Luke 21:25 - The Roaring and Tossing of the Sea
My lecturer for a module I’ve just taken “The Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts” had this great way of motivating us. He would ask us really simple questions about the content of Luke. I’m sitting with ministers and guys who have done undergrads in Theology but everyone’s afraid to answer because none of us know each other and we don’t want to sound stupid. In fact our silence was probably worse than giving the wrong answer so I went away and I read the book of Luke in one sitting.
One verse really jumped out at me but we’ll read the whole section before I go into more detail about that verse. Read Luke 21:5-28
Luke 21:25: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.”
We have to, each one of us, decide how we are going to respond to these incredible apocalyptic prophecies of Jesus. We know that in 70AD the Roman general Titus and his troops did destroy the temple, that part of Jesus’ prophecy came true! But focusing on one verse in particular this morning, Luke 21:25 I’m going to talk about:
1.The Symbolic/Metaphorical Interpretation
2.The Literal Interpretation
3.The Response of the Faithful
1. The Symbolic or Metaphorical Interpretation
I need to rewind a little bit for us to understand this interpretation, right back to the first chapter of Genesis where it says this: Read Genesis 1:1-2 & 9-10. For the Israelites or anyone in the Ancient Near East the sea was the place of chaos, the embodiment of Chaos. So, these few verses in Genesis would have really witnessed to the Israelites of God’s great power in creation, this crushing defeat of chaos.
The sea was a place to be avoided, they were frightened of the sea, it was a place synonymous with the Leviathan or Rahab the anti-creation sea monster. There are numerous verses stating God’s defeating of this beast or God’s mastery over the seas.
“You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. You crushed Rahab like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.” (Psalm 89:9-10)
“He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.” (Job 9:8)
“By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent.” (Job 26:12-13)
“In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1)
The Israelites were not the only ones to believe in the taming of this sea creature of chaos. No, similar myths existed in other places to name but a few: India, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Greece. But we know the Israelites believed in one God and in one God only. Why were they talking about this sea creature as some kind of contender with God? The answer is they were not borrowing the theology of the pagan nations around them but they were borrowing the imagery.
What does this mean for an interpretation of Luke 21:25? Well, assuming a symbolic interpretation of the sea as chaos it could just mean massive political and social instability. A violent change and emergence of a new order. Some theologians do take this view.
But there are a few problems with this view,
Number 1. Apocalyptic literature is not always symbolic, in fact there are many who would say that Apocalyptic literature is primarily literal.
Number 2. It is generally held that Luke was not a Jew but a gentile christian who may very well have not had the same understanding of the sea as the Jews.
Number 3. The probability of a literal fulfilment is not insignificant.
2. The Literal Interpretation
One of the reasons that this verse jumped out at me is because of climate change and in particular rising sea levels.
What is climate change?
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping heat from the sun in the atmosphere. This is a good because it the earth warm enough to live on. But for one reason or another most scientists would say: burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere trapping more of the sun’s heat in and temperatures are rising.
“Sir David King, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, has called climate change ‘the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism’.”
“Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the UK Meteorological Office and co-chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), wrote in the Guardian in 2003, ‘the impacts of global warming are such that I have no hesitation in describing it as a “weapon of mass destruction”
The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. They say, the evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.
We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitats, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.
Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide. The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.
Do you think Jesus will return in your life time? My answer..I don’t know.. but the next 50 years are really going to be very different: environmentally, technologically, politically and economically. So that’s the bad news but what’s the good news? My third point:
3. The Response of the Faithful
“On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.”
Anguish (means “excruciating or acute distress” it’s worry and fear), Perplexity the greek suggests finding no solution to their embarrassments; being at one’s wit’s end, at a loss how to proceed, without resources.
But then if we read on in Luke chapter 21 verse 28 “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” The good news is that Christians won’t be in anguish or perplexed, why? because our redemption draws near! We’ll be the observers. I’m not suggesting we’ll be detached from the suffering of the world, no. But we’ll be lifting up our heads, not being caught off guard because we already know it’s coming, for our redemption will be drawing near.
