Do Not Be Deceived: A Meditation on Mark 13, for the 26th Sunday after Pentecost

And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him,

Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!

And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings?

 there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

 

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple,

Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign

when all these things shall be fulfilled?

And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled:

for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles:

these are the beginnings of sorrows.

 

But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils;

and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten:

and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings

 for my sake, for a testimony against them.

And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up,

take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak,

neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour,

that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

Now the brother shall betray the brother to death,

and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents,

and shall cause them to be put to death.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake:

but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

 

What began perhaps as a pleasant observation about the grand buildings of Jerusalem, including the rebuilt Temple which was only a shadow of its former glory under Solomon 900 years prior, Jesus used as an opportunity to teach His disciples about the transitory nature of human civilization, and what really matters all the way to the very end of history:  The Gospel.  The Word of God had been at work to seek and to save sinners since man’s Fall in Eden thousands of years before Jesus’ Incarnation, and it would continue working to seek and to save the lost until He came again at the end of the world.  Jesus taught His disciples not to be overly dismayed when the beautiful architecture and present systems of government fall into ruin by consequence of their civilization’s sin and foolishness, because the saving Word of the Lord endures forever, and whoever endures in that Word by faith unto the end, shall be saved by the grace which pours forth through it.  Within a single generation Jerusalem would fall under pagan Rome’s fire and sword, but the Incarnate Word would remain unto ages of ages without end.

 

This lesson is one worth pondering in our own age, as well.  While the citizens of any country might think themselves the pinnacle of human achievement, and their rulers might imagine themselves particularly enlightened more than any other age which has come before them, the reality is that their civilizations will almost certainly fall.  As evil begins to permeate a society, the seeds of its own destruction are sown, and the judgement of the King of the Universe will fall upon it whenever He deems that time is right.  How many great civilizations were in the Mediterranean, North African, and Mesopotamian regions 2,000 years before Jesus, when Abraham was called out of the land of Ur to follow YHWH into a multi-generational covenant that would shower blessings upon the whole world?  Time would fail to recount all the accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Acadians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians—or at least what clues and details history has left us to know.  And what of Greece, Sparta, and Persia?  What of Rome that lasted nearly 1,000 years before its fall?  Outside that Mediterranean crucible lay ancient dynasties in what are presently India, China, and Mongolia, as well as sub-Saharan Africa and northern Europe.  One could spend a lifetime exploring the history of civilizations no longer represented in the modern world, and still not cover them all.

 

How will our great buildings, government, and industries fare 1,000 years from now?  What will be the state of geopolitics, the aspirations of conquerors, or the imaginations of artists?  We do not know, and it has not been given us to know.  Jesus was clear that wars and famines and plagues and tumult would continue in the world until the end; just as it had since the Fall of man in Eden, so it has been since the rise of Christ from the grave.  Man’s response to God and His Word in each generation inevitably reveals their fate, as faith and repentance meet with His grace, while rebellion and evil meet with His judgment.  Our own nation is not yet 250 years old, and whether it will endure for another decade or century or millennium is known only to the hidden will of God—but His revealed will by His Word, is that His Law and Promises will remain by the power of His Holy Spirit until the end of time.  No matter who wins power over our government, or who captains our industries, or who sets the contemporary fads of fashion, the Word of the Lord was before their advent, and will be there long after they are gone.  As Christian citizens of our nation, we work for its wellbeing and pray for its providence before the throne of Almighty God, but we know that blessing and cursing, prosperity and plague, life and death, all come in their times according to His will and purpose for man before His Word.

 

It can be tempting to squint our eyes into the signs and wonders of our age, trying to detect when the end of all things may be upon us.  But the comfort Jesus gave His disciples was not to look forward to the judgment of the world, but to trust His grace and promise in the times they were given.  While Jesus did warn His disciples about the near-term fall of Jerusalem and the long term final judgement of the world, He did not teach them about what would happen to Rome when the Visigoths invaded, or how western kings in Christian lands would respond to the tyrannical and murderous plague of Islam; He did not teach them about rivalries between England and France, Spain and Portugal, Norway and Sweeden and the Netherlands, nor their colonial contests across the seas of the world.  He did not teach them about the rising threats of Marxism with Stalin and Mao, or Fascism with Hitler and Mussolini, even though they would produce the bloodiest world wars in any century of recorded human history.  What He did teach them is that despite all the wars and tumults and cacophony, His people would live by grace through faith in Christ alone, because His Eternal Word made that promise more certain than any human upheaval could displace.

 

In these last days of the Church Year, Christians remember again that Jesus has promised to come again at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, and that His Kingdom has no end.  But the comfort of that knowledge rests in the Promise of Jesus Christ crucified for sinners in our own age, just as He was crucified for the sinners in every other age that has ever been, or ever will be.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ rings out as it is carried to every nation, every hamlet, every village, and testified before both paupers and kings:  that God has so loved every soul in this world, that He came to seek and to save His people through the life, death, and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus, the Incarnate Word, who cannot be removed or displaced by any act of man or accident of history, because it is by Him, and through Him, and to Him that all things which were made, are made.  His Word comes to all, and to all who will receive Him by grace through faith, He gives them the right to become the children of God—born not of flesh and blood, but from above by Water and Spirit.  In this Eternal Word of promise His people both rest and work, trusting in Him who lives forever, and who keeps our lives safe and secure in Him unto ages of ages without end.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.