Gospel Reading: Matthew 24:3-35
In Matthew’s Gospel account, both today and tomorrow, we hear Jesus’ teachings about the Last Things.
Matthew says that on Monday the disciples (small town guys from up north, as you’ll recall) were marveling at the great buildings in Jerusalem. Jesus said, “I tell you, the time is coming when not one stone will be left upon another” – which surely shocked them. Later as they sat on the Mount of Olives the disciples asked: “When will these things happen? What will be the sign of Your coming?” They are sure now that He is Messiah who will return in Glory,
So Christ began a long description of the End Times.
This passage is about both the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish nation which would take place forty years later, and also about the End of the Age. The two themes are intermingled here – at least as remembered in the Gospel writers’ minds.
First, Christ says He does not know when He will return, that only the Father knows. Why should Christ our God who knows all things not have known this? That is a mystery. But be wise: When people think they’re smarter than Jesus, when they tell us the date of His coming – ignore them!
When will He come? Many in the first generation hoped it would be soon and were distressed that it was not. The Apostle Peter spoke to that: “Beloved, do not forget this … that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9
And twenty centuries later, still we wait. That used to distress me, too. But then I read Saint Peter again and realized what is obvious: If He had come earlier, none of us now alive would ever have existed – all the people I love so much, my family, my friends. You and I would never have been given the opportunity to live and “come to repentance” and have eternal life with the Lord and with each other. So… I say thank God He has been so “slow”.
Back to the story. First Jesus gives a warning: Do not be deceived by those who say “I am the Christ”. I think this applies to any who think they’ve got all the answers. Not only demented people who think they’re God, but also any who make absolute claims on us: dictators who want total obedience, religious leaders who say they have all the answers, know-it-all politicians – and some philosophers, economists and others with their “fool-proof” systems. In fact, any who say they alone know how to save the world. There is one Savior, one Christ, God Incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth.
The Lord went on: Do not be troubled by the state of the world. Always there have been wars, famines, diseases, earthquakes. They do not mean the End is near. Then He gave some specific prophecies: You will be delivered up to tribulation, killed, hated by all. This has certainly been fulfilled many times, beginning in the first generation with the Apostles. “The Gospel must first be preached in all nations.” That also took place, in its way, in the first generation. The Apostles proclaimed Christ to the ends of the known world. Now in modern times the Gospel has indeed been proclaimed in all nations – which means…? I wonder.
Then come prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem, the “abominating sacrilege” in the Holy Place. That would take place when the Romans conquered Jerusalem in the year 71. Before they leveled the city, Emperor Titus, just to rub it in, put pagan idols in the Holy of Holies in the temple. So this also has been fulfilled, as have the prophecies of the plight of the residents. The historian Josephus wrote of the horrors of the seven month siege – people starving, reduced to cannibalism. A multitude died, the rest scattered in all directions – the end of the Jewish nation, just as Christ had foreseen.
Then suddenly the Lord is speaking about His Second Coming in Glory. If anyone says: “Look, here is the Christ or there”, do not believe it. When He comes it will be like lightning flashing from one end of the world to the other, like eagles gathering. In other words, if you have to ask “Is it Him?”… it isn’t.
There will be signs in the heavens: sun and moon darkened, stars falling, cosmic powers shaken. Some in the Middle Ages said it will be an angelic invasion into our fallen world from the unfallen world out there, to destroy the demonic spiritual virus that has sickened us on earth.
Or will it be a cosmic catastrophe of some sort? Jesus, looking ahead, said only that then the Son of Man will appear on the clouds of heaven in great glory, and He will gather His faithful from the ends of the world. When these things happen, He says, then (not before), you will know He is near, at the gate.
Christ concluded: “This generation will not pass away till all these things come to pass.”
Did all these things then come to pass in that generation?
The destruction of Jerusalem, yes.
The return of Christ in Glory, No.
But in another way, Yes. In Christ’s Resurrection the End of the World has already come – or perhaps is “in process” of coming. The End, the final destination of the world has doubled back into time, and the New Age is here. It came in power at the end of that Holy Week, and on Pentecost.
Christ began His ministry saying, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” – for He is at hand, never to depart. “Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
So… we live now in the End of the World. This doubling back of the End into our time is stated clearly in the Anaphora of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, where we thank God for already having given us “His Kingdom which is to come”. That is too much to fit into the human mind.
He concluded: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Put those words on the lips of any other human being who has ever lived, and that’s crazy talk. That’s the sort of thing people get “put away” for. You see why they accused Him of blasphemy, making Himself “equal with God”. What mere man has a right to talk like that?
Again the question: Who does this Man think He is?
Next Post will arrive tomorrow for Monday Evening Bridegroom Matins