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"Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
- Matthew 24:15-31
In Saturday's reading, Jesus had finished His finial public sermon (see readings from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday). He then went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."
"Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand) . . . The "abomination of desolation" is from the vision of the prophet Daniel (see Daniel 9:20-27). In AD 70, during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem, the Roman general Titus entered the Most Holy Place of the temple. My study bible tells us that he had a statue of himself erected within the temple (intentions were to rededicate the magnificent temple to the Roman pantheon); but before the end of the siege the temple would be completely destroyed, mostly by fire. Jesus' words "when you see" indicate that many of those disciples with Him would be alive at that time. My study bible adds that the assertion "(whoever reads, let him understand)" was inserted by Matthew into Christ's speech in order to give encouragement to the early Christians who may have witnessed this horrific event.
. . . "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." These words give us a sense of the catastrophe that was the siege and destruction of Jerusalem (including the temple) by the Romans. According to some accounts over a million Jews were killed, and nearly 100,000 made slaves. Jesus' warning to the early church leaves no doubt of the necessity for immediate flight. At the time of the siege there were many factions of zealots engaged in struggle against the Roman army, but also against one another. Pilgrims had been allowed into the city for Passover, but not allowed out, so demand for food and water were used against the population by the Romans laying siege. Time after time, varied attempted negotiations failed. Ultimately the destruction was extraordinary.
"And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together." The "times of the end" and the time of the destruction of the temple are mixed in Jesus' statements to us. If we are truly to understand Scripture, Jesus' Incarnation inaugurated the time of the end, which is the entire age in which we live now -- and which will culminate in Christ's return. Jesus warns His listeners at the time, and we ourselves, about "false christs." Overall the message is stressed that at the true time of His return, it will be apparent and immediate, unmistakable and known to the whole world. My study bible says, "If there is any question or doubt, that alone is evidence that He has not returned." Many of His early followers expected His imminent return, as evidenced through various Epistles. His return will be "as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west." Many churches construct the altar on the east side of the church, so that parishioners worship facing east - symbolically awaiting in hope and anticipation of His second coming.
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Church Fathers write that the darkening of the sun is simply the sun's brightness in comparison with the extraordinary brilliance of the appearance of Christ in the fullness of splendor, or great glory. My study bible says that the sign of the Son of Man is the Cross, revealed as the standard for the impending judgment of Christ. His initial appearance to us was in humility and mortality, as incarnate human being. His second coming, here described, is entirely the opposite. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, St. Paul writes of the signs of the Second Coming. In the first century document called the Didache ("Teaching"), said to be the teachings of the apostles, there are three signs listed: "the sign spread out in the heavens" which is Christ and His hosts, the "sign of the trumpet" which we read here, and "the resurrection of the dead,"
It's important that we understand, I think, the tie between the destruction of the temple and the "time of the end" that was initiated with the Incarnation. These things are not really as separate from themselves as discussion or thinking about them seem to imply. Events have a kind of rhythm and also a meaning to them; they're part of something greater, an unfolding history or even a journey. The "anointing" of the world with the Holy Spirit has a great deal to do with this too, and is inseparable from the Incarnation as well as these events, as we are in a time -- an age, as Jesus calls it -- in which the Spirit tests out everything. Judgment would not be possible without this. The age we're in culminates when this work is done, when the gospel has gone everywhere -- a time we're not to know until it happens. All of this is part of a whole, and we see through vivid signs which act as symbols of the stunning reality of change and of God's work, intervening in the "time" of man. Time seems to us like many moments strung together. We have time to repent, to think, to revisit our own behaviors, assumptions, mistakes, and to change ourselves. We're on a journey toward something which has to do with this fulfillment of time, but not in the way that we usually think about. The journey itself is meant to be a process, and time as we experience it is part of that process, part of what makes it possible and facilitates growth in the Spirit and in the work of the Spirit. A journey of life through time is one of connected moments, but each moment gives an opportunity for something more. The Kingdom intervenes in our lives; it's present to us. It is an eternal kingdom which intervenes in worldly time: when we pray, when we worship in liturgical practices, when we understand that living saints also intercede even as we ask for prayers, when we understand the work of the Spirit which is eternal and yet intersects our lives. All of this teaches us about the Incarnation, in which the eternal God becomes mortal human, the Kingdom breaking into our world and present to us, to remain with us and within us, as He has said explicitly in conjunction with a similar statement made in today's reading: "When He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21 NKJV). The times of the world, as the times of our own individual lives, are really about a greater process going on than what we see in front of us, a bigger story. The "end times" are not times to think about as a set of timetables, or even catastrophic events. Rather, what should concern us is the focus Christ gives us, on the eternity that is ever-present to us in the Kingdom, within us waiting for our own attention and our willingness to live as part of it while we live our lives in the world. His word is present to us, present in the Scripture and also in the work of the Spirit. If we see things the way that Scripture does, we may come to understand events in our lives as "signs" which teach us something about what kind of attention we're paying, where we need help or work, where our blind spots are, and maybe most importantly of all, where we need to make a change for the next time the same issue or challenge comes around. Through all of it, we need God's help and we remember what we are supposed to be all about, as He's taught us. Sometimes all we need is a warning to know where it's time to refocus. The Kingdom is always at hand, and in that eternal present the moment is always right now.
