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

 Then Jesus 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."

- Matthew 24:1-14

 We are currently in the midst of reading Jesus' final sermon, delivered in the temple in Jerusalem during what we call Holy Week, the final week of Jesus' life in which He is in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast.  In yesterday's reading, He continued, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'  Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes:  some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

 Then Jesus 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."   Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.   Only one retaining wall of the splendid temple remained, known today as the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall.   The temple at Jerusalem at the time of Christ was the crowning achievement of Herod the Great, also known as Herod the Builder.  It was considered one of the wonders of the world in its time for its extraordinary beauty and scope of architecture, expansive design, and artistic detail.   This prophecy would have been unimaginable and shocking to those who heard it at the time.

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?"  My study bible tells us that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7-12; Mark 13; Luke 21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Book of Revelation).  Christ's emphasis for His followers is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue rather than on constructing timetables of events that have not yet happened.  Matthew describes the end times as encompassing (1) the initial sorrows (in verses 4-14, included in today's reading), (2) the great tribulation (vv. 15-28), and (3) the coming of the Son of Man (vv. 29-31).  The period of the great tribulation includes the entire Christian era and is not limited to the final years before Christ's return. 

 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."   Jesus' warnings against deception are given the greatest emphasis.  Of particular importance, my study bible tells us, is the warning against following a false Christ, which Jesus stresses again in verses 11, 23-27.

"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."  The wars that Jesus mentions here refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.  But they also include subsequent wars.  They are not a sign of the imminent end, but rather the opposite -- that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). 

"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."   My study bible notes that all these calamities and opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel.  Indeed, persecutions against the Church often increase the number of souls who are being converted.  St. John Chrysostom marvels that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews unarmed with anything except the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have already been given a very interesting picture of what it is to have strength, to have authority and greatness, and to be first among those who are Christ's followers.  So far in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus has taught on a number of occasions that it is humility that is the key to true accomplishment and the power of faith -- that is those who are servants to others who are great among the disciples, and that the one who would be first among them must be the slave to all.  In today's reading, we get a kind of extension of these teachings.  What makes a good disciple, a good servant?  A good disciple is one who endures to the end.  Jesus prepares His followers for difficulties.   He tells them, "See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."  We mustn't forget that this is a command from Christ.  Even the things He names, all of which are dreaded by human beings, are only the beginning of sorrows.   In Greek, this word for sorrows can also mean the pain of giving birth.  The difficulties for those who will follow Him become more acute in the verses that follow, and personal.  He says to them, "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."  All these things He says will be aimed particularly at this community of His followers.  His command, in addition to the authority and greatness of service and humility, is endurance.  "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."  Greatness, authority, and strength come from humility, service to all, and a capacity for endurance.  These are His teachings, what He asks from His followers.    This includes the capacity for discernment, alertness to false prophets, false teachings, those who would lead astray in the midst of tribulation.  All of this is still with us; we live in the age which He describes.  Let us endeavor to be His good servants, and keep the true end in mind.