The Friday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 15, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 24:36-42 (NKJV)
24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
Devotion
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”
Time and time again, false prophets and false prophetesses have arisen, claiming to know the day of our Lord’s coming again. Sometimes they are minimally more subtle. “It says we cannot know the day or the hour,” they say, “but we might still be able to figure out the month, or the year!” They think they have fulfilled our Lord’s precise words, yet they have overthrown His clear meaning. We do not know when He will return. We do not know. Make peace with that.
You are forgiven through faith in Christ. Eternal life is yours. Ultimately, this is what matters. Martin Luther once famously said, “If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.” As the redeemed of the Lord, be about your vocations. Do today what He has given you today, whether the world ends tomorrow or a thousand years from now. It is not given us to know times and days, but only to trust that the Day will come, and to faithfully do our duties until then. God grant us to do them in the joyous certainty of our salvation.
Collect: Almighty God, we beseech Thee, show Thy mercy unto Thy humble servants, that we who put no trust in our own merits may not be dealt with after the severity of Thy judgment, but according to Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
