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 parti...