Mark 13:1 As
He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him,
"Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!"
2 And Jesus said to him,
"Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another
which will not be torn down." 3
As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James
and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately, 4 "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the
sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?" 5 And Jesus began to say to them,
"See to it that no one misleads you. 6 "Many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He!' and will
mislead many. 7 "When you
hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take
place; but that is not yet the end. 8
"For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These
things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
Most evangelicals take this passage
to be an "end times" passage which is ironic when you stop to
consider that the entire context of what Jesus says in vss 5-8 has to do with
what he said in vs 2: And Jesus said to
him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon
another which will not be torn down. The destruction of the Temple in
Jerusalem; it's not an "end times" event. It occurred in 70 BC as a
result of the Jewish War against Rome. It's difficult for us today to imagine
the impact of the event. It would be the "9-11" of their day--and
then some. Joel Marcus, one of the foremost scholars on Mark's Gospel, has an
interesting article called "The Jewish War and the Sitz im leben of
Mark." Sitz im leben is a German phrase that basically means the
"setting," or the "setting in life." In other words, Joel
Marcus in his article is contending that the setting in life that produced the
Gospel of Mark was the Jewish War. It's a fascinating article that really
springs to life when he gets to chapter 13.
But now
the question has to be asked, so what? If chapter 13 isn't about the "end times" and is merely about what
happened in Jerusalem a long long time ago under Titus and the Roman Legions,
is it merely a history lesson and nothing else?
Certainly
not. If Marcus is correct, the evangelist St. Mark's community was a largely
Gentile community in close proximity to the field(s) of battle (think Golan
Heights area, for instance). They, as well as the Jewish inhabitants of
Jerusalem, were seeing their world rocked. Gas sky-rocketing in price,
double-digit unemployment, higher taxes, a politically divided landscape,
gridlock in government.... they'd seen the 1st century version of all of that
and then some. It was during the tumult of the times that the community drew
strength from the collective 'memory of faith' that Jesus had prophesied that
these things would happen. Time is in God's hand, after all.
One
commentator points out that it is important to remember the context of these
words of Christ. While we, liturgically, focus on this passage at the end of
the church year, the words themselves fall within the context of Holy Week. We,
thus, want to approach these words in the light of the cross. Also, the phrase
'birth pangs' (vs 8) suggest new life... that even though there is death and
despair all around, God is a God who brings new life out of these things. In
that sense, what looks like THE END for
those going through troublesome times is capable of being used by God to
bring about something new. The more we learn about God, the more this makes
sense. We call this REDEMPTION.
In that
sense, there is great HOPE in Mark 13. For whether it's seen as a historical
reference to the end of the Temple era in Jerusalem, or a prophecy concerning
the end of the Age (or both), we can rest assured that thanks to the events of
Holy Week... thanks to what Christ did for the world on the cross, we can
always hope for and EXPECT that God's redeeming activity will continue on.
Cheers,
TM
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