Mark 13:1-8
13:1-2 – Anyone who has ever been fortunate
enough to tour one of the great old cities of Europe (or any other such display
of the wonders of civilization) will understand the disciple’s exclamation
here: “What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” Jesus does not
directly downplay this disciple’s admiration—in his response, he does call
these buildings “great”—but he wants to redirect the disciple’s focus.
Remember, at the end of chapter 12, Jesus has just finished instructing his
disciples not to trust in outward, ostentatious presentations of religious
piety, but rather to look at the heart. This goes for buildings as well as
people. A building may be beautiful to look at, but if it was built for show,
for human adulation, rather than for the glory of God, its beauty must be seen,
at least in part, as a misspent effort. One of the greatest aspects of
Christian architecture has always been the way in which the building itself is
intended to direct the attention of onlookers upward, to God, to the perception
of spiritual realities rather than just to marvel at the beauty of the stonework
and stained glass themselves. The buildings this disciple is looking at are
quite probably the buildings of the Temple complex in Jerusalem (the setting of
most of the stories in ch. 11-13). This building was incredible and
magnificent, but its current form had been constructed under Herod the Great,
not so much to bring greater glory to God as to win favor for Herod among the
people—in that way, the buildings of the Temple complex were rather like the
offerings of the rich people in 12:41. So Jesus takes the opportunity to direct
the disciple’s attention away from the beauty of the building itself, and to
focus instead on questions of ultimate value. He tells his disciples that the
building is destined for destruction. This is a reminder to all of us: when we
consider and spend time enjoying the many wonders and delights which our
civilization has produced, we must at the same time keep in mind the question
of ultimate value, and to spend at least as much time (and hopefully far more!)
on those things that will last beyond the mere timeline of our world’s history.
13:3-4
– The setting for this passage is not
coincidental. Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the Temple,
while he proclaims judgment upon it, exactly where Zechariah prophesied the Lord
would stand as he triumphs over the nations who, as agents of his own divine
justice, have destroyed Jerusalem (Zech. 14:1-5). Four of the disciples come to
ask Jesus privately about when the coming destruction will take place. Why
privately? Probably because Jesus has a large following of people from
Jerusalem tagging along with him during most of these stories (beginning with
the Triumphal Entry in Mk. 11), and these disciples know that Jesus does not
care to speak out publicly about things that the larger public might take to be
indicators of a warlike Messianic revolution about to be put in motion. Here
the disciples appear to understand that such a revolution is not Jesus’ present
mission—an understanding that has been slow in coming for them!—and that they
may have to be able to interpret the signs of the coming destruction without
Jesus being there to point it out for them. The disciples’ slow growth in
discernment and understanding throughout the Gospel of Mark should give us hope
for our own spiritual journeys, for we too are often just as dense at
perceiving and responding to what God is trying to do in our lives—but, praise
be to God, if we continue to walk with him, continue to listen to him, even in
the midst of our own misunderstandings, we will eventually (but still
stumblingly), like these disciples, come to understand more of God’s intention
for us and for our labors.
13:5-6 – Jesus responds to the disciples’
request in his own gracious fashion—he gives them the heart of what they are
asking for—information about the coming destruction—but in such a way that it
redirects their attention, away from the unhealthy desire to know all the
details of God’s will in advance, and toward the more important issue of how
they can be prepared for what God will do. He begins with a warning to be on
one’s guard against anyone who might try to deceive. This is a good place to
start when dealing with apocalyptic and eschatological scenarios, because this
one topic, out of all the theological positions in biblical theology, has
provided ample ground for myopic teachers to steer the whole glorious
enterprise of the Gospel down a blind alley. He also adjures us to be on guard
against false messiahs, those who claim Christ’s own name and identity. While,
thankfully, there have been very few characters in the history of the church
who have literally claimed to be Christ himself (and those who have were often easily
identified as madmen), there have been many who have claimed Christ’s name and
authority as the basis of their own teachings—teachings and practices which
purported to be “Christian”—while disavowing the heart of Gospel doctrine and
practice. This is all too common in our day, as it has been in every age of the
church, so be on guard! But in the immediate context of Jesus’ prophecy, which
has one eye on the ultimate end of history and the other on the climactic event
of his own century—the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70—it must be noted that
there were indeed several false Messianic leaders who raised rebellions against
Rome within just a generation or two of these words, and the end result of each
such attempt was the repeated desolation of Jerusalem and the Jewish people.
13:7-8 – The other “signs” Jesus gives the
disciples are remarkably commonplace in every period of history: wars, rumors
of wars, earthquakes, and famines. It was certainly true of his own age, and
particularly of the period immediately preceding the fall of Jerusalem in AD
70—Messianic claimants, wars in Palestine and civil wars between claimants for
the Imperial throne, rumors of wars coming from the Parthian borderlands, major
earthquakes in the Bay of Naples, in Crete, and in Phrygia (as well as minor
but repeated quakes in Rome and in Judea), and major famines throughout the
Roman world, particularly during the reign of Claudius. In fact, one would be
hard pressed to find any period of history so replete with all of these
elements as the single generation between Christ and the fall of Jerusalem.
Jesus’ primary warnings, then, seem to be about the crisis that some of the
disciples will witness in their own day: the literal fulfillment of his
prophecy about the destruction of the Temple (v.2) in AD 70. But, as we will
see later in the chapter, this historical crisis will also be telescoped out to
give us a view of the final crisis of history (a double-fulfillment pattern
that is common to biblical prophecy). Thus we must recognize that these signs
which Christ foretells are ongoing “birth pains” throughout the whole period of
history between Christ and the end, and will only be complete when this world’s
labor is done, and the Kingdom comes in all its fullness. There is no
indication in this text that any of these signs should be expected to increase
in the period leading up to the final climax of history, but rather that they
will simply be present. Thus, although there can be a temptation to surrender
to the confirmation bias that results from hearing of such things from our
global news networks, and to assume that our age is more afflicted by wars,
earthquakes, and famines than any other, a careful study of history will
clearly show that this is not the case. Too often we read our own anxieties
into the biblical text, and convince ourselves that the worst period of history
is just around the corner, rather than doing what Jesus advises—being on guard
and resting in the sovereignty of God’s justice and providence. And it may be
worth considering whether it is not just anxiety, but also pride, that leads us
to assume that these texts must be written about our own day: there is perhaps
a bit too much thoughtless self-confidence in much of our Christian teaching
today in holding to the idea, as if it were self-evident, that our generation
stands at the climax of all human history. Rather, we should see quite clearly
from Scripture that Jesus is the climax, and that we are merely a small part of
the long denouement before the final resolution.