Night Before DAWNSample

Night 3

Based on the Gospel of Matthew

If someone keeps telling you scary stories during the whole day, you will become afraid of your own shadow by night. That day Jesus was very talkative. It seemed that He had many more stories but didn’t have much time. He was talking about the near future and about the future far down the road, so far that his listeners wouldn’t even be alive to see it. Some of the stories gave them the chills…

Judgement. Some to the right, others – to the left. I never knew you!

Wonderful walls turning to ruins. No – even to dust!

Wickedness the world has never seen. Love that has grown cold.

Earthquakes. Wars. Rebellions. Diseases. Chaos.

Parables of readiness and unpreparedness to give an account. Keeping watch and sleeping. Death. Inevitability.

Not the best of the lists, is it?

Finally, it’s dinner. Maybe no more stories for now? The feast is soon, we need to focus on the positive! Moreover, we don’t serve dinner tonight as we are guests here. But things didn’t go as planned.

Who invited this woman? And what is she doing? No, WHY is she doing this?

It’s such a waste!

And one more scary story: “She has prepared me for my burial”. But everybody is alive! No one’s dying!

But what she did was the confirmation of everything that Jesus told in those stories.

While there is still time – be ready to spend it for Him. It’s not a waste! Don’t be afraid of the future! Don’t think of what you could do – just do things out of love, here and now! Just dare to lose so you could gain for eternity!

They don’t know yet that in fact it’s going to be their last peaceful night. Tomorrow is going to test their alertness. And all the scary stories they need to be ready for might not be about them or for them. But it’s important to keep watch, so that in all those fears, in your searching and worrying, you don’t lose sight of Jesus, who is close to you.

It is the night. The night of being next to Jesus. Easter is close!