But he who endures to the end shall be saved

 

 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 

 

In our recent reading, Jesus has been delivering His final public sermon, which was a scathing and multi-pronged criticism of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said, "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 father's 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."  Here my study Bible comments that Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to the religious leaders that they must "fill up the measure of your fathers' guilt," indicating they are the spiritual children of those who murdered the prophets before them.  He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation."  The destruction of Jerusalem, which was exceedingly fierce and totally decimated the city and the temple, came some forty years after Christ spoke His words, giving an entire generation time to repent.  Christ's words were literally true that not one stone was left upon another.  Only one retaining wall remained of the temple, in modern times called the Wailing Wall, or the Western Wall. 

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?"  The chapter we begin today entails a description of the "end times" as given by Jesus Christ.  It is interwoven with a prophecy of catastrophic and terrifying events that would happen within the lifetimes of many of those hearing Him.  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; 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, my study Bible notes, is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue rather than constructing timetables of things that have not yet happened.  It's important to note that the great tribulation which Christ will describe toward the end of the chapter includes the whole of the Christian era, and isn't simply 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."  My study Bible notes for us here that the warnings against deception are given the most emphasis by Jesus.  Of particular importance is the warning against following a false Christ, which Jesus will stress 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."  These wars, according to my study Bible, refer first of all to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.  However, subsequent wars are also included.  Wars, it notes, are not a sign of the imminent end, but of its opposite:  that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).  

"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."  My study Bible comments that all these calamities and all this opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel, and clearly, persecutions against the Church have often increased the number of souls being converted.  It notes commentary by St. John Chrysostom, who marveled that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews who were unarmed with anything except the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

As this chapter opens, we can just imagine Jesus' Galilean disciples marveling at the great temple, as it had been expanded and refurbished under Herod the Great, who was also known as Herod the Builder.  Indeed its expanse and beauty rendered it one of the architectural wonders of the world at the time.   But that awe at the great skill, art and power that could create such an architectural marvel and its beauty is perhaps the perfect backdrop to Christ's prediction that "not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."   For the message here in Christ's prophecy to the disciples regarding the end of the age is clearly one that states that human expectations are not sufficient to imagine the scope of the ramifications to spiritual events of this world.  Christ stands in the center of these prophecies, the pivot point of history, and indeed He remains so.  No matter how many times it's been said or written that the Christian era has come to an end, either through new political philosophy or religious (or anti-religious) beliefs and actions, Christ continues to be an inspiring religious figure across the world, and faith continues to expand even in new places.  But Christ Himself predicts great tribulation spanning the whole of the Christian era -- that is, the whole of the time between His Incarnation and His return.  So, as my study Bible says, we should never be dissuaded by the great upheavals and terrifying events we might witness or hear about.  Jesus tells the disciples, "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."  Certainly all of these things would come to pass in the lifetimes of these disciples, but the warning applies to all times that we know, and to the present.  If we see false prophets speak in the name of Christ, or  dissension and betrayal, even hate, among the faithful, neither should this dissuade us from playing our part in faithful living.  The apostles counted themselves joyful that they were worthy to suffer shame for Christ's name (Acts 5:40-41), and so we should do the same if it happens that we suffer similarly.  There is a powerful spiritual reality that is at work in such circumstances, which we can't necessarily see as immediately evident.  But we do witness types of lawlessness, and a strangeness to the love of many seeming to grow cold.  While we could view all of these things as consistent with the work of spiritual forces that oppose Christ, we need to keep in mind that He has told us all of these things beforehand -- and their resurfacing in one form or another throughout the history we know since the beginning of the Church is what we should even expect if we take Him at His word.  However, here is the important teaching:  "But he who endures to the end shall be saved."  This doesn't seem to mean the "last man standing" in some traditional military sense, or any other kind of contest or struggle we might consider.  It is directed at our faith, at living our faith, which encompasses at least as much of an internal struggle as an external struggle in any case.  This is not about running out and finding ways to become martyred or persecuted, but rather living a prayerful life, and following where our faith leads us.  To strengthen our faith and to continue in worship despite persecution and difficulty is to fight this spiritual battle that we are called to wage.  We encourage one another, we worship and pray, we read what is edifying to us, the things that teach us, we can seek out the saints of the past who left us with wise council we can read or hear -- there are many resources available to us and many ways in which we can strengthen our communion with our brothers and sisters in faith.  But even in isolation, it is remarkable what strength there is in prayer and its powerful exertion of influence over our subsequent lives and our own capacity for resilience, imagination, and overcoming difficulty.  The struggle for faith is truly one that takes place within us and among us, for His kingdom is always there awaiting our participation (Luke 17:21).  While we might be dismayed with what we see, Christ encourages us to endure to the end.  But we endure in our faith and the practice of our faith, in a prayerful life, and in doing what He has taught.  Let's note in these terms that Christ teaches us a number of times in this chapter on "end times" that we must be vigilant in terms of watching for false prophets.  We are meant to be alert and aware; we educate ourselves about our faith.  We are meant to be intelligent faithful, not blind at all but awake.  So let us understand the importance of our struggle to be the ones He has asked us to be, to know our own flaws and weaknesses, and to be aware of those who would exploit them.  Let us do the work He asks!