Why does this generation seek a sign?

 

 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."

 

 And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still hardened?  Having eyes, to you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"  

 

Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."

 

- Mark 8:11–26 

 

Yesterday we read that, in those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha. 

 

  Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."  My study Bible explains that a sign from heaven means a spectacular display of power.  The time of the Messiah among the Jews was expected to be accompanied by signs, but these hypocrites have not recognized the signs already being performed because their hearts were hardened, and they ignored the works happening all around them.  In St. Matthew's telling of this episode, Jesus refers to this "adulterous generation," meaning one unfaithful to God.  My study Bible notes that Jesus refuses to prove Himself in a spectacular way, for a sign is never given to people whose motive is to test God.  

 

  And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still hardened?  Having eyes, to you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"  Leaven is a word meaning a natural yeast, which transforms dough by an internal enzymatic process.  Jesus uses it as a metaphor for the influence of particular behaviors and attitudes.  My study Bible comments that the leaven of the Pharisees is their doctrine (Matthew 16:12) and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).  In Scripture, my study Bible points out, "leaven" is used both positively (as in Matthew 13:33) and negatively, as it is here.  In either case, it says, leaven symbolizes  force powerful enough -- and often subtle enough -- to permeate and effect everything around it (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8).

 

 Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."  My study Bible explains that as the people of Bethsaida were unbelieving (Matthew 11:21), Jesus leads the man out of the town to heal him, so that the people would not scoff at this miracle and bring upon themselves greater condemnation.  This is furthermore a story about faith in that the blind man was healed in stages, indicating that he had a small amount of faith to begin with, as healing occurs according to one's faith (Mark 6:5-6).  But this little faith was enough, and it increased with the touch of Christ.  His command not to return to the town, according to my study Bible, symbolizes that we must not return to our sins once we've been forgiven.  This story can also be read another way.  In the case of Jairus and his daughter, Jesus put the unbelievers outside of the home (those who ridiculed Him) and took with Him His disciples strongest in faith, the "inner circle" of Peter, James, and John, in order to shore up the faith of the little girl's parents.  Again, since the working of Christ's power is dependent upon faith, Jesus may also have taken this man out of the town in order to strengthen his faith, and separate him from those who would scoff.

 

Today's entire reading gives us a teaching about spiritual understanding, and its growth -- or lack of it -- within us.  In the first instance, we get a taste of Jesus' seeming exasperation with the slowness even of His own chosen disciples.  For despite two separate feeding miracles (see this reading and yesterday's reading, above), when Jesus speaks to them metaphorically of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod, they believe that somehow He's complaining to them that they forgot to bring adequate bread with them.  Considering the miraculous feeding first of five thousand men (and more women and children) in the wilderness from a few loaves, and then the second miraculous feeding of four thousand -- again from a few loaves -- this is an astounding assumption!  Jesus spells it out for them, going through the details of those miraculous multiplications of pieces of bread, seemingly marveling and wondering, "How is it you do not understand?"  This story appearing in the Gospels does us the great favor of knowing that even Jesus' disciples can be astoundingly slow to grasp faith, the working of Christ's power, and even in understanding His metaphors and parables.  If they are remarkably slow in today's reading (especially considering these recent miracles of the multiplications of loaves of bread by thousands), then it gives everyone hope for our own slowness to grasp the things of faith, the things God may be showing us in our lives, desiring for us to understand the things that can be painfully out of our reach.  There are times in life when God seems to repeat a hard lesson for us to learn, sometimes one can look back and realize that a particular lesson was decades in the making, our own growth remarkably slow in hindsight.  Nevertheless, this is part of what makes us only human.  It's our lot to grow, sometimes through painful understanding and difficult experience.  And, as we are all disciples if we are believers, Christ offers us spiritual understanding we need to learn, for a "learner" is what a disciple is.  Contrary to some assumptions, none of us is born with perfect faith; even for the saints, faith is a growth process, an evolution of an open heart to God, a willingness to accept and understand, and the deep need for humility to come to terms with God and where God leads us contrary to our own expectations and desires.  The story of the blind man living among the town of Bethsaida where people refuse to have faith in Christ despite the "mighty works" done among them is another illustration of the process of growth in faith.  We all might live in environments where faith is difficult, either due to those who scoff at it, or perhaps we're surrounded by nominal believers who honor God with their lips, but whose hearts are far away.  In any case, the Gospels give us many examples where faith, even contrary to Jesus' expectations, doesn't exist, such as in His hometown of Nazareth (in this reading).  There are many varied reasons and explanations for why faith doesn't take hold in someone's heart, from false expectations, prejudices, heretical beliefs, emotional binds and holds on their perception, habits, and just plain inconvenience, to a desire not to face what sacrifice it might take to truly accept God's path for them, even the changing image of themselves among the society.  One thing the Gospels make very clear is the role that hypocrisy plays in keeping people from God, putting on a show of piety while inwardly a hardened heart remains untouched.  All of these things remain with us, and even more influences today.  But the Gospels give us the truth, and don't sugarcoat it, when we read about the struggles for faith, even among Christ's own chosen disciples.  We'll never forget, either, the outright betrayal He will experience from one of the Twelve.  So, in short, there is hope for all of us and no need to be discouraged, for God is patient and God's mercy greater than we could hope.  But on the other hand, there is a price to pay for the refusal of grace; we lose what we could have gained, and our hearts grow further away from understanding, sometimes with difficult consequences.  In fact, in the perspective of the Bible, the difficult consequences are things to be grateful for, for we can learn from them (1 Corinthians 5:3-5).  A too-easy life can result in a failure with a far worse consequence (see the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus).  In the end of today's reading, Jesus tells the healed blind man who has recovered his sight, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."  We recall that He has also warned His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces" (Matthew 7:6).  Sometimes we're not to tempt those who refuse faith with our joy and good news, for our own good. Nonetheless, there always remains God's open gift of mercy for those who will come to receive.  All of these lessons open up to us the mysteries of the heart, the place where we may grasp -- or reject -- God.  Jesus asks, "Why does this generation seek a sign?"  They demand to be convinced first; Jesus has to prove to them -- for their arbitrary standards -- who He is.  But that's not the way that faith works, and that's not His mission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man

 

 Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

 

- Luke 21:29–36 

 

On Saturday, we read that Jesus taught His followers regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and also about the end times:  "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.  For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.  And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.  And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.  And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." 

Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  This generation seems to have a double meaning here.  Not only will the destruction of Jerusalem happen within a generation, but all these things refers to the generation of all believers at all times -- the generation of the Church, and not only those alive at the time of Christ.  Christ gives a solemn assurance of His prophecy:  My words will by no means pass away.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."  Jesus warns that our real need throughout this time as believers await His return is to be sober, to be aware of who we are and what our faith is.  That this Day will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth is a vivid image teaching us about the unpredictability of dates and times, and the easy way we slip into forgetfulness of who we are.  

Origen has an interesting commentary on drunkenness, which Christ warns about.  He states that drunkenness is destructive in all things:  it weakens both soul and body together.  There are times when the body is weak, and the spirit grows stronger.  Even through illness, we see spiritual growth and a closer experience of faith in the interior life.  But with drunkenness this is not the case, and so it would seem regarding the other things Christ warns about:  carousing and cares of this life.  So with all three, body and soul are together diminished, destroyed, ground down.  We lose sight of what is important, and must draw ourselves away from these things in order to focus on what is good for us, and healing.  Let's note that each of these can be a kind of escape from life, often starting out as a way to avoid the deeper things that may be hard to fathom and to cope with -- but the end of each road is no longer an escape but another kind of deeper prison, even a desolate place.  Origen writes of drunkenness:  "Forgetfulness covers the mind so that one does not know oneself nor perceive he is a person."  Origen wrote in the early third century, before the time of modern pharmaceuticals and the kinds of epidemics of drugs that we know today.  But let's take seriously what he says about drunkenness to illuminate what happens to a person who seeks escape from these deeper struggles of life through whatever means is available.  For Christ, even "the cares of this life" form such overwhelming substance, as we see also illustrated in the parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-15), when Jesus illustrates those who are "choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life" as the seed that fell among thorns.  Today we have other modern day distractions which may also serve to dissipate our lives and distract us from what is essential, but it's important to note the overwhelming nature of things that were common to human beings then and now, and Origen's comment about the dissipation of both the spirit and the body.  Let us not be lost in things that take us away from our spiritual lives, and give us only an immediate escape into forgetfulness or a type of obsession with something else.  It's a powerful thought to recognize how easy it is to lose ourselves in things that seem good but are dead ends in and of themselves.  Possibly the greatest power we have to put us in mind of the things that "bring us back to ourselves" is prayer and worship -- all the things that we can do to connect ourselves back to God, even for a brief period, even as we take just a bit of time from whatever we are doing in our lives.  Let us understand our dependence upon God, and that place where we truly remember who we are in God's love.  With Jesus' warnings, we are clearly to understand that this is true even in the midst of tribulations -- and that He is always with us even so, as we await His return with power and great glory.  Jesus teaches us that we are to "watch" and "pray always."  Let us take Him at His word, which will not pass away.

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?

 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field:  one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill:  one will be taken and the other left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

- Matthew 24:32-51

We have been reading Jesus' prophecy of end times, and what is to come in Jerusalem regarding the destruction of the temple and the Siege of Jerusalem (beginning with Thursday's reading).  Yesterday we read that Jesus told the disciples:  "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 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."

 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  My study bible tells us that this generation refers to all believers at all times; that is, the generation of the Church, and not simply to those alive at the time of Christ.  Although we should keep in mind that the Siege of Jerusalem would come in their lifetimes, within roughly a generation from the time He speaks (forty years).  But His general warnings and discussion apply to the entire Christian era, for the whole of it is the time of the "end."

 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."  My study bible cites the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, who says that Christ tells of the angels being unaware of the exact day of His return "so that men should not seek to learn what angels do not know," and to forbid them not only from learning the day, but from even inquiring about it.  According to Mark 13:32, and the Matthew text of St. Chrysostom, Jesus declares also that the Son does not know the day of His own return (as implied here when Christ says "My Father only" knows).  St. Chrysostom says that this is not to be understood literally.  It is rather a figure of speech which means that Christ, although revealing all the signs that will accompany His return, will not reveal the precise day to anyone, and that believers should not be so brazen as to inquire of Him.

"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field:  one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill:  one will be taken and the other left."  This second coming of Christ, my study bible comments, will entail a sudden revelation of judgment.  One will be taken to heaven and the other left.  The separation of the saints from the wicked, it says, will occur at the coming of the Son of Man, as Christ's words indicate here, and not at a certain time before His second coming.

"But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."  Jesus uses intentional language to emphasize that our job is to be ready for this time, and that His return will happen "at an hour you do not expect."  We must watch and be ready -- in other words, continuing in virtue and obeying His commandments. 

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  This parable is meant to illustrate His warnings, that to be ready for His return is to be a faithful and wise servant, who keeps a household with good rule, and feeds the members of the master's house in due season.   But to abuse one's position, to abuse our fellow servants, and forget our duties to Christ and His commandments is to risk forfeiture of everything, even life itself.  If we do so, we join with the hypocrites. 

Jesus gives us a way to prepare for His return:  we are to keep busy as good servants, following His commands, keeping His house in order, and that includes caring for the members of the house -- and as Jesus puts it, that means "to give them food in due season."  A house, in the image which Christ gives us, was more than just a dwelling structure or a home.  A house was a lineage, a group identity, a dynasty for a royal family, or more commonly, it was an entire estate which included properties, crops, animals, foodstuffs.  In Greek, the root of this word for "household" is οικος, meaning "house" and pronounced "ecos."   It's the root for words like economy and ecology. In fact, the word economy comes from the Greek for "steward" (οικονομος/economos), as in the teaching that we are to be good stewards (1 Peter 4:10), or managers of an estate.  And so, if we are all servants in this household, Jesus is speaking of the household of His Church.  That is, the "home" which bears His name, and houses so many other servants.  As we are all members of that household, we bear His name and identity, and the Master of the house has ordered that we follow particular commandments and treat one another in a particular way -- and this is how we are to busy ourselves as we await His return.  It is only in this way that we will, in fact, be really prepared for His return.  It is when we forget the things that we are to be about that we are unprepared, and might be caught as in a snare (Luke 21:35).  So let us consider how we treat one another, how we feed one another "in due season."  How do we practice Christ's commandment that we love one another, as He has loved us?  Let us also keep in mind that Jesus is preparing the stewards and shepherds of His house, His disciples who will become the bishops of His Church, and so this language is particularly directed to those in position of leadership.  But in Christ's church, His house, each one of us bears a unique responsibility for our talents, and therefore a capacity for leadership.  Each one may edify with a word (and hence "feed"), each is responsible for a way to maintain right relations and good order, each follows the commands of the Master in his or her own life, and bears His image.  Hence, in this identity of our household, we all have loyalties and duties, and it is when we forget that this is what we are to be about that we lose even what we have.  How do we serve Christ?  Do we serve with love and truth?  Do we serve prayerfully?  Are we listening and in dialogue with our Master through prayer?  Many causes seem to abound in the world, all of them proclaiming themselves to be good:  but do they ask us to hate or to love?  Do they deride whole groups of people with hate, or do they serve Christ's household with love?  Do we take stock of our true place in Christ's plan for salvation -- or do we plan other things for ourselves with higher priority?  Can we serve in His household "by any means necessary" -- or does Christ in fact teach us that it is precisely the "means" He emphasizes rather than the end?  Let us keep in mind that the "end" is firmly up to Him, but He gives us the proper means whereby we do as He asks.  It's up to us to follow, or to be unprepared for His return.  Christ asks us to be "faithful and wise" -- meaning loyal and trusting in His commandments and prudent in our conduct, self-aware.  Let us not "eat and drink with the drunkards" who chase whatever looks good to the crowds today, forgetting who we are.  Life is too precious and rich in His household, in the place where He shares with us His joy.

How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Christ Pantocrator/Teacher, Byzantine, 13-14th century, Vatopedi Monastery, Mt. Athos, Greece

"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!' "

- Matthew 23:27-39

In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued His final sermon, given in the temple at Jerusalem:   "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.  Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?  And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?  Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.  He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:  justice and mercy and faith.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."

"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."  Jesus continues His criticisms of the religious leadership, based on their hypocrisy.  Here He describes the emphasis on outward appearance of cleanliness (as He has already attacked their practice of ritual purity which covers up a lack of concern about true internal righteousness).  This is the starkest and strongest image possible, the image of death within.

"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."  Here Jesus speaks of the treatment of the prophets who have come before Him, and links the persecution of the prophets of old with the leadership of His own time.  In the parable of the Wicked Vinedressers (told in this reading from December 5th), Jesus illustrated the prophets having been repeatedly sent to Israel, to call people back to God.  But here, this condemnation of all that has gone before, sweeping up the current leadership in the guilt of those who have committed these crimes of the past, Jesus emphasizes their lack of leadership and care of the common people, their charges whom these leaders are supposed to guide toward God.  We and the crowd that listens to Jesus preach here surely have the recent memory of John the Baptist in mind.  (Indeed, Christ has asked these leaders in the same week about the baptism of John and its holiness, in this reading.)   In fact, my study bible points out that some patristic commentators suggest that Zechariah (mentioned here by Christ) was the prophet at the time of Joash the king (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), but others teach that Jesus here is referring to the father of John the Baptist, who, according to tradition, was also murdered in the temple.

"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!' "  My study bible says that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of God's people, but most do not want Him.  The desolate house, it says, refers both to the temple and to the nation itself, as house can be used to mean "family" or "tribe" (see Psalms 115:12, 135:19).  My study bible adds that once Christ departs, both the temple and the nation will be without God's presence.  Finally, let us note this feminine image which Jesus presents us of Himself, as a hen who gathers her chicks and wishes only to protect them with love.

Jesus ties in the hypocrisy and bad practices of the religious leaders with the desolation and coming destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem.  In the following chapter, He will go further into this prophecy of what is to come.  But it is clear from this final sermon of Jesus that He knows full well what is to come regarding His Passion and the Cross, and also what will become of Jerusalem and the temple once He has been crucified.  It is a time of the deepest possible transition, the deepest possible effects of their choices.  So much so, that Jesus ties in all the evil that has gone before in terms of the persecution of the prophets with what these leaders are about to do, and what will be the result.  Let us remember that in our past two readings Jesus has scathingly criticized the leadership, based on their hypocrisy which, most importantly, hinders the spiritual progress of their flock toward God.  Jesus has repeatedly said that this is the most important job of a pastor or religious leader.  In His own teachings to His disciples (to whom this final sermon is also addressed), He has repeatedly and emphatically spoken about humility and also the importance of self-knowledge, leading to personal correction in casting off the impulses and desires that may lead to abuses of those less powerful (illustrated in the image of cutting off hand or foot or eye "if it offends" in this passage).  But in today's reading, Jesus takes this all a step further, when He ties this abusive and neglectful behavior of the leadership with the whole of the spiritual history of Israel, culminating in the prophecy of what is to come in Jerusalem and to the temple (which will continue into the next chapter).  Significantly, Jesus' prophecies of what is to come -- and the tying in of repeatedly sending the prophets to Israel to call her back to God -- give us the sense in which our choices manifest in results in this world, even if we no longer are living to see them.  It is similar to the projection of a lifetime spent going in the wrong direction of one individual.  Here, a whole history of passed down errors and selfish personal indulgence -- rather than righteously upholding the teachings of God in personal conduct -- coupled with the refusal to hear the One who is sent, will have disastrous results.  Whether or not we want to see history this way, or even that our choices can manifest in such effects, we must see this text as tying in all of these things, in Jesus' words.  In other words, whatever we make out of what Jesus is saying here, there can be little, if any doubt that we are given the certainty that our own corrupt choices have effects in our lives and upon those around ourselves.  As we have seen from the texts as we read through the Gospels all along, when we are presented with spiritual truth (in whatever form, I would venture to say) we are not simply given a gift which we might easily refuse.  Spiritual truth, in whatever form it comes, is, finally, the gift of reality presented to us; paraphrasing the name of God given to Moses in the Old Testament (I AM WHO I AM - in Exodus 3:14), spiritual truth is what is.  Fighting against and rejecting that reality is, in a particular way, the same as rejecting the laws of physics.  If we fight against gravity, we don't expect that is not going to have its effects.  If we reject spiritual truth, we should not expect that this will create no effects in our lives.  It seems to me that it is certain, whether or not we realize or recognize it in our lifetimes, that rejection of spiritual truth works itself out in real effects -- often with a great lag of time, depending on the circumstance and the depth of rejection involved.  This may seem a bit mysterious, and indeed, it is.  It falls within the very definition of mystery, since "to those who are outside, all things come in parables" (Mark 4:11-12).  Indeed, this word for parables can also be used interchangeably with "riddles" or even "mysteries" -- hidden, secret things.  We are responsible for what we hear, and also for our lack of capacity to hear; at least somewhere deep within us, we have the faculties for such spiritual hearing and sight.  Whether or not we care to use them also seems to be a function of a depth of decision, part of the mysterious nature of faith and how it works within us.  We are offered grace, even in the admonitions of Christ, who, in this starkest and harshest of critical language, still tries to save and to warn.  Let us pay attention for our own conduct, our own faith, our own times, and their effects.   The icon above, from Vatopedi Monastery on Mt. Athos in Greece, is a depiction of Christ the Teacher, as He holds a scroll of His teachings.  Let us note that at the same time, He raises His hand in blessing, indicating that all is given through grace.  But He is also Christ Pantocrator, or Almighty, a reminder that His teachings are His word, the reality or Logos of God, and so they are always connected to His power of judgment and of eternal life.  They carry with them the weight of truth, and its fullness of effect in terms of our own response.  Let us remember that His teachings and warnings carry the same weight for us today as they do for those whom He addresses in the temple.  We are warned of the importance of our own righteousness and the internal life of the soul.  As the hen who would gather her chicks under her wings, everything Jesus says -- even criticisms and warnings -- are given from love for us.  May we be His willing children who do not reject that love.

And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!

 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.  It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.  Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming -- in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning -- lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.  And what I say to you, I say to all:  Watch!"

- Mark 13:28-37

In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued His prophecy and discourse on the destruction of the temple and the end times.  (For the beginning, see Saturday's reading).  Jesus taught, "So when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not" (let the reader understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let him who is on the housetop not go down into the house, nor enter 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.  For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be.  And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.  Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, He is there!' do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.  But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.  And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven."

 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  My study bible tells us that this generation refers to all believers at all times; that is, the generation of the Church.  Christ is not merely indicating those alive at that time.  It notes that Christ's prophecy is for the Church to continue to thrive until return, despite how desperate things sometimes may appear to be.

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.  It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.  Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming -- in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning -- lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.  And what I say to you, I say to all:  Watch!"   According to the commentary of St. John Chrysostom, although Jesus says here that the Son does not know the day of His own return, this isn't necessarily to be taken literally, but as a figure of speech.  Rather, He simply will not reveal the precise day to anyone, and believers should not be forward enough to ask.   Jesus' emphasis here is that we do not know when this will happen, and our task is to be prepared for that day and that hour, to Take heed, watch and pray.  We are simply to Watch!

 Jesus' emphasis on the Father as the only one who knows the time of the Son's return is quite special in a particular way.  If we think of God the Father as the one in whose hands all time and all cosmic reality is eventually set, then we start to understand the great depth of mystery of the end of the age.  Christ's return, and the end of the age, would necessarily be the end of time as we know and understand it, a time of tremendous change and transformation of what we know as reality.   It is, in a sense, affirming to us that there is absolutely nothing that we can know or predict about it -- simply, we are assured that this will, indeed, take place.  In that context there is only one thing certain; and that is that we must watch and pray in the meantime.  We need to take heed and be alert to what it is we are about, because the time will come upon us suddenly.  Let us consider that the time of the Church, at this time, is approximately two thousand years after these words were spoken.  All of the generations that have passed in between that time have had these same words to consider, as do each of us now.  Our lifetimes in this world -- even if we are not living at the time of Christ's return -- do depend upon these words just the same.  For once we have passed then we also are reassured that our lives will continue in the presence of God, in that place where we are truly known and everything else falls away.  In Matthew's Gospel, Christ tells us, "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:26-27).  In other words, whether we are living in this world or not at the time of Christ's return, our job is still to "take heed, watch and pray."  Christ sets a deliberate impression with us of watchfulness, alertness -- and that the time of His return is simply a mystery we don't know and should not even be inquiring about.  Rather it is the practice of virtue that matters, being about the business of the Master, doing as He has taught us, living as we are taught to live.  These words to me, while they address the entire corporate body of believers, are extremely personal.  We watch and pray for one another.   These words in the Greek, translated as take heed and watch, mean to be looking out, and extremely alert, not sleeping and ready to act at any time.  His whole emphasis is on our consciousness of what we are supposed to be about.  To watch is to be alert to the tasks at hand -- vigilant to the possibility of His return at any time, and mindful of the things He has taught we are to care about.  We are to always be mindful of the things of God and following His commands.   Even through the night, the message seems to be, while others sleep, it is our duty to be alert to who we are and awaiting His Presence at all times.  Psalm 63:11 reads, "When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches."  Christ ends His prophecy with words suitable to those on guard through the night.  Let us always remind ourselves and one another to  "remember God"  and be alert even while others are sleeping.

How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

 "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!'"

- Matthew 23:27-39

In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  It is Holy Week, the final week of Jesus' earthly life, and the last Passover He would attend.  Yesterday, we continued reading His final sermon:  "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.  Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?  And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?  Therefore he who swears by the altar,  swears by it and by all things on it.  He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:  justice and mercy and faith.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."

 "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."  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to them, " For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."  But here, He goes even further in the description of what kind of hypocrisy He sees in them.  The filth inside isn't a matter of dirty dishes and utensils, but tombs filled with decay and death and uncleanness.  It is a warning to all of us about a hypocritical life, and how seriously we should take this flaw, a kind of fallen state in which we become blind to our own spiritual death.

"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."  Jesus' condemnation of the leadership continues to build.  Not only are they responsible for the extremes death and uncleanness within themselves, but they take on the guilt of all before them who have passed on this way of being untrue to the love of God, the hypocrisy that murdered the prophets while posing as the righteous.  All of this in which they freely chose to participate will come upon this generation.  It is not completely clear which Zechariah Jesus refers to here, but some teach that He refers to the father of St. John the Baptist, whom patristic tradition says was murdered in the temple.   Others teach that it was the prophet Zechariah at the time of Joash the king (2 Chronicles 24:20-22). 

"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!'"  My study bible says that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of His people, but most do not want Him.  The desolate house, it says, refers both to the temple and to the nation itself.  "House" can be used to mean "family" or "tribe" (see Psalms 115:12, 135:19).  Both the temple and the nation will be without God's presence once Christ has departed.

The maternal image that Jesus gives here of Himself is an astonishing one in a number of ways.  Or, rather, perhaps we could say that it is one which we must sit up and notice.  It is a picture of Christ, the Lord, having watched over Jerusalem like a mother hen throughout time, throughout the history of God's people.  It is important that we have this understanding of the maternal and feminine characterization of Christ's love, care, grace, and tender mercy, because it tells us something about what it means to be fully human as one who is created in the image of Christ, and who must learn to be Christ-like.    The fullness of our Lord includes this maternal image, one of comfort and care and protection  and eternal mercy.  He characterizes Himself as One with the care of a deeply devoted and loving mother, but whose love, concern, and care is not reciprocated by her children. In this extremely moving lamentation over Jerusalem, Jesus teaches us about who He is as Lord of a universe, the One to whom we are to turn, and who longs for us to do so.  But the most devoted care and protection cannot function through rejection, and repeated rejection.  Jesus teaches us that even in His majestic identity as Creator and Lord of the universe, He is maternal and loving, with the tenderness of a mother hen for her chicks.  He inspires us to know what a balanced life really is, with its capacity for love and devotion -- and for the heartbreak of rejection and failure of one's beloved children.  Let us consider all that He teaches us, about Himself, and about what we ourselves are to imitate.  The depth of care and protection that He teaches are His here belong to all who find Him, and are capable of reciprocating even the smallest sense of that love.

Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth

 Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."  And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet.  Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.

- Luke 21:29-36

On Saturday, we read Jesus' continuing discourse about the events to come in Jerusalem, and His second coming:   "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.  For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.  And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.  And Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.  And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  While it is quite literally true that the generation of those to whom He was directly addressing would see the destruction of Jerusalem, His discourse includes events of His return, or second coming.  Therefore this generation actually refers to all believers at all times; that is, the generation of the Church, and not merely those alive at the time of Christ.  Furthermore, the age initiated continues, and will end only upon His return.  Therefore, all events discussed are tied to one another.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."  And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet.  Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.  Here is one assurance Jesus gives us:  that when He does return, that Day will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  That is, only those truly watchful and wakeful will be expecting it at all.  But total involvement with the worldly weighs us down, we forget our spiritual senses, a life of prayer.   He warns of hearts weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and care of this life, giving us a picture of the things we do to divert ourselves, and the overwhelming concerns possible when we forget to make space for God in our daily life, a healthy detachment that puts life into a wider perspective than what the world offers to us.

For Jesus to say that His second coming will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth is quite an astounding statement indeed.  It implies that the world is full of things that will distract us from our purpose, and our own true good in life.  As Jesus puts it, there are things in life that may burden our hearts, weigh them down, to the point that we are no longer alert and awake to the things He teaches us about, to the reality we are to always keep in mind.  A snare is a trap, something that catches an animal unawares when it is being hunted (particularly used for birds).  The implication here is that by ignoring the things He calls us to be aware of, we may lose our true liberty, our freedom -- becoming subject to that which enslaves and captures.  How does this happen?  His implications of that are clear too:  the cares of the world, and the things that we chase as diversion or immediate pleasures, whatever it is that may serve to distract us from true purpose, and in particular a life of prayer so that we are awake to the things He would have us be mindful of in life.  A snare set for a bird gives us a sense that God calls us to a kind of watchfulness we need for our own good, for our survival, for the assurance of our own independence and liberty.  It gives us a picture of evil or sin as that which robs us of something -- a trick that offers what sounds good but has as its end a denial of our greatest good, our true place.  In this context, the one thing necessary becomes a focus on the place where all that is good comes from, the love of God from which every perfect gift comes.  It is in that love that we wish to abide and have our lives, so that we are aware of who we are and what we need to be about, and we can live a life of true health -- that which is truly good for us.  We are vulnerable human beings, and we live in a state where it is easy to lose sight of the fact of our limitations, our need for direction and guidance, a constant sustenance in the face of that which is adverse to us -- even to be aware that there is a type of adversity which may catch us unaware.  This is where we acknowledge our dependence on God, our true need for humility as a way to stay focused and real.  But it is also where we acknowledge our deep need for love, in a world that doesn't always give what it seems to be offering.

Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod

 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."

And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still hardened?  Having eyes, do you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke  the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"

Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then he put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up.  And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."

- Mark 8:11-26

 Yesterday, we read that at this point in Jesus' ministry, in the region of the Decapolis near the Sea of Galilee, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him.  But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign?  Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation."  A sign from heaven would be some sort of spectacular display of power, designed as "proof" of Christ's messianic identity.  My study bible tells us that the time of the Messiah among the Jews was expected to be accompanied by signs.  But Christ, of course, has already displayed many signs in the course of His ministry.  What this is, of course, is a proof test, designed by the Pharisees in order to test Jesus -- rather than their acceptance of His ministry as it unfolds in accordance with the will of the Father.  It's a question of whose authority Jesus will follow.

And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive nor understand?  Is your heart still hardened?  Having eyes, do you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke  the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  They said to Him, "Twelve."  "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?"  The leaven of the Pharisees, says my study bible, is their doctrine (Matthew 16:12) and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).  The image of leaven is used both positively and negatively in Scripture.  Here, it's a negative.   We should think of a type of enzymatic action, that changes whatever substance it becomes a part of.  My study bible says that leaven symbolizes a force powerful enough (and often subtle enough) to permeate everything around it (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8).  A hardened heart, we remember, is one that cannot understand, does not grasp what it should.

Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.  And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.  And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."  Then he put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up.  And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."  Jesus has made a kind of ring around the Sea of Galilee, not returning  to Capernaum (where Peter has a family home which functions as a kind of headquarters to Jesus' ministry), but landed further east, on the northern shore of the Sea.   Bethsaida is mentioned by Christ as a place where people did not believe in Him (Matthew 11:21).  Jesus therefore leads this man out of the town to heal him, so that people won't scoff at the miracle -- and, my study bible says, bring upon themselves greater condemnation.  The healing of this blind man in stages, it says, shows that he had only a small amount of faith -- healing occurs according to one's faith (Mark 6:5-6).  But this little faith was enough, and increased with Christ's touch.   My study bible also tells us that Christ's command not to return to the town symbolizes that we mustn't return to our sins once we've been forgiven. 

Today's reading teaches us all about faith and comprehension.  The two are definitely intertwined as the Gospels present it to us.  The Pharisees don't understand who Christ is, but more importantly, they seek to impose a test as if their authority is what is absolute, over all things, even the works of God.  Moreover, their failure to find faith -- despite the many signs already worked in Christ's ministry -- and their demand for proof reflect on their inability to comprehend with the heart.  This is "hard-heartedness" in Scriptural language.  It is the failure to grasp the things of God, the work of the Spirit in the world.  Faith, like love, is voluntary, and cannot be compelled.  The works of "proof" have nothing to do with Christ nor the ministry in which the Father leads Him.  It's not just the Pharisees who are hard-hearted in today's reading, and hard of comprehension, it's also the disciples.  Jesus teaches them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.  That's an interesting phrase, because we know that when Jesus appears before Herod (during His Passion), Herod will also demand a sign.  (See also this reading and commentary on the death of John the Baptist for Herod's attitude toward John's holiness).  Herod's desire to see a sign is more akin to a kind of fascination with some object or marvel a king might collect, and so we can see parallels in the views of the Pharisees and Herod: they're not reverent in the heart.  In both views, the approach to God and the things that are holy is a kind of materialistic approach, one that turns God into an object rather than a Person, that does not grasp the energies of God at work in the world.  Perception for faith demands something different, a way to grasp that which lives and is life itself.  This pernicious leaven, as described by Jesus, is a way of looking at things that objectifies what should not be reduced to mere object, and fails to perceive in either a humane, judicious, or sympathetic way that which gives life the quality of blessedness, holiness, or mercy.  Above all, it seems to fail to grasp love.  "Prove it," in modern parlance, is often a way simply to reduce another person to nothing.  In Bethsaida, we're once again given an object lesson in the importance of faith and our own steps to shore up our faith.  On the "little" faith of the blind man, Jesus can begin a healing -- but like Jairus and his wife at the time of the healing of his daughter -- he must be set apart from those who don't believe, who may damage his faith, in order to find effective healing and to retain that strength and faith to stay on the path of the righteousness to which Christ has called him.  Altogether, the stories in today's reading re-enforce the crucial importance that the care of our faith has to do with nurturing the most central essence of our identity as persons, and how that becomes part of the fabric of our lives.  In today's reading, we're given a portrait of that which harms faith and also the significant deficits that the influence of harmful attitudes can create for us as obstacles to our own fullness and wholeness as persons.  What is the fullness of your life and experience of life worth to you?   How are you called to find the deeper things within yourself as human being, that which draws you into an expanded understanding of what it is to be a full "person"?  These are the questions our reading opens up for us, as it calls us to guard and protect the heart, and enter into this Kingdom as whole beings through Christ's work of salvation.  Most of all, it asks us to begin to understand God as the Being that works among us, whose energies permeate our own lives within the purview of our choice.  And He asks us ever more strongly to make certain we understand the role of our choice in strengthening and protecting that faith and growth and participation in His Kingdom.  If we are truly children of God, it is God's work as love that makes us so, and grows us in that likeness as persons.  Without an experiential faith, how does this grow?

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away

 Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."  And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet.  Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.

- Luke 21:29-38

In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  It is Passion Week.  He has been teaching in the temple, and confronted by various groups of the religious leadership.  In Saturday's reading, Jesus' responded to those who marveled at the wonder and beauty of the temple by teaching that the day will come when not one stone is left upon another.  He taught His followers that they will face persecution, and began to speak also of end times.  In yesterday's reading, He continued:  "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.  For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.  And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.  And Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.  And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

 Then He spoke to them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  Jesus has been speaking of end times.  In yesterday's reading, above, He taught that "when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."  The redemption He spoke of is His Second Coming.  This generation, in that context, means the entire "generation" of all believers, at all times, which is the generation of the Church, and not only those alive at the time of Christ.  However, in the context of His entire talk to His disciples, included here in His prophecy is the destruction of the temple and the Siege of Jerusalem, which would take place within a generation and be witnessed by many of those listening to Him.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.  For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.  Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."  And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet.  Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.  Here are His words to all of us, and they teach us about our own orientation as His followers.  Our minds are to be aware of the potential of His return at any time.  We're not to let our hearts be weighed down with worldly distractions nor by the cares of this life.  That Day will come as a snare to everyone:  it will be sudden and unexpected.  This is His promise.  To watch and pray is His word for our lives.  To escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man is to truly possess our souls (v. 19).  Jesus stays on Mt. Olivet, as a pilgrim, but teaches in the temple by day, as all come to listen to Him.

We have the irony of contradiction sprinkled throughout this talk on end times and the time of His Return.  Jesus began this discourse in response to those with Him who marvel at all the sights of the splendid temple, a masterpiece of imperial architecture and stunning beauty.  He tells them that not one stone will be left upon another that won't be thrown down.  He begins to speak of the destruction of the city, warns them to be ready for the time when they will see Jerusalem surrounded by armies.  This warning helped save much of the early Church.  But what He teaches is much more than that; He speaks of end times, this period of the age that begins with His Incarnation and ministry in the world.  It's a time of nation rising against nation, wars and commotions, natural disasters -- things that terrify and create fearful expectation.  There will be a time of persecution.  They are not to believe any rumors that He has returned, or those who claim to be messiah.  When He returns, it will be unmistakable to all, and will come as a snare upon all the people who dwell the world.  His prophecy was certainly fulfilled regarding the beautiful temple, and we can easily say that looking at history there has been the warfare, violence and persecution He spoke about.  He says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  The disciples are asked to believe the unbelievable, and given Christ's absolute promise of the truth of His word.  Standing in the temple, one of the seven wonders of the world in its time, we may think of them listening to His words.  He promises He will be the One they will stand before when all things fall away, but they are to have patience, whatever is to come.  And this Man, who has been welcomed as Messiah, is in confrontation with the leadership who plot to kill Him.  He stays as pilgrim on Mt. Olivet and teaches daily for the people to hear.  There is a deeply complex order of reality and facts, and they are asked and expected to understand His truth through it all.  He's a poor pilgrim, not a conquering warrior, and yet He asks for their faith through all things, and for ours.   He places Himself as absolute Judge.  His most important teaching here is about holding on to what we know to be true, watching and praying, not being immersed nor hearts weighed down, as He puts it, by the cares and distractions of worldly life.  Let us notice the focus on the heart, the Scriptural term for the center of the person, the fullness with which we apprehend and negotiate our lives.  The struggle for faith is not merely an intellectual choice, but one that involves everything we've got, all that we are.  We are in the world but not of it, just as He is, and this is what He reminds us to hold in our hearts, this truth of layers of seeming contradiction, of irony, of the not-so-simple reality we live.  He doesn't want us to be fooled by appearances, by false Christs, by our fears, by the things that will terrify so that men will lose heart.  He wants us to see through all of it, to hold onto what is ultimate, deepest truth -- His word that will not pass away, though all else does.  Persecution becomes opportunity for testimony, which we're not to think about before hand, but which He will give to us at the time.  We persist, by patience, in our faith.   It is by this kind of patience that we possess our souls.   An extraordinary order He's giving, nearly incredible commands of faith -- and yet this is His word and the Church He establishes, and that to which He calls us.   The disciples have been warned about what is to come, His Passion and death and Resurrection.  But they can't really comprehend that either.  We know what has been revealed and what has come to pass.  Are we up for the challenge of our "generation" of faithful?