The Rains are Coming!

Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm146:5-10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Shall we have a white Christmas this year? We know that Christmas is coming when the snows begin to fall. That’s how our climate is. And we know that shortly after Christmas, more snow will fall and the temperature will plunge.

Easter will arrive when the temperature has increase enough for the snow to melt. Oh, there may be an Easter snow, but the main thing we expect on Easter is the blooming of early flowers and the rains of April. April shows bring May flowers, right? But the main thing is that the temperature has increased enough that we don’t worry about wearing heavy coats anymore.

In many other lands, the climate is different than around here. In particular, in Israel, the seasons are more divided by rainfall than by temperature. And so, in Israel, almost all of the rainfall comes between October and early May, while there may be no rain at all in June, July and August. Farmers really don’t care too much about rainfall when the temperature is too cold to grow in December to February, so our Bible writers began to talk of the “early and latter rains” – something our NIV has translated as the “autumn and spring rains” – the rains of October and November being the early rains, while the rains of March and April are the latter rains.

Rain makes crops grow. Part of the reason our trees lose their leaves in the fall is because our winter season has such little moisture compared to the spring and summertime. But in Israel, the rain comes all winter, with very little snow except in the north and particularly in the high mountains of Lebanon and the Golan Heights.

So in Israel, farmers lived off of two crops. Ancient Israelites did not grow many vegetables other than fast-growing onions and melons because of the water issues. Instead, there were the summer crops, grapes and olives and figs and pomegranites, because the vines and the trees had deep roots which could survive the long hot dry months of the summer, when no rain fell, but which had gorgeous sunny days without a cloud in the sky, and that allowed the grapes and fruits to ripen beautifully without the rot that our foggy summer mornings allow to grow.

And then, there were the winter crops, sown in the dry soil of early October, ready to germinate and grow when the latter rains came and survive the cool but not cold of winter, growing all winter. Cereal crops like barley and winter wheat, along with other grains such as rye, buckwheat and millet. These were planted in the fall and harvested in March, April, and May.

James wrote to believers:

Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

James was writing some thirty or forty years after the Resurrection and Ascension. The disciples assumed Jesus was returning soon. Yet, months and years and decades had passed. Christians were starting to die while they waited on Jesus’ return to Planet Earth. It is as though Jesus left and then….”To be continued” flashed across the world! The season’s over… we have to wait until the next season to see Him again. Oh, we’ve seen previews, but we want to see the next episode of this story!

But what should Christians do while we wait? The question is as important today as it was in the days of the Apostles.

As we wait for the Lord’s coming, there are three reactions which we might have – two of which the world approves of and one which the Lord approves of.

First, we can grow impatient and give up on Jesus. “Jesus hasn’t returned in 2000 years and so He won’t return at all!, so why bother?” That’s the attitude many people have taken, particularly recently. They don’t have patience, so they want to prove Jesus isn’t for real. And so they state that since Jesus hasn’t returned in 2000 years, He won’t ever return. That’s like telling a child that since it’s been eleven months since Christmas, it will never be Christmas again. It makes about as much sense, for we have the promises found throughout the New Testament that Jesus will be returning. But the world would have us give up believing in Jesus because He is running late. Yet we should trust someone who has a history of being truthful and reliable.

One morning when I was a single insurance agent back in the days before cell phones, I got a call at home from another agent, a really nice-looking brunette agent from another firm that I knew from an insurance class. She wanted to discuss a mutual customer, so I asked her to meet me at a nearby Pizza Hut for lunch. I had a sales call on a small business, and while I was there, the owner encouraged me to take applications on all the employees – all ten of them. Naturally, I got to work immediately taking applications. Time passed.

The other agent went to Pizza Hut, and told the waitress she was meeting someone. A while later, the waitress asked her if she wanted something to drink. She ordered some tea. A while later, the waitress said, “He doesn’t look like he’s coming, would you like to order?” The agent ordered a personal pizza. After still more time had passed, reluctantly, she finally paid the bill and walked outside, getting into her car.

About that time, I wheeled into the parking lot and saw the agent’s car driving over to me. I rolled down the window. Saundra pulled up beside me and said, “Did you get the application?” “I did – it was a group policy.” And only because Saundra was another insurance agent did she understand, park her car, and walk back inside to have lunch with me. And that was our first date. God is good!

Saundra did not give up believing in me, and we shouldn’t give up believing in Jesus because he is running late by our standards.

The second reaction the world would like from us is to become impatient about Jesus’ return and, while still believing in Him, stop thinking about Him and His return. We should focus upon this world and today. That’s what the world tells us time and again. “Don’t be a religious fanatic – they’re dangerous, they’re weird, they’re kooks!”

But consider the farmer who believes in the rains. He knows that there may be no rain in June, no rain in July. He sits and watches throughout 31 days of August and there isn’t a cloud in the sky, nor dew in the ground. Through September he counts the days, Sept 1, Sept 2, Sept 3 and so on through 30 days. He’s counted 122 days without rain. But he knows that it will rain in the fall. He doesn’t know if it will rain in October or whether he’ll have to wait until November, but he goes forward in faith, plowing the hard-baked fields, scattering life-giving manure on the fields, disking the fields repeatedly to turn the hard-baked clods into sandy dust, and then taking his seed wheat and sowing it in the fields, fields that blow dust whenever the wind comes. And he waits for the rains to come because he knows that the rains are coming soon. He just doesn’t know which day or which hour, but he is prepared, his fields are prepared, he’s done everything he can do to stand ready, he’s worked hard, he’s even assured his worried young neighbors that all will be all right by telling them stories of what he’s learned over the years, like the time he waited until the 15th of November for the rains to come, and he waits for the rains to come. He has trust in the Lord and the weather the Lord sends and so is he a dangerous fanatic?

I ask you – why is the farmer, who has faith the Lord will send the rains – a logical, optimistic, good farmer, while the man or woman who prepares his family and friends, who spreads the gospel of Jesus Christ, who walks on the Way of Holiness, who has faith that Jesus will return soon, considered a religious fanatic?

The third response, you see, is what the world doesn’t want us to do but Jesus wants us to do. We are to act like the farmer. There is a Way of Holiness, a path we are to follow. We are to believe that the rains are coming soon, that Jesus is returning soon, and to prepare our family, our friends, our neighbors for that return by spreading our wisdom, our knowledge, the Gospel story to everyone around us. We are to change the world around us, the hard-packed hearts of the world by plowing the Gospel carefully into them, by spreading life-giving Scripture all around, by turning over and over the hard clodded hearts by doing good deeds and speaking words of kindness and life to others, by telling others of all the times Jesus and God the Father came through for us and why we believe Him when He says He will return and bring His eternal life-giving water to a land that is thirsty for new life!

James said:

Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
If we follow the example of the farmer as I have said, we will show our patience, and we will be seen as the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. That is a cause for great rejoicing, that people would think us so devoted to God we’d be called prophets. We think well of prophets. What did the prophet Isaiah say about Christ’s return 2700 years ago when he compared it to the rains coming to the desert?

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.

But we should also remember – and strengthen ourselves – that prophets in ancient times – and today – are not treated kindly by the world, for prophets make most people uncomfortable. Yet Moses wanted all people to be prophets, speaking on behalf of God, and that was what Jesus asked of the Twelve and the Seventy that He sent out to the towns and villages and indeed, that is what He asks of everyone in the Kingdom of God. For there is a time when we should stop being called Disciples – which means students – and become Apostles - which means those who proclaim.

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Members of the kingdom of heaven, you are greater than John the Baptist. Will you proclaim the Messiah to all, as John did? Will you remind people that Jesus will return? Will you, as the good farmer, prepare your field and show your neighbors what must be done?

The rains are coming soon. Jesus will return soon – when, exactly, I cannot say, just as the old farmer couldn’t say. But just as he knew that the drought would end “soon”, we also know that Jesus will return “soon”. Be ready. He may return in the middle of the night. Profess your faith, be baptized, be a member of God’s church. And help your friends, neighbors, and family come into the kingdom of heaven.