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01/24/2010 - The End is Near, Mark 13:14-27

On Wednesday of this week an aftershock measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale sent Haitians screaming into the streets, collapsing buildings, cracking roads, and adding to the trauma of a nation already in shock from an earthquake of biblical proportions that had taken place eight days earlier. Fortunately, there were no reports of fatalities or anyone being crushed under rubble because most of the people in Haiti are staying away from buildings now and are living outside under tarps and tents.

Estimates are still coming in but according to the European Union the earthquake on January 12 killed about 200,000 people and left as many as two million people homeless. January 12, 2010 is a date that the people of Haiti will never forget. It's the day that changed their country forever.

The people of Indonesia will never forget December 26, 2004. That was the date that the tsunami hit and also claimed 200,000 lives and left millions homeless. And more than five years later they're still cleaning up the mess.

August 29, 2005 is the date that the people of New Orleans will never forget. That's the day Hurricane Katrina hit and flooded 80% of their city.

My parents never forgot December 7, 1941. My mom and dad were both twenty-one years old at the time and I remember them telling us where they were that Sunday morning when they first heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and the United States was at war with Japan. That day changed their lives forever. Shortly after my dad went into the Navy and spent the next four years in the service.

For our generation September 11, 2001 is the day we'll never forget. That's the day the twin towers came crashing down along with the world as we knew it up until then.

There are certain dates that are memorable and certain events that we call historic because they change the way we live. And today we come to one of the most memorable and historic events of all time for the Jewish people. It was a horrific event that forever changed the way they lived and related to God and the way we live and relate to God right up to now. It occurred on the 9^th day of the Hebrew month of Av in the year AD 70 or on our calendar August 30, AD 70. And that catastrophic event is described for us in the passage where going to look at this morning.

If you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 13. Last week we began our study of this incredible chapter that some have called one of the most difficult chapters in the whole New Testament and today we'll see why.

We're in the midst of Passion Week, the last week of Jesus' life prior to his crucifixion. It's Tuesday late afternoon and Jesus and his disciples have just left the Temple where they had been hanging out all day.

And on their way out one of them says," Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" That's the way Mark 13 begins. And in response Jesus says in Mark 13:2, "Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another, every one will be thrown down."

That was a shocking statement, a scandalous statement, a subversive statement that Jesus made! That would be like visiting New York City on Monday, September 10, 2001 and hearing your tour guide say, "Do you see these twin towers? Aren't they impressive? But I tell you that not one girder will be left on another, every one will be thrown down!" Huh!?

Or like going to Haiti and walking through the streets of Port-au-Prince on Monday, January 11, and having a friend say, "Do you see the national cathedral, do you see the presidential palace? Not one concrete block will be left on another, every one will be thrown down and you'll see it happen!" What!?

Imagine someone saying that to you about Washington D. C? "Do you see the White House, do you see the Capitol building, do you see the Washington Monument? All these impressive, magnificent structures are going to be reduced to rubble within your generation?"

That's a frightening statement that would scare us to death because along with buildings of that stature, go people, and systems, and ways of doing things that give us security and stability and provide meaning for our lives. "You can't drop a bomb on us like that Jesus without some further explanation."

And so they hike up the Mount of Olives where they have this panoramic view of the Temple Mount looking out across the Kidron Valley and Peter, James, John, and Andrew pull Jesus aside and ask him two questions, "When will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?" In other words, tell us Jesus when is the Temple coming down and what will be the signal that's it all about to happen? We gotta' know!

And so Jesus gives them a further explanation. In fact, he launches into his longest recorded answer to any question he's ever asked called the Olivet Discourse. Sitting on top of the Mount of Olives Jesus gives them a panoramic view of the next forty years and it's not pretty. He starts out in verses 5-13 by describing the signs of the times, the things that will lead up to the Temple's collapse and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and tells them not to panic, but to stand firm to the end.

He says that there will be false Messiahs out to deceive the masses, but don't listen to them. There will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be earthquakes and famines, an increase in domestic violence, and widespread persecution of Christ followers. And sure enough history reveals that all these things happened just as Jesus said they would.

He describes them as the beginning of birth pains before the new baby is delivered which we said last week is a whole new way of relating to God that doesn't depend on the Temple and on the priesthood and on sacrifices and burnt offerings. It's the way that we relate to God now, directly, because of Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross.

A huge transition is about to occur and it's going to be a painful, messy, bloody process just like the birth of a new baby. And it's been on Jesus' mind all week. He cursed the fig tree as a symbol that God's judgment was going to fall on Israel. He cleansed the Temple as temporary solution to the injustice that took place there. He tells a parable about the vineyard whose owner kills the tenants and gives the vineyard to others. Even on Palm Sunday, that festive day two days earlier, the high water mark of his ministry he's thinking about the destruction to come and he weeps over it.

This is what he said just two days earlier in Luke 19:41-44, As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴²and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³The days will come on you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

The events that were about to occur were going to be so horrific that they made Jesus cry just thinking about them.

Now up until verse 13 Jesus has been telling his disciples to stay cool and to stand firm, but in verse 14 everything changes. Now he's going to tell them to run as fast as they can - to run without looking back, to run without going back to grab their stuff, to run so fast that those who are pregnant or have little children will have a hard time keeping up. Something terrible is going to happen in Jerusalem, something that has never happened before and will never happen again and if God hadn't cut the days short no one would survive it. It's going to take mass destruction to a new level.

Look at verse 14, "When you see 'the abomination that causes desolation' standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁵Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. ¹⁶Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁷How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ¹⁸Pray that this will not take place in winter, ¹⁹because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. ²⁰If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. ²¹At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. ²²For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²³So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

Get out of town as fast you can or else you're going die Jesus says. He opens the discussion by quoting a passage from the book of Daniel that talks about the abomination that causes desolation. That's the sign that will tell them it's time to get out of Jerusalem.

The "abomination that causes desolation" is a cryptic way of saying that something, either an idolatrous object or an offensive person or maybe both, but something that causes imminent destruction is going to appear in Jerusalem at a place where it doesn't belong and when it does all hell is about to break loose so get out of town!

Jesus doesn't say if that desolating abomination will be a pagan idol set up in the Temple courts or the sacrifice of a pig on the Jewish altar, which had happened before, or the statue of a Roman Caesar set up in the Holy Place, or the invasion of the Roman army with their banners and standards and golden eagles.

Jesus doesn't get anymore specific then this because this is highly sensitive, politically dangerous information. So he talks in code and doesn't tell them everything. But he does tell them enough so that they can recognize when it's time to run. We don't know exactly what the abomination was, but we do know what happened after that.

In the Spring of AD 66, about thirty-five years after Jesus uttered these words, the Jewish people living in Judea began a full scale rebellion against Rome. They had had it with the empire. In response, Rome sent a general named Vespasian to Palestine to put an end to it and subdue the Jewish people.

After conquering Galilee and the Northern provinces he made his way to Jerusalem and actually camped out on top of the Mount of Olives overlooking the city, pondering the best way to attack it. But while he was there the emperor Nero suddenly died and Vespasian was elected the next Caesar. So in AD 69 he went back to Rome and gave his son, Titus, who was also a Roman general, the honor of squashing the revolt and finishing the job.

In March of AD 70, with the 5^th, 10^th, and 12^th Roman legions, Titus surrounded the city and settled in for a long siege. It was Passover and the population of the city swelled to over a million Jewish worshipers coming from all over the world. People were streaming into Jerusalem when they should have been getting out of the city and running for their lives like Jesus said.

Titus let them into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, but he had no intention of letting them out again. He wanted to trap them like rats in a cage. And so he blocked the gates and began building what would become a ten-story embankment to get over the walls just like Jesus said. He encircled the city and hemmed them in on every side. His hope was that the Jews would surrender peacefully to put an end to the four year rebellion, but they refused.

And so for the next 143 days he starved the people into submission. Inside Jerusalem fights broke out as families fought for scraps of dirty food and what little water they could find. In fact, when it was all over more Jews had been killed by their own countrymen than by the Romans themselves. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death, Jesus had said.

The disease got so rampant that the sick were thrown over the walls outside the city. And bodies began piling up in both the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys. Meanwhile, the famine inside the city got so great that we have records of mother's eating their own children to survive. It was horrible! If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive.

At one point, Josephus the historian who was on site and recorded the events, tells us that Titus was so exasperated by the whole mess that he threw up his hands and yelled, "God, please don't hold me accountable for this!" He scheduled a meeting with the Jewish leaders and said, "Listen, you've got to surrender or else you're all going to die." But they refused. And when they retreated to the Temple complex for safety Titus said, "Please don't make us destroy the Temple." But they wouldn't quit.

Then one night a company of Roman soldiers snuck into the city without resistance and when they came to the Temple wall one soldier stood on the shoulders of another and threw a torch into the Temple and it began to burn. Some one ran back and woke Titus up and when he saw what was happening he took off for the Temple precinct screaming, "Stop! Stop! Don't burn down the Temple." But in all the commotion the soldiers either didn't hear him or else chose not to obey him and started throwing torches everywhere until the Temple burned like a hot oven. The inside of the Temple building was lined with cedar wood so it went up like a match box.

The fire burned so hot that the gold doors and the gold pinnacle on the roof all started to melt and trickled down in between the stones. Later on after the fire was out and the stones had cooled off a bit the Roman soldiers, who were paid in part by the spoils of war, took pry bars and started flipping the stones down into the Kidron Valley and scrapping out the gold so that literally not one stone of the Temple building was left upon another just as Jesus had said. It all came tumbling down!

Even today when you visit Jerusalem you see these massive stones that were once part of Herod's magnificent Temple. They've been there for almost 2,000 years. Everything that Jesus said would happen happened and it happened on August 30, AD 70, the 9^th day of the Hebrew month of Av, the exact same day, August 30, that Solomon's Temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians 656 years earlier. Amazing!

Those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

And that's true. Of course, there have been other large scale tragedies in this world including horrific events like the holocaust. But that didn't occur in Jerusalem and that didn't involve the Temple. We have to remember the questions that Jesus is addressing here. When will the Temple be destroyed and what will be the sign that it's coming down?

Josephus tells us that when Jerusalem fell 97,000 Jewish people were taken captive and shipped off to Rome to be crucified, slaughtered by gladiators or eaten by lions as entertainment for the cheering crowds in the Coliseum. Others were forced to work the Roman mines as slaves and still others were scattered all over the empire.

Titus himself was welcomed back as a hero and became the next Roman emperor after his father, Vespasian. And to this day you can still see the arch in Rome that was built in his honor showing his soldiers carrying the menorah and other sacred articles out of the Temple.

97,000 people were captured, but 1.1 million people were killed during the siege either by disease, dehydration, starvation, or the sword. That's why Jesus weeps. This calamity is on his mind when he rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and it's on his mind when he's stumbling to the cross on Good Friday.

Look at what he says in Luke 23:27-31, A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. ²⁸Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' ³⁰Then "'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"' ³¹For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

Tough days are coming, Jesus says, and it would be better not to have children who will have to go through them.

Jesus goes on to say in Mark 13:24, "But in those days, following that distress, "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; ²⁵the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'²⁶"At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens."

What's that all about? The sun going dark and stars falling from the sky and the heavens being shaken and the Son of Man coming through the clouds with great power and glory? Well these are the verses that make this one of the most difficult chapters in the New Testament because it sounds like Jesus is saying that he's going to come back right after the destruction of the Temple.

But Jesus didn't come back right after the Temple was destroyed. In fact, two thousand years later we're still waiting for Jesus to return which is why some Bible scholars believe that the "distress" Jesus is talking about here is something entirely different than the destruction of the Temple that occurred in AD 70. Jesus they say is talking about events yet to come. And I understand that. In fact, that's how I've always viewed this passage until studying it this time around. And that may still be true. But if that's the case then Jesus isn't answering the two questions that started the whole discussion in the first place.

Another possibility is that Jesus is using images to speak of things that did happen right after the Temple was destroyed. Remember this is highly sensitive information and politically explosive if it gets into the wrong hands. I believe that Jesus wants to warn his followers of the events that are coming in their lifetime, but he doesn't want to do it in a way that will put them at risk by stating things too plainly. So he uses Old Testament images that his audience would have been familiar with, but we're not.

The image of the sun and the moon going dark and the stars falling from the sky is actually a quote from Isaiah 13 and Isaiah 34. And when it's used in both those passages it's used as an image to describe God's judgment that fell on Babylon and Edom, two nations who had always been opposed to God's people. But now, using the same image, Jesus is saying that God's judgment is coming down on his own people.

The image of the Son of Man coming in the clouds is a reference to Daniel 7. Jesus had already referenced Daniel when he spoke of the abomination of desolation. But in Daniel 7 when the Son of Man comes in the clouds or literally "with the clouds" the passage is not speaking about the return of the Son of Man to earth, but about the return of the Son of Man to heaven after his mission is complete. It's about triumph and vindication and his authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that Jesus is coming back to this earth through the clouds. But in this passage the reference seems to be pointing to his vindication and the validation of everything that Jesus claimed to be. And the destruction of the Temple, just as Jesus said, would affirm his great power and glory. His resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and the destruction of the Temple validated the claims of Jesus as the Son of Man.

And then he says that he'll send his angels, literally his "messengers," to gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. That's another difficult image to understand. But it could be a reference to what was going to happen in the centuries to follow when messengers would take the gospel to the entire world and that's still happening to this day. The gospel continues to go out as we wait for Jesus to literally return through the clouds.

This is tough stuff. I warned you. And we're not finished yet. Read ahead and next week we'll try to wrap up Mark 13 and the Olivet Discourse.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.