Hope Worth Having
4 Son of Man
Mark 13; Daniel 9.20-27
We come to the last of our Advent sermons. We have traveled from Isaiah to John the Baptist to Jesus, and now we want to think about the future.
It would be an interesting exercise to go out into the street with a set of questions and ask people what they think lies in the immediate and long-term future. Will the world be a better place or worse in 100 years time? That could be one question. I guess we would find optimists and pessimists.
There is a graffiti on a wall out Mundaring way which says, “Peace on earth – I don’t think so!” My guess is it was written by someone the thinks Christmas and Christianity is a load of hogwash. All the Christmas hype certainly creates the impression that Jesus came to bring peace – but so far we haven’t seen much of it. It is good that we remind ourselves that what in fact Jesus predicted for the immediate future was wars, earthquakes and famines. I want us to take a look at Mark 13 and because it is so controversial and perplexing even to Christians, I am going to do this in lecture format.
I will start with Jesus words, “Truly this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” I want to start here because among atheists and people opposed to Christianity this is knock-down proof that Jesus got it wrong. This is a concern to many Christians as even some believing writers tell us we must accept that Jesus made a mistake here, and therefore his knowledge was not perfect, but that this does not cancel his being the Son of God. But a mistake of this magnitude would shake my faith and leave me wondering whether there was any point looking to him for guidance about the future.
Jesus himself says plainly that the day of his coming or its hour he does not know, and certainly that does not take away from his coming from God. It is one thing to say you have no knowledge of something, but if you say you do, and are proved wrong, that is another thing. Jesus makes a very strong assertion: Mark 13.30 “Amen (truly), I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Thus it would seem to be a very serious mistake – if – if we are sure that “this generation” meant the people who were alive at that time. But I have come to think that this is not the only meaning of these words, nor their natural meaning in this case.
Moses composed a prophetic song before his death which would testify to the Israelites when exile fell on them in the future that it was a judgement from God on account of their rebellion. Twice in the song he calls them a “perverse generation” not speaking of his own contemporaries, nor of those who would be alive at the exile, but of the whole wicked nation from their beginning to their end. A generation is something generated. It can be thought of as those who are alive who have been recently generated, or of a particular species. Elsewhere Jesus speaks of a brood of vipers, meaning the generation that comes forth from the devil. So I think Jesus was using familiar language to speak of the present evil age with its own evil generation. He could have said “All these things will happen before this age of wickedness passes away.” This accords with his denial that he knows the day, and with his warnings that it may be a considerable time – and with the fact that there will be disasters and wars, and that the gospel will be preached to the whole world.
If you are still doubtful, I would ask you to examine Jesus’ parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16) where Jesus uses similar language, and also Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2) to see how influential that idea of a “crooked generation” was in early Christianity. I have pondered this problem for many years and am confident in myself that this is the right solution.
Come now to our main business. Jesus has repeatedly told his disciples that he would die and rise again. He has also spoken of his coming at the end of the age. Now one of the disciples disciples asks him a question that brings the fate of Jerusalem into the picture.
Mark 13.1 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
The temple in Jerusalem was one of the seven wonders of the world. Size-wise it covered an area 800×400 metres. Josephus says that when you got to the top of the Mount of Olives and could look across the valley the impression was of the sun shining on a snow-capped mountain. “All that was not overlaid with gold was of the purest white marble.” I do not know of any building today that would even slightly compare with it. Josephus says there were stones up to 20 metres long. It must have sounded like pure fantasy when Jesus said that it would be leveled to the ground. It was, but Herod had laid foundations for the temple platform that in places went down 150 metres below ground level, and some of these are exposed and visible today. One in the western wall weighs 400 tonnes.
Forty years after Jesus spoke these words the temple was sacked, burned and its stones torn down by the Roman army under Titus. But for the disciples it was inconceivable, and for most Christians for most of the period of the New Testament, but it happened as he said.
Mark 13.3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”
They are sitting on the Mount of Olives with the Kidron Valley below and the temple and Jerusalem spread out on the mountain opposite. Mark makes it clear only a few of the disciples were present. Andrew being here is unusual. He is not singled out as being present anywhere else by Mark, so I take it here as a sign of the historical truth of this occasion.
The double question makes me think they are asking about more than the destruction of the temple. They are thinking also of the end of the age and the coming of the kingdom. Probably they think it will all happen together. Matthew makes it clear there is a double question here: “When will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming, and the end of the age?”
The tenor of Jesus reply is a warning to us to be prepared for a difficult future. His biggest warning is against being taken in by usurpers, who will want to be Messiah.
5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
Josephus tells us of false prophets who rose up in the turbulent years leading up to the war between Rome and the Jews. They led the people into the desert promising to show them miracles. One of them said that Jerusalem’s walls would fall at his command. But they and their followers were killed. I do not imagine there were many Christians among them.
There have been many Messiah figures down through history. Some of them claimed the name, others like Hitler promised a new world if his followers would give him absolute authority. Many church people were taken in by him and followed him like a Messiah. Last year as you know Abu Bakhr el Baghdadi proclaimed himself Caliph – that means leader of the world’s Muslims – claiming spiritual and physical authority over all Muslims. If they gave it to him, his authority would include making war on the rest of the world. Under Sharia Law captives would then be offered the choice of conversion or death, unless they are Jews or Christians (People of the Book), in which case they could continue to worship their own way, but would have to pay a special tax and accept an inferior status. I expect that Baghdadi and his followers will also soon be dead.
We have been warned. We are to know that history is going to continue on its way for some time yet. Libya, Syria, ISIS, South Sudan are just more of the same. God placed the world in the hands of men to rule on his behalf. We took over and are doing it our way, and the human story is playing itself out. I cannot say what our children and grandchildren will see in their lifetime, whether your struggle will be with the temptations of prosperity, or the trials of poverty. But do not lose heart if it is war and more war, and if the disorder in human affairs is sometimes matched by disorder in the natural world. Jesus calls it “the birth pains”. The new world will be born out of great suffering, but birth pains mean hope.
Mark 13.9 “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. 10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. 13 And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Notice how often Jesus tells them to watch out, be on their guard, take care. He is not predicting the future to tickle their curiosity, but arming them so they can remain strong when things are falling apart.
Being dragged into court was a reality that faced many Christians in the first three centuries. It was a common experience for Christians under Communism – also for our brothers in Muslim countries. It may soon be a reality for us in the West. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tasmania recently sent a letter to his people in Tasmania explaining the church’s teaching on same-sex marriage. He is being prosecuted because someone made a formal complaint that she was “offended”. This is happening in a number of western countries. Hate speech legislation is being used as a weaponto attack Christians by people who hate Christianity. If I preach to you on what the Bible says about sodomy (something I should be willing to do), I could lay myself open to court proceedings.
Jesus tells us that this may have a positive purpose in the salvation plan of God. The gospel is going to be preached to the whole world. This is one of the reasons I don’t think Jesus believed it would all happen in one generation. The world is a big place! Indeed it is for just this reason that the time of the end is drawn out. Peter tells us that God is patient, not wanting that anyone should perish, but that all should repent and come to the truth. (2 Peter 3.9) The gospel is not an incidental thing that Christians do. It is the reason God does not come to judge and history goes on. And sometimes prison is the only place the gospel is allowed to be preached. I had a student from South Korea in the college in Cape Town. She traveled to Iran wanting to preach the gospel, and was soon arrested. But the head of her prison and some of the warders wanted to hear what Christianity was all about. She had a constant stream of visitors and was an effective missionary up to the time they deported her.
The other thing Jesus says – and this is extraordinary – is that a person put on trial for his or her faith doesn’t need to prepare the case. The Holy Spirit will give them what they need to say when the time comes. How wonderfully sure Jesus is of the presence and power of God!
So far Jesus has been warning his disciples in general terms what they will have to face in the time after his execution and his return in glory. Next he goes to the specifics of what is going to happen to Jerusalem.
Mark 13.14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be ( let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.
What is “the abomination of desolation” and what is the reader to understand? This is Jesus’ way of pointing us to the book of Daniel. In chapter 9 after Daniel’s great prayer for mercy on the exiles in Babylon Gabriel comes to him and tells him about what is still to happen to the Jews. I want us to look at the passage, not to explain it in detail, but to be aware of it. When the Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted that Jesus would return in 1914 it was this passage they thought they got it from. Many more recent calculators have mistakenly tried to figure out the date of Christ’s return from this passage. What I want for us is to be able to see a broad pattern of events because Jesus is referring us to this passage.
Daniel 9.24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. 25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
The Jews measured history in jubilee periods. A jubilee happens after 49 years. So seventy weeks of years is 490 years or ten jubilees. There is no reason to take these numbers literally. But note what is to happen. There will come a prince and then Jerusalem and the temple will be rebuilt. Then after 432 years a Messiah will be cut off. Then the people of another prince will destroy Jerusalem and the temple and put an end to sacrifice and offering. To the end there will be war.
So there is your wars and rumours of wars, and the destruction of Jerusalem by a future prince.
Then comes this mysterious statement about the abomination of desolation. An abomination is something revolting, something utterly offensive, utterly offensive to God in this case, because it causes him to abandon his temple, leaving it a desolate waste. Jesus spoke about this in other places warning the Jews that if they turned their backs on the mercy he was bringing from God their temple would be left desolate. (Matthew 23.37-39)
So Jesus tells his disciples that when they see the temple desecrated in some abominable way they are to run for it, because this will be the sign that it is about to be destroyed. Daniel makes it clear it will be destroyed by an army, and Luke makes this explicit. He “translates” the abomination of desolation image, and says “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies”.
But what was “the abomination of desolation”? Not exactly the armies surrounding Jerusalem, because once they were there the chance for flight was gone. People speculate, but I think it was when the Jewish revolutionaries occupied the temple in AD 67, and made it the headquarters for their war against Rome. Josephus who was no Christian saw this as sacrilege and tells of a voice in the temple which cried out, “We are leaving this place.” It is a fact of history that the Christians of Jerusalem fled and were not caught in the city and destroyed.
Read Josephus’ account of the siege of Jerusalem to see how terrible it was. Anyone trying to escape the city was crucified, sometimes in contorted poses, until there were thousands of crosses on the hills around the city. Heads of captives were fired into the city as ballista balls. When the wall was finally broken troops poured in and massacred the inhabitants. The temple was burned and then leveled to the ground. The few survivors were sold as slaves. Jesus had warned of this; it happened as he said.
The big and controversial question is what did Jesus think would happen after the destruction of Jerusalem. Did he think that would be the end? Or was history to continue afterwards?
Mark 13.21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.
The fact that Jesus goes back to talking about false christs and false prophets makes me think that the wars and rumours of wars are to continue. There is no indication here that somehow Jerusalem’s fall is part of the winding up of the age. Luke is explicit: “Jerusalem will be trodden on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled.” (Luke 21.24)
So I think we must read “in those days, after that tribulation” as happening after an undisclosed period of time after the fall of Jerusalem.
Mark 13.24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
There will be disturbances of the natural order and then the Lord Jesus will appear, coming from the sky with power and glory. Some think this is figurative language. It is, but what does it figure? Jesus made it clear when he ascended from his disciples into the sky and vanished into clouds that he would return in the same way. He goes out of his way to impress on them that as they saw him go, so they will see him return. So this much is literal. As for the convulsions of the sun and moon and stars, I think it is best just to leave it for when it happens. Clearly we have not seen it yet, and I guess we will recognize it when it comes. Jesus will then send out his angels to gather to himself his chosen people from all over the earth.
I will not take it beyond this point, because Jesus doesn’t. He simply finishes by emphasizing the seriousness of his warnings and assuring us that this age will not end before all this has taken place.
How should we sum it up?
He predicted his death. He predicted his resurrection. He warns that the future beyond that will not be easy. War, famines, earthquakes, epidemics and tsunamis, floods and bushfires are all to be expected. These things are like the pains of a woman in labour: they hurt but are leading to something wonderful. He predicted that the gospel would be preached to the world’s end. Extraordinary! Christians will be persecuted; some will be called on to speak before judges and rulers. This is not a calamity, but part of God’s gospel strategy. As for Jerusalem, it will be destroyed with its temple, and he warns those living there at that time to drop everything and run. After that, more of the same: wars and rumours of war, false prophets and messiahs, until the final convulsions of the heavenly powers that will signal the end of the age. And then the Son of Man will come to take his rightful place as king.
What Jesus says, he says so that we might survive. When I say survive, I don’t mean go on living; we may have to die. I mean to go on trusting Jesus whatever may come, and to be saved. For us in Australia our lives for the most part have been in times of peace and security. We should be grateful for that. The Lord does not wish sufferings on people. Our temptations have been those of ease and plenty. Jesus talks about that too. But we never know when trial and tribulation may come. They can come to us as an individual or they may come on the nation or the world. Imagine what it must have been like going through the roaring twenties in Germany, and suddenly finding yourself and your family caught up in the horrors and temptations of Hitler’s National Socialism! Or imagine you have lived quietly with your family in a quiet out-of-the-way Syrian village and now you are fleeing to find a new home! Or imagine you have spent your working life teaching the Word of God in comfortable Tasmania, and suddenly they tell you you mustn’t say things that will offend people – you must accept the laws of the land above the laws of God? Will the easy times have put us to sleep? When I preached at the consecration of the former Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in Southern Africa I said that one essential characteristic of a bishop in the modern world is a willingness to go to gaol. Good times or bad, we must be prepared.
“Heaven and earth may pass away,” Jesus says, “but my words will not pass away.” I believe him, do you?