I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist

 

 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 to the people and religious leaders 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 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."   Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.  It was rumored that there was gold between the stones of the temple, and quite literally there was not one stone . . . left upon another.  All that remained was one retaining wall, now called the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall).  The temple had been the most important building project of Herod the Great, also known as Herod the Builder.  It was understood as one of the wonders of the world for its splendor and beauty.  Both physically and spiritually, such a prophecy must have been inconceivable to the disciples to whom Christ spoke. 

 

 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."   My study Bible comments 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;  Matthew 24:3-31; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10, and the Book of Revelation).   As we can see from this particular passage, Christ's emphasis is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue rather than on the construction of timetables to predict things that haven't yet happened.  His warnings against deception are given the most emphasis.  Jesus particularly stresses the warning against following a false Christ.

"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."  My study Bible comments that the wars here refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, but also include subsequent wars.  Wars are not a sign of the imminent end, it says, but of the opposite -- that 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."  My study Bible comments that all these calamities and all this opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel; it notes that persecutions against the Church frequently increase the number of souls 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 but the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Again, the emphasis here is on patience, endurance, forbearance, and reliance upon God.  All is even an occasion for testimony.

Jesus makes several promises here.  He first of all prophecies the destruction of the temple.  This is an event that is in some sense synonymous with an unthinkable spiritual destruction.  In the Gospels,  Jesus' prophecy about the destruction of the temple and the war in Jerusalem is entirely tied together with end times prophecies.  Spiritually, the two are deeply linked from the Jewish spiritual tradition, and also in the received understanding of Christian orientation.   Indeed, they are presented as if they are inseparable.  For this reason, we understand the "end times" not to be a time in the future -- contrary to some popular portrayals -- but rather, to have begun with the Incarnation of Christ.  Effectively, we have been living in "end times" since then.  So when we read Jesus' warnings of wars and calamities, we understand that they apply both to the generation of people who are immediately addressed in His presence, and to the rest of the period of the Christian era.  (In tomorrow's lectionary reading, we will read Jesus' explicit warnings about enemies who will surround Jerusalem.)   But here He also prophecies persecutions to come for His followers, and indeed they did come.  Not only does He promise that "they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons" and  "you will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake."   But He also tells them that these will turn out as an occasion for testimony.  They are to be fully reliant upon God:  "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."  This is a promise of the help of the Holy Spirit to come, a deliverance of wisdom, and the articulate speech characteristic of Christ Himself.  It is a promise about sharing His own attributes with His followers.  He then prophecies even more personal persecutions:  "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 finally we read another promise, giving us an orientation to the full picture of life in His understanding and embrace:  "But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."  We are to understand the fullness of destiny, beyond the destruction and fearful things He prophesies, beyond persecution, beyond even the end of the world as they know it in Jerusalem and as we know it today.  There is a deeper, greater mission in which we participate, and our lives are lived as His followers for a reason and purpose beyond an immediate sense.  All of this simply adds to the reality of the lives we live, giving us bigger purpose and meaning to what we experience.  All of these things I read as promises in some sense -- both the calamities and the gift of testimony, the occasion to serve as one who speaks His gospel in the world.  He also hints here of the promise of the Holy Spirit, and a role for each of us to play within His own vision of what will come to pass in the world.  In tomorrow's reading, we will continue with Christ's prophesy of what is to come in Jerusalem, and the end times in a larger sense, including His promise of return.  But for today let us deeply consider His teachings and promises, and those who listen to Him in this scene in Jerusalem.  For they are our forbears, and we continue in their labors and testimony.