Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No. 19 – May 1997

 

‘These Things’: The Issues Behind Mark 13

 

A Sermon by Rev. D. Van Garderen on Mark 13:1-37

 

Dear Congregation,

There is good reason to believe that it was a Tuesday evening when Jesus and his disciples finally turned their back on Jerusalem’s temple and walked away from it.  Wednesday was therefore a ‘day off’ when they stayed outside the city – on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.  But the temple remained uppermost in their minds, especially as they looked across the Kidron Valley at Jerusalem.  The city looked secure – as eternal as ever.  Like a royal crown, Herod’s marble temple shone with stunning brilliance as the sunlight reflected off its massive, gold covered rooves and colonnades.

As the disciples sat there staring across the valley, the final words Jesus had spoken as he left the temple a few hours before roared in their ears:

“Do you see all these great buildings?
Not one stone here will be left on another
every one will be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2)

A thousand questions!  What?  When?  How?  Why?  What does this all mean?  When will these things begin?  What are we to make of this prediction?

Four of the disciples – the ‘inner circle’ – decided to ask Jesus for more details.  Mark tells us that they were Peter, James, John and Andrew.  One of them asked what they all wanted to know:

“Tell us, when will these things happen?
And what will be the sign that they are about to be fulfilled?”

Congregation, before we listen in and try to make sense of what Jesus was about to tell his disciples, focus on the questions that were asked.  There is the ‘when’ question and there is the ‘what’ question.  “When will these things happen?  What will be the sign that they are about to be fulfilled?”  But have you noticed something else?  Jesus had spoken prophetically only of the certain and total destruction of the temple – one event.  But the disciples do not ask for more details regarding that, a single event.  They ask, “When will these things (plural!) happen?  And what will be the sign that they (plural) are about to be fulfilled?”

Both Jesus and the disciples who asked the question knew that the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple was more just the physical destruction of a beautiful building.  Much more in fact!  They understood that the destruction of the temple meant divine judgment – it meant that God’s relationship to the covenant people was about to change.

Furthermore, Jesus, and the disciples, too, knew their prophets!  They immediately understood and began to interpret Jesus’ words against the background and in the light of Old Testament prophecies.  They were familiar with the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and especially Daniel.  The destruction of the temple can only be understood in the light of what these men had written!  The Day of the Judgment!  The Day of the Lord!  The Day of the New Age, when Messiah would begin his eternal glorious reign over his new, eternal Kingdom.  All of these events immediately sprang to mind when Jesus announced the destruction of the temple!  It is ‘these things’ which must happen.

Perhaps it is now clear that a reading and study of Mark 13 involves having to do some careful, prayerful thinking and preparation before we try to jump in.  What becomes clear is that you need to ‘hear’ and ‘see’ it with the same knowledge, insight and understanding of the prophets that the disciples had.  If you don’t know or appreciate what the prophets had said, Mark 13 and parallels becomes a minefield!

When you try to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ this chapter through the experience and a understanding of the disciples, this chapter is much more than a prophetic prediction about a single event.  A whole cluster of important truths and issues mingle together.

Try, therefore, to approach this chapter through the question the disciples asked.  They wanted to know about ‘these things’ and when ‘they’ would be fulfilled.

Therefore, forewarned is forearmed.  We cannot come to this passage simply to hear rip-roaring, nerve-tingling prophetic descriptions of coming calamity.  That is not what the disciples were asking about.  Neither can we come to Mark 13 simply as a thrill seeking exercise about calamitous ‘signs of the times’ by means of which we try to scare the unrepentant into repentance!  That isn’t what the disciples were asking about.

Rather, approach this chapter in order to hear Jesus preparing his disciples and ourselves for ‘tomorrow’ – for the future that awaits them and us.  Come to hear Jesus comforting, assuring, commanding and encouraging us to remain faithful, to keep on, never to lose hope or heart – to be ready and prepared for whatever awaits us!  Jesus is preparing them and us for the time when he will no longer be physically present.  He wants the disciples then and now to be ready and prepared for tomorrow!

See it?  Jesus is preparing us for what lies ahead.  He has already told the disciples then, and still tells us now, what, when, and how to expect ‘these things’.

BACKGROUND CONSIDERATIONS

In Mark 13 ‘these things’, may be seen as three clusters of basic issues or ‘events’ which the Lord Jesus had in mind as he spoke to the disciples on the Mount of Olives.

1.  First of all, he had in mind his own departure.  He knew that within days he would be captured, tortured, crucified and murdered at the hands of the authorities.  He knew that he would have to offer himself as a one-for-all sacrifice of atonement to atone (pay for) the sins of his sheep.  There would be no salvation for his disciples apart from his sacrificial death.

BUT, his death would also mean that he would no longer be with his disciples physically as he had been for the previous three years.  Henceforth they would be looked after and guided by him from heaven.  He would pray for them, speak to them and enable them to endure and persevere in their holy task through the Holy Spirit he would send.

Mark 13 therefore contains instructions, words of encouragement from Jesus for the time when he would be physically separated from his disciples.  He prepares them (and us).  He tells them about the many forces at work to discredit and discourage them, to take away their assurance and hope!  Tests, trials and temptations will come their way – but stand firm; I have not deserted you and will deliver you!  He calls them to remain faithful and to trust him – also during immense trials which they will be called to endure.

2.  Secondly, Jesus is very conscious that God’s judgment on Israel for rejecting him as the Messiah will be terrible and very real.  That judgment of God will become evident when the actual temple – the sacred house of God which was the heart, soul and glory of covenant Israel – is literally torn down stone by stone.  Jesus has in mind here an event which took place in the year 70 AD, when the Roman armies, under the command of a man called Titus, the son of the Roman emperor Vespasian, utterly destroyed the temple.  It is believed that something like a million Jews who crowded into the city (dependent on their covenant God to deliver them!) perished.

It is this terrible event – still some 5 or 6 years in the future when Mark actually wrote down these prophecies – that Jesus is describing here.  The signs from heaven leading up to this awful tragedy – and the event itself – are clearly foreseen and graphically foretold by the Lord in the year AD 30.  Jesus, foresaw Jerusalem and the temple’s destruction forty years later in AD 70.  The Day of Judgement on Israel was at hand.  Because they had rejected the cornerstone, they themselves are rejected.

3.  There continues to be a third thread running throughout this passage.  For the disciples, looking, learning and listening to the Lord Jesus from the perspective of the Old Testament, the destruction of the temple, the Day of the Lord and the Day of Judgement and the return of Jesus at the end of the age was apparently understood to be a single event.

We now know that the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the second coming or return of Jesus at the end of the age is not one and the same.  Therefore, to hear Jesus speak in Mark 13 is to hear him speaking about two events and not one.  Many of the predictions and details in this chapter must be understood in relationship to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.  These have been fulfilled as Jesus predicted.  At the same time, also running through this passage are explanations and warnings that can only be understood as future events – even for us – namely, the return of Jesus at the end of the age!

It is not always easy to separate and see a clear demarcation line between these events.  That is why this passage is often difficult to understand and has led to rather different interpretations.  Indeed, as has often been pointed out, what you get out of this chapter is often determined by the assumptions you bring to it as you start to read and study it.

Summarising:

There are, as I see it, three basic or dominant strands running through this passage:

1.  The Lord is preparing his disciples for what lies ahead for them (and for that matter, for the church of all ages!) after his departure – after his death, resurrection and ascension.

2.  The Lord is speaking about God’s judgment on Israel for their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.  The destruction of the temple will be the ultimate sign and proof that God has turned away from those who have rejected Jesus.  God now dwells in his new temple – the body of Christ!

3.  The Lord is speaking about the end of the age – his return – when the end will come and a new heaven and a new earth will become a new and eternal kingdom over which Christ and his church shall reign forever.

OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER

What I would now like to do is to present you with an overview of this chapter.  Let’s try and look at the whole unit before looking at its individual parts or components.

1.  “…watch out that no one deceives you.  Many will come…”

In the verses 5-8 there is a warning against being deceived or led astray.  In the future there will continue to be a whole lot of events or signs which will be very unsettling.  People will begin to ‘read’ or interpret these signs as indications that the end is just about there.  Jesus warns against this false sense of ‘this is the end’.  Expect them – but don’t get unduly carried away by them.  Let them forever serve as reminders and seals which guarantee that God is faithful and will do what he has said!

2.  “…be on your guard…”

In the verses 9-13 the disciples are forewarned about persecution that will happen from outside and inside their circles.  Attacks and violent action will be very real as the disciples, like Jesus himself before them, will be handed over to the authorities.  Jesus comforts, assures and thus forewarns his disciples about these things.  No disciple is above his master!  But at the same time he promises to equip, empower and preserve them – no matter what the odds!  Stand firm – victory is assured!

3.  “…abomination that causes desolation…”

The next section, verses 14-23, calls the disciples to flee when a terrible act of destruction and sacrilege sees the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the death of many, many Jews!  This ‘abomination that causes desolation’ is basically a call to the generation who lived in Jerusalem in those days.  Jesus here is speaking very much about the events that took place in Jerusalem in 70 AD.  Christians who were in Jerusalem indeed heeded this prophetic warning and many were spared the massacre under Titus!  He warns his followers not to flee TO Jerusalem to find God’s mercy – but rather, to flee FROM it!

4.  “The days following the distress…” (straight OT quotations!)

The verses 24-27 form another unit.  Here the Lord Jesus has in mind another period taking place after (‘following’) the distress of Jerusalem’s destruction.  These words bring us face to face with the final, ultimate coming of Messiah – the time which is very much future for us even today!  The language and imagery here is very much drawn from, and in fact, a turning to various passages in the Old Testament – a promise of what can, and should be profitable and exciting study.

5.  Verses 28-31…

return to the figure of the fig-tree which withered after Jesus had cursed it.  You will recall that this is the event described in Mark 11:20-26.  As this fig tree withered and died, so will this generation that rejected Jesus!

6.  “Be on your guard!  Be alert!  You know neither the day nor the hour…”

The final section, verses 32-37, come back to the main, overall thrust of this passage – namely, a call to keep watch, keep sober, not get carried away, and to be ready for all ‘these things’ – all kinds of flaming darts and gaping holes that the enemy will use to deceive, distract and side-track those who are the disciples of Jesus.  Keep your eyes, ears, minds and hearts on full alert at all times.  Deception, lies, confusion, drowsiness and a thousand other strategies will be used against the disciples of Jesus again and again and again.  The watchword is ‘Watch!’

Amen.