52. Mark 13: The End
When he
predicts the Temple’s destruction the disciples want to know when. This
launches a famous and, in my view, widely misunderstood, discourse on this
(Mk.13). Many think the disciples want to know and Jesus instructs them on what
will happen at the end of history, the end of the space-time universe. This
mistaken, I believe, and radically so. He is speaking about “the end of the
world” to be sure. He tells them
-they must not be
misled by false teachers and leaders (13:5-8),
-they must be
prepared for persecution and betrayal and to persevere to the end (13:9-13),
-they must flee to
the hills when they see the “desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to
be” (13:14-23), and
-wait for the return
of the Son of Man accompanied by all manner of astral upheaval.
Thanks
to the kind of theology that inspired the Left
Behind franchise, called Dispensationalism, many believe Jesus is
describing events at the very end of human history. Without debating the
particular of this interpretation, a closer look at the details of Mk.13 will
show us how far-fetched it is.[1]
In
vv.5-13 Jesus warns about all the kinds of things that must precede the demise
of the Temple. Wars, earthquakes, false prophets, persecutions and betrayal all
come before this cataclysmic event. Jesus’ disciples are to be prepared to
stand firm and resist. He is apparently not physically present with them.
With
v.14, though thing change. Now, on the proper cue, they are flee the city and
head to the hills for safety and protection. The moment of doom for the Temple
has arrived!
And the
cue they are to watch for is “the desolating sacrilege.” What does this
mean? We need to know our Old Testament
to discover the answer. In Dan.11:31 and 12:31 we read of pagan hordes swarming
the city, breaking off the sacrifices in the Temple and erecting “a desolating sacrilege.”
Some visible pagan monument of some sort, most likely.
At this
time false teachers will run riot. Indeed, Josephus tells us about
just that during the Roman-Jewish War of 66-70 a.d. Rome had just gone through
four emperors in 69 a.d., a year filled with civil war, violence, murder, and
all kinds of skullduggery. The last of these, Vespasian, was making his way to
Rome to accede the throne, when his adopted son Titus went in to Jerusalem,
sacked the city, burned and razed the temple, and killed thousands of Jews by
crucifixion. What other kind of language would describe this better than that
of cosmic upheaval.
And this is just what language of darkening sun, a blighted
moon, and falling stars describes in Israel’s prophets (see, for example,
Isa.13:10; 34:4). Why, after all, would Jesus advise them to run away for
safety if this was literally the end of the world. It wasn’t the end of the
world in that sense. No Jew believed the world was going to end that way
anyway. But it was the end of the world as the Jews had known it, their way of
life and hopes for the future.
On the other hand, since Jesus had predicted this destruction of
the Temple, this “end of the world” of the Jews, its occurrence would vindicate
him as a true prophet and even the people’s Messiah. He lowers the boom,
though, when he applies Dan.7:13 to this moment: “They will see ‘the son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory.’”
This verse from Dan.7 does not refer to his returning somewhere or to
some one but rather to his “coming” to YHWH after a period of suffering in
vindication and triumph. This is the vindication of what he has always been
about – God’s Abrahamic plan to bless the world through his people. Jesus has
gathered and reconstituted that Abrahamic people in his ministry and death and
resurrection.
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