Not too many years ago, London Transport ran an advertising campaign featuring various famous historical figures to promote how easy it is to get around the capital by tube. One of the posters had Henry VIII asking for 'a return to the Tower' then adding: 'and a single for the wife'!
Something is said or done which, though on the surface seems totally straightforward, those 'in the know' recognise as highly and (perhaps humorously) significant. That is what we call irony.
The Lord Jesus
No other life is surrounded with more irony than that of the Lord Jesus Christ. While he is the 'Bread of life' who fed the thousands, he himself suffered hunger (Matthew 4.2). While be brought healing and joy to others, he himself was a man of sorrows. While heaven was his home, he had nowhere to lay his head.
The cross
But nowhere is this sense of irony more pervasive than in the events leading up to the cross. He who was sold for 30 pieces of silver, gave his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20.28). The murderer Barabbas, whose name probably means 'son of the father' (how strange when we remember who Jesus is), is saved, while, in Samuel Crossman's words: 'the Prince of life they slay'.
At the trial, having heard the 'blasphemy' of Jesus' claims, the high priest tears his clothes (an act forbidden to the high priest by Leviticus 21.10), but later the seamless robe of Jesus remains undivided as the soldiers cast lots for it. Jesus is the true high priest.
At the very moment that the soldiers mock the blindfolded Jesus, calling him to prophesy who hit him., Jesus' prophecy concerning Peter's denial of him is coming true in the courtyard outside (Matthew 26.68,74,75). Jesus is the true prophet.
Though the Jewish leaders and people have declared to Pilate 'we have no king but Caesar', above the cross Pilate writes the legend: 'Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews'.
These and many more we do not have space to indicate, are poignant yet deliberate ironies woven into the story of the cross. We worship and rejoice to see the hand of God. Though the world scorns Jesus, the Lord laughs at them in the derisive details of the situation (Psalm 2.4).
Last things
In Scripture the term 'the last days' refers to the whole period between Christ's first and second comings. And we find that the events surrounding the cross are linked in to eschatology - our understanding of the future and of the last days. This flows from the fact that in the New Testament, eschatology is regarded as being in the process of realisation, in the sense of 'already here' and at the same time 'still to come'.
If we read the Gospels carefully we see that Jesus set the eschatological clock ticking. Good Friday and Easter Sunday meant that the end-time suffering of God's people and the general resurrection commenced in Jesus (1 Corinthians 15.20.)
That Jesus started the eschatological process is shown, for example, by the striking correlation between Mark 13 (about the end of the age) and Mark 14 and 15 (about the 'end' of Jesus).
As in the end-time 'the sun will be darkened and the moon not give its light', (Mark 13.24), so there is darkness at Calvary (15.33). As the Temple is to be destroyed (Mark 13.2), so the veil of the Temple is torn as Jesus dies (15.38). In Mark 14.34,37 Jesus tells his disciples to keep 'watch' in Gethsemane, then comes and finds them sleeping, which is strikingly similar to his command to the church to 'watch' for his second coming (13.36). Mark 13.39 predicts that in the period between his first and second comings, God's people will be brought before councils, governors and kings and be beaten. Then in Mark 14 and 15 we read of Jesus himself being brought before the Sanhedrin, Pilate and King Herod and beaten.
The parallels are plain. The idea is obvious. Jesus' 'end' belongs to the end-time process and is a pattern for God's people.
End-time irony?
If irony surrounds Jesus in his approach to the end, then it seems that similar irony will surround God's church in the end-time.
Irony depends on a certain blindness. What is said or done is ironic simply because its true significance is hidden to all but those 'in the know'. God's purposes for the church will triumph, but not in a way which the blind world will find easy to recognise.
Perhaps we can highlight some of the areas where this is already happening.
The world's media incessantly focus on temporal politics, transitory scandals and temporary sporting heroes, while the most significant event of all is largely ignored. God is working through the world, bringing people to Christ from every nation, completing the number of the elect, so bringing the coming of Christ ever nearer (Mark 13.10).
The long delay in Christ's return is used by the world to dismiss Christ from their reckoning, while the delay is actually a sign of God's patience, giving the church and the world time to repent (2 Peter 3.9). A pluralistic society rejects Jesus on account of his exclusive claims, while in so doing they tend to fulfil the prediction of Jesus that 'all men will hate you because of Me' (Mark 13.13). This is blindness. These are tragic ironies.
The glorious church
In the apostle John's terms, Jesus was glorified in his being lifted up on the cross; surely not a glory the world understood or recognised (John 12.23,24).
This surely means that however we read the Scriptures concerning the signs of Christ's coming, we should reject all ideas of a triumphant church which will be 'successful' in any sense the world would perceive as success. For example, it seems to me that the two related eschatological agendas of Restorationism and Reconstructionism fall into this category. During the 1970s and 80s these strands of evangelicalism taught that in this age, before Jesus returns, the church would, by the power of the Spirit and truth, become overwhelmingly successful in every area of human life. National governments would come to church to find counsel and direction. Wealth and prosperity would flow into the church from a grateful world. Evangelism, it was hinted, would almost cease to be necessary - it would be enough for non-Christians to see how good this 'new brand' of Christianity was, as its apostles led it and all Christians came to it. Many people are now disillusioned as they see that such triumph has not materialised, nor is it likely to do so.
Their problem is that this kind of success for the church is simply not in the Bible. The church will be triumphant, but not in a way the world recognises. The church is glorious and will be glorious, but its glory is the same as that of its Master - the glory of faithfully witnessing and suffering for the cause of God and truth in the midst of a hostile world.
Yes, the church may well grow in numbers. All unnoticed by the world, how lovely are the conversions of people as Jesus goes to the cross - the dying thief, and probably Simon of Cyrene and the Gentile centurion who sees what the clerics are blind to ('Surely this man was the Son of God' he cries). But the model for such church growth us more likely to be the way the Russian and Chinese churches have grown under persecution, or as Western conservative evangelicalism (where it has remained both vital and godly) has grown while continuing to be derided by secularised academics and its surrounding modern and post-modern culture. The world can even explain away genuine revival in terms of psychology and sociology.
Understanding the ironies of the cross should make us concerned for a lost world, but unsurprised by its reactions to a faithful church in the last days. Never doubt the day of the Lord is coming, but we need to watch carefully to read the signs.
