christ’s coming. But from this side, the great conclusion is: We must be ready always.
Personal Notes
Luther describes the abomination of desolation as the image of Caius Caligula. P.E. Kretzmann says it is the Roman army, with its military ensigns: eagles and idols. Dr. Harold Buls, of blessed memory, favors Kretzmann’s interpretation because of Matthew 24:16.
There is a strong resurrection motif in the Epistle (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). St. Paul would comfort the Church with the hope of the resurrection, especially those who are alive at the Second Coming. Those who are asleep in Jesus are asleep in peace, knowing their bodies will rise at the voice of Christ. As Paul says, “And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This motif may be brought into the Gospel, for those who place their hope in false christs are to deceive the elect. God allows these false christs to arise so the elect may ever more cling to Christ and His Word that brings the true promise of the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.
Passages of Note from the Prophet Daniel
Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11
P.E. Kretzmann
The prophecy thussets forth the vicissitudes of the Church of God, which would be relieved by the coming of the promised Messiah. But even after His coming the congregation of saints would be in fact a Church Militant, the great Roman Antichrist making the first attack upon the Lord’s forces and being supported in the last days of the world by other antichristian elements following his leadership, until the Lord will definitely and finally bring destruction upon him and them and the time of the Great Judgment.
Hymns (Lutheran Service Book): 613, 658, 513, 675