Take heed that you not be deceived

Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."

Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."

- Luke 21:5-19

Yesterday, we read that Jesus said in the temple, "How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?  Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'  Therefore David calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then His Son?"  Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So he said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."

Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled at the Siege of Jerusalem, in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.  Only one retaining wall of the temple remained, which has been called the Wailing Wall or Western Wall.  The time of the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem is tied, in the Gospels, with eschatology, "end times."  Jesus repeatedly gives warnings not to give in to fear and panic, but to endure.   My study bible asks us to note that when we hear of wars and commotions, then we know that the end is not yet near. 

Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."  The times of the End and the times of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple are combined, in some sense, in the Gospels.  The emphasis here is on endurance and abiding in faith in Christ through all things.  Any idea of tribulation is not meant to indicate a limited window of time, but rather describe the struggle for faith through the whole of the age.   We are certainly familiar with wars, and earthquakes, and famines, and pestilences.  However, also included are the experiences of the immediate generation of followers to whom He addresses these words.   We note what is essential and vivid:  there will be deep betrayals and stark choices to make for the sake of one's faith in Christ.  There will be sacrifices made, even to the point of the loss of life, and to experience being "hated by all for My name's sake."  But Christ will give a mouth and wisdom which all one's adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  We are not to overthink nor ruminate on our fears nor the outcomes we may dread:  He will give us words with which to testify to our faith.   It is a watchword for the entire age to be told, "By your patience possess your souls." 

Jesus begins His discourse for His disciples on what is to come in Jerusalem, and also on issues that involve "end times," the end of the age.  Both topics are linked; the current age begun is the time of the end.  That is, the destruction of Jerusalem will signal the age that has begun with His Incarnation as the centerpiece of history, with the events to come in Holy Week as a kind of cosmic intervention necessary to the entire arc of time and the new age to come.  We get the first hint of what is to come, and Jesus characterizes the time in which we await His return in these first few verses.  There is the incredible, unthinkable sight of the splendid temple, one of the seven architectural wonders of the world.  It had been entirely rebuilt by Herod the Great, with tremendous additions of great beauty, meant to be a crowning project by one who was also known as Herod the Builder.  One may imagine that for the disciples, what Jesus is saying is simply indescribable and impossible to understand.   But the perspective of the Gospels is one of the experience of the apostles and disciples of Christ, and one in which we await -- as did they -- His return in hopeful expectation, even with knowledge of persecution, difficulty, and the need for endurance and patience.  We must bear in mind that what is given to us in this reading is the perspective of Christ.  All that He names He expects those who love Him to experience, to survive, to put into the perspective of faith that He offers.  It is not going to be easy, and yet it is all that our faith calls us to and asks of us.  In a time of very rapid growth of expectation of healthcare and other fields of endeavor,  gratification of desires for goods unheard of in the past, and with so much instantaneously at the command of our keyboard, it may seem extremely incongruous to know that this tremendous discipline of endurance and patience is what Christ calls us to.  Self-help and even spiritually-oriented quick fixes seem to grow exponentially, offering constant new approaches.  We may indeed wonder, with Him, "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"  Nevertheless, the lifelong struggle for our faith remains, and His words endure, as does the Church.