21st December – Luke 21: “Look Up, and Lift Up Your Heads!”
Hey friends, welcome to December 21st. Luke 21 begins with a quiet, overlooked act of devotion and ends with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, speaking of the end of the age. From a widow’s mites to worldwide tribulation, the chapter calls us to one response: “Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (v. 28).
Part 1 – The Widow’s Two Mites (vv. 1-4) Jesus has just warned, “Beware of the scribes… which devour widows’ houses” (20:46-47). Then He watches the rich casting gifts into the treasury, and a poor widow putting in two mites. He calls His disciples: “Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had” (vv. 3-4).
The scribes devoured widows’ houses; this widow gave all her living, trusting God completely. In a temple full of showy giving, Jesus sees the heart. Her tiny gift was everything. As Christmas nears, remember: the Father who sent His Son to be our sacrifice, saw her grateful sacrifice, and sees yours.
Part 2 – Signs of the End (vv. 5-28) Admiring the temple’s beauty, disciples hear Jesus’ sobering prophecy: “The days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another” (v. 6). They ask, “Master, but when shall these things be?” Jesus describes birth pains: false Christs, wars, commotions, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, persecutions: “Be not terrified” (v. 9). Jerusalem compassed with armies, great distress, wrath upon this people. Then cosmic signs: “men’s hearts failing them for fear” (v. 26).
Yet amid terror, hope: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (v. 28). J. Hudson Taylor once wrote, “Are you in a hurry, flurried, distressed? Look up! See the Man in the Glory! Let the face of Jesus shine upon you—the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He worried, troubled, distressed? There is no wrinkle on His brow, no least shade of anxiety. Yet the affairs are His as much as yours.”
That phrase, “lift up your heads,” echoes Psalm 24:7: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates… and the King of glory shall come in.” One day, from this very Mount of Olives, the King of glory will return through the Eastern Gate.
Part 3 – The Fig Tree and Watchfulness (vv. 29-38) Jesus tells the parable of the fig tree: “When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh” (v. 30). Back in Luke 13, a fruitless fig tree pictured Israel, which was privileged yet barren, given one more year of grace. Now the fig tree is budding again! Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948: leaves appearing. It is not yet bearing full fruit, but summer is near. The Tribulation (Jeremiah’s prophesied “time of Jacob’s trouble”) will bring national repentance: “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn” (Zech. 12:10).
Jesus warns: “Take heed to yourselves… And take heed… watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things” (vv. 34-36).
From a widow’s trusting gift to worldwide tribulation, one message rings: Don’t be weighed down with this world’s cares. Look up. Lift up your heads. Your redemption / your King is drawing nigh.
Friends, this Christmas week, the Babe of Bethlehem is the returning King of glory. Live ready. Look up.
See you tomorrow for Luke 22. Grace and peace! 🙏
