Gospel Reading: Matthew 24:3-35
In Matthew’s Gospel account, both today and tomorrow, we hear Christ’s 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.” This 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 have no doubts 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 say they know the date of His coming (that is, when think they’re smarter than Jesus!) – 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. Finally I 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 not only to demented people who think they’re Jesus, but also to any who think they’ve got all the answers: any who make absolute claims about themselves, dictators and know-it-all politicians who demand total commitment to themselves and adherence to their lies, religious leaders who are said to be infallible, or who claim they have all the answers– and also 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: Jesus of Nazareth.
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 Jesus’ glorious Resurrection the End of the World, God’s eternal Kingdom, the goal and destination of the world, has doubled back into human history. This is from the Anaphora of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom: “You left nothing undone until you had led us up to heaven and granted us Your Kingdom, which is to come.” Notice the strange mixture of past and future cases. His Kingdom is already here: the Church is the outpost, a colony of the Kingdom of Heaven. He is here, the Church is here, we are here. His promise is being fulfilled, and we wait for its complete Fulfillment.
Jesus 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 can see why they accused Him of blasphemy, making Himself “equal with God”. Does any man have the right to talk like that?
Only One Man does.
The Next Post will arrive this afternoon (Sunday) for Monday Night Bridegroom Matins