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 

 

 Yesterday, we read Jesus' last words in His final public sermon, which was a great critique of the scribes and Pharisees.  This takes up the whole of chapter 23 of St. Matthew's Gospel (for the first two readings in this chapter, see the readings from Monday and Tuesday.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'  Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes:  some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

 

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.  And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things?  Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."  My study Bible explains that Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.  

 

 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."  Thus begins Jesus' discourse on what are often called "end times," which in tradition began with Christ's Incarnation and continue through the present age as we await His return and judgment.  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).  Our Lord's emphasis through this discourse is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue, rather than on constructing timetables of things which have not yet happened.  Here in St. Matthew's account, the end is described in several stages, which encompass the initial sorrows (described in today's reading), the great tribulation (verses 15-28), and the coming of the Son of Man (verses 29-31).   The period of the great tribulation, my study Bible teaches, includes the entire Christian era and is not limited to the final years before Christ's return.  Here in these beginning teachings on the end times, Jesus has given the most emphasis to warnings against deception.  Of particular emphasis, my study Bible says, is the warning against following a false Christ, which Jesus will stress again (verses 11, 23-27).   

 

 "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows.  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."  According to my study Bible, the wars here refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, but they also include subsequent wars.  It notes that wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but rather the opposite.  As Jesus indicates, it tells us that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).  

 

"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 indeed, persecutions against the Church often increase the number of souls being converted.  It cites St. John Chrysostom, who marvels that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews unarmed except the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 

Jesus gives us a kind of arc of history in speaking about end times; that is, the time of the whole Christian era.  Certainly we understand wars and rumors of wars, and we know about persecutions.   Jesus says, "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."  Jesus describes a world in which increasing conflict takes place at all levels, from the international ("nation will rise against nation") to the individual and within communities.  Betrayals, offenses, hatreds will take place.  And the deceit of false prophets continues a kind of violence against the kingdom of heaven and to natural order that would be the way of God.  And in that vein, a key phrase is when Jesus tells us that "lawlessness will abound" and "the love of many will grow cold."  These things are antithetical to the order established by God, the aims of our faith, the intentions of God we understand from the whole of the Holy Bible.  Lies and deceptions form yet another kind of violence in the midst of the other violence we understand, and famines and pestilences and earthquakes show that even the natural physical world is disrupted from its proper order, a kind of interior violence even affecting the world which was created to sustain and support human life in which God established a garden for the first human beings.  Without love and righteousness there can be no peace.  We may not have experienced in our lives such levels of total breakdown of norms which are necessary for human flourishing, nor experienced a universal kind of war of all against all such as is depicted here.  Fr. Stephen Freeman refers to this process of "breakdown" as a kind of entropy in this article, and one must conclude that this seems correct.   But many people at this time are certainly wondering where the world is headed, and we can observe what often seems to be a breakdown of natural order, even rational behavior.  Jesus speaks with a prophetic understanding of the effects of such chaos when He tells us that "he who endures to the end will be saved."  For in the midst of the evil of chaos and this breakdown of the true natural order of things (that is, the desired order established by God in creation), we are taught that it is faith that makes the difference, and it is in our faith we must nevertheless endure.  For Jesus says, "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."  In the midst of whatever difficulties we find in the world, whatever chaos or violence, or deceptions and lies, we have something important to do.  We have been given a mission from Christ to witness His gospel.  If things sometimes feel overwhelming and we cannot understand where they are headed, we need to recollect who and what we are, and find this place in prayer where we're given the grace of God to know what we are to be about.  God gives us the grace not to despair, but to continue in faith and in the mission of the Church.  For He has told us all ahead of time, and He teaches us to endure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take heed that no one deceives you

 

 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 

 

Yesterday we finished reading chapter 23 of St. Matthew's Gospel.  The entire chapter was taken up by Jesus' final sermon, a lengthy indictment of the hypocritical ways of the scribes and Pharisees.  We began reading that sermon in Wednesday's reading.  Yesterday, we read that Jesus taught,  "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."

 

 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."  Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans during the Siege of Jerusalem.  This prophesy is quite literally true; all the remains today of the temple is one retaining wall of the temple, known as the Western Wall (formerly called the Wailing Wall).  Note ways in which this prophecy is connected to Christ's condemnation of the practices of the Pharisees and scribes in yesterday's reading, above.

 

 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"  My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that there is no precise chronology that can be determined from them (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).  It notes that Christ's emphasis is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue, rather than constructing timetables of things that have not yet happened.  Here in St. Matthew's account, the end described encompasses the initial sorrows (in today's reading), and in our following readings will cover the great tribulation (verses 15-28), and the coming of the Son of Man (verses 29-31).  The period of the great tribulation, it is important to note, includes all of the Christian era, and is not, as some teach, 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."  Christ warnings against deception are given the most emphasis here, stated first.  Of particular importance, my study Bible says, is the warning against following a false Christ, which Jesus will stress again in verses 11, and 23-27.

 

"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows."  My study Bible notes that the wars mentioned here refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, but also certainly include subsequent wars.  Wars are not a sign of the imminent end, it says, but of the opposite -- that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).  

 

"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."  My study Bible comments that all these calamities and all this opposition cannot stop the spread of the gospel, and indeed it has been seen that the persecutions against the Church often increase the number of those being converted.  St. John Chrysostom marvels that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews unarmed with anything except the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

 

 My study Bible comments that Jesus' most significant emphasis, in this prophecy of "end times," is a warning against deception.  As we live in an age of great manipulation of images and of information, with ever increasing development of new tools for doing so through popular communications, we should especially pay heed to such warnings.  If we as human beings and followers of Christ always needed to be on our guard against false christs and false prophets, then perhaps we need do so now and in the future more so than ever.  One can only imagine that the capacity for deception and manipulation will only grow with newer and more powerful technologies.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) our means of perception as human beings remains perhaps the same as it ever was.  We don't have automatic faculties for knowing what is true and what is phony.  Every day on popular media such as Facebook or TikTok or YouTube, one can see manipulated images created by the new versions of AI (Artificial Intelligence) software which grow exponentially with investment and development.  It seems inevitable that much of our daily business and commerce will be done through various forms of this software, even as it grows in applications for various service interfaces, including decision-making.  The point of recounting these modern phenomena is not to frighten people or make readers more worried for the future, but to point out that Christ's words and warnings about potential deception may grow in significance as we enter into the technological developments of today and the years immediately to come.  Jesus is, in this sense, more prescient than ever, and His words carry an even greater significance for us.  Our response to such phenomena requires us to hold fast to the things of faith with every effort we can muster, and this most certainly includes faith and prayer practices.  For in a world increasingly overtaken by disinformation and false stories generated for clicks and likes (and possibly through bad actors who seek to foment dissension and rancor within our societies), we truly need to hold fast to Christ's light that leads us through a world in which temptations and manipulation have always played a role as stumbling blocks for us.  We need to shore up our faith and prayer practices if only to meet the powerful tools that may mislead us in the future, into believing false things that do not serve the purposes of God, and turn us more and more against one another so that we don't see where the true interests of our faith lie, the narrow and difficult way of the Cross for us.  We need to focus on that life of the soul and the light of Christ which so eluded the Pharisees in their blindness and hypocrisy, focused so heavily on the external forces of worldly power and authority.  All of these new distractions have the effect of pulling us ever more vigorously into the world of competition and competing narratives, including by false actors who do not share our best interests, and certainly not those of community nor love as Christ would have it.  So, our response is to hold fast to things He said, and to "endure to the end" in so doing.  All of the things Christ has prophesied in today's reading are things many of us observe seemingly growing around us:  wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, earthquakes and other natural disasters, and sorrows abound.  Christians remain under persecution in various parts of the world, and this phenomenon is more frequent than most people know.  Over the past century there has been a dramatic reduction of Christian populations through persecution, especially in the Middle East (estimates claim Christians formed 20% of the population of Middle Eastern countries a century ago, down to perhaps 5% now).   Even in the nations which claim freedom of religion, those who call themselves Christians may find themselves the object of hatred.  Offenses, betrayals, hatreds seem to come up out of nowhere at times.  And this is the place where Christ says that "false prophets' can arise to deceive.  Perhaps His most ringing words for us today teach us that lawlessness will abound, and with that the love of many will grow cold.  As once-common notions of civility disintegrate, even communal understanding of the basic respect for shared humanity becomes more fragile.  We are here in the world to "endure to the end" carrying our Cross, and the light of Christ with us and within us.  Let us make every effort to do as He says, in all the ways available for our faith.   Even so, through the same technology and communications, we can see as well that the gospel of the kingdom is increasingly preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and so we go forward in His name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand

 

"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."

 

- Mark 13:14–27 

 

On Saturday we read that, as Jesus went out of the temple in Jerusalem, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down."  Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple,  Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"  And Jesus, answering them, began to say:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many.  But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.  These are the beginnings of sorrows.  But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.  You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak.  But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.  Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved."

 

"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."  The abomination of desolation was a prophecy of Daniel (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11), fulfilled in the Siege of Jerusalem (AD 70), when the Roman general Titus entered the Most holy Place and had a statue of himself erected in the temple before having the temple destroyed.  My study Bible says that the Lord's phrase when you see indicates that many of the disciples would still be living at that time.  The phrase let the reader understand is an encouragement to the early Christians who may have witnessed this event.  

 

"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."  My study Bible comments that the severity of winter weather or respect for the Sabbath would prevent many faithful from fleeing quickly in a time of desperation.  Jesus' sympathy for nursing mothers is reinforced in Luke 23:29, when He blesses the barren in preparation for the time He describes.  My study Bible quotes commentary on that verse from St. John Chrysostom:  "Mothers are held by the tie of feeling for their children, but cannot save them.  How can one escape the bonds of nature?  How can she who nurses ever overlook the one she has borne?"

 

 "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."   My study Bible points out that, here in St. Mark's Gospel, the account of the end times is given in a reverse or mirrored parallel form, often called chiastic (from the word "chi" meaning X in Greek).  That is, the topics He mentions in the first half of the passage are repeated and amplified in reverse order in the second half.  Taking the beginning of this discourse from Saturday's reading (see above), we begin to see the parallels.  He began (in Saturday's reading) with a warning to take heed about false christs, which is repeated here and amplified.  The second warning was about wars which He then described in detail just above these verses in today's reading, and includes the abomination of desolation.  The second-to-last warning is about tribulation here, which amplifies His warnings in Saturday's reading of being delivered up to councils, and betrayed and delivered up by family members.  Today's reading gives us the second half of that X shaped prophecy, the center of which was that "the gospel must first be preached to all the nations" in Saturday's reading (see above), which my study Bible calls the heart of the apostolic ministry and the mission of the Church.

 

"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."   My study Bible says that, according to patristic commentary, the sun will not be destroyed, but will be darkened in relation to the glory of Christ.  In other words, it will appear to be dark by comparison to the fullness of Christ's splendor.  Note that when Christ says that the powers in the heavens will be shaken, this can't be separated from the spiritual powers in the heavens, and the things described here are in response to that transition and glory in spiritual battle, the victory of Christ described in the next verses.  

 

"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."   Note that at Christ's first coming, He came in humility and mortality, (as signified through His entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt; see this reading).  But at Christ's return, His second coming, He will be revealed with great power and glory.  My study Bible refers us to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 on the gathering of the elect, from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven.  

 

What is the farthest part of heaven?   This seems to affirm that the elect include those on earth, but also those of the great cloud of witnesses, who stand in the resurrection.  This vast and incomprehensible number of souls is impossible for us to calculate, and I daresay, to even imagine.  In fact, much of what Christ has to say in this end times prophecy is to us, unimaginable.  That would include even those terrifying events of the Siege of Jerusalem, documented for us in history books, so vividly told here in Christ's forewarnings to the people.  These warnings -- such as to pray that their flight may not be in winter, or of the woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days -- carry with them the terror of such a calamitous and disastrous time.  They don't soften the sense of desperation and fear; quite the opposite.  Christ does not seek to minimize the dangers and harm that may exist for us in this world, particularly as His followers.  But He does warn us about them, and about the things we will be called upon to face for His name's sake -- and He also gives us His solemn promise and assurance of His return, and the gathering together of His elect from the four winds, and from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven.  Let's consider once again the depth and breadth of what these words mean, and the unimaginable number of souls gathered in Christ's power and glory and His return.  "From the four winds" indicates all the directions of the earth, not a single soul overlooked from anywhere in the world.  That even the powers in the heavens will be shaken should give us a sense of the shattering of our present reality in exchange for another one at the end of the age, and in the fullness of the coming of His Kingdom.  None of these things can be glossed over or de-emphasized, for all of it is important to us, and none of it is sugar-coated for us.  It all comes as part of the package of our faith in Christ.  Often we get the impression that there has been so much progress in terms of medical science, or technology, or a host of other modern developments, that we have great control over our lives and our world.  But Christ tells us something quite different, which perhaps we discover in our own lives through time and experience, that despite all of these innovations and modern wealth and productivity, we still have unforeseen circumstances to deal with.  We remain with wars and rumors of wars (perhaps more destructive, violent, and frightening than ever); we remain with natural disasters we can't seem to fully control or explain; and we certainly remain with evil in our world and political machinations and hardships of all kinds.  While we have news reported and available to us with 24-hour availability, it does seemingly little to reassure us that all things are stable and cared for; quite the opposite, in fact.  But with Christ, we have something more.  We have His reassurance that not a hair on our heads goes uncounted by God (Matthew 10:30), not a sparrow drops to the earth apart from God's knowledge and will (Matthew 10:29), and that God knows the things we have need of (Matthew 6:31-33).  Let us first seek the will of God, to know God in prayer and communion and to build up our faith, to find the things that Christ has for us to do in the world.  For ultimately we are dependent upon God, from whom every good and perfect gift comes -- and who gives us warnings about our world and knows the dangers and fears we live with; for He has been with us as one of us, and offers us the Kingdom and our discipleship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By your patience possess your souls

 

 Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."

So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."

 

- Luke 21:5-19 

 

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

 

  Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  This is a prophecy of the destruction of the temple that was to be fulfilled in 70 AD at the Siege of Jerusalem.  The text references the adornment of the temple with beautiful stones and donations.  We should remember that this is the temple as it was expanded and rebuilt into one what was considered one of the architectural marvels of the world, by Herod the Great (also known as Herod the Builder). 

 

 So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them."   My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7 - 12; Mark 13; Matthew 24; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10; and the Book of Revelation).  It notes that Christ's emphasis is on watchfulness, and the practice of virtue rather than on constructing timetables of things that have not yet happened.  Here in Luke's Gospel, Jesus first warns His disciples about what is to come in their lifetimes.  He warns them not to be deceived by false reports of His Return, and that they are not to be terrified in hearing about wars and commotions, for these must come first before the end.   He then goes on to describe the tribulations that will come as we await His Second Coming.  

 

Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven."  All of this period in which we have lived the Christian era is included in the tribulations Christ describes.  My study Bible comments that these wars include the Roman destruction of Jerusalem (when the temple was destroyed, and not one stone was left upon another, but all was thrown down.  It says that wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but of the opposite -- that the end is not yet (see 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). 

 

"But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist."   And here is the tribulation for the Church, again, covering the entire period of the Christian era, and not simply a specific final time before His return.  This persecution of course began in the earliest period of the Church, but it yet continues today, even as the gospel has spread to the world.  Certainly most of those to whom He was speaking, with the exception of John the Evangelist, would go on to martyrdom.  John himself was in exile, even as the Church was persecution in the synagogues and by the Romans.  But let us pay close attention to what Christ tells us about times of persecution:  they are an occasion for testimony.  

"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."  Here Christ's prophecy becomes even personal.  In the Letter to the Hebrews, St. Peter writes, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).  If the word of God is truth that cuts deeply into the heart of each one, then we understand how also it may cut between ourselves and even those most closely bound to us in a worldly sense.  Here Christ is preparing the disciples for the type of hatred and betrayal to come.  Of course, we might wonder at this seeming contradiction, that some will be put to death, yet not a hair of your head shall be lost.  But in so doing, we lose sight of the Kingdom among us, and that so much emphasis is placed on the eternal reality of that Kingdom, and not on the events of this world which so often deceive, and mask the true work of God going on "behind the scenes," so to speak.  Those who follow Him, as is evidenced in the Epistles of St. Paul, do so with the understanding of the eternal nature of life in that Kingdom, and not simply a temporal existence.  St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians of those brothers and sisters in the Church who have passed ("fallen asleep"), "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).  

 

 Jesus' final words in today's reading are, "By your patience possess your souls."  These are words that are addressed to us in our modern world today as much as they are to Christ's disciples during this final week of His earthly life, as given in today's reading.  What does it mean for us, "By your patience possess your souls?"  First of all, Christ's warnings about wars and upheavals, natural disasters of all sorts, famines and pestilences, still apply to us.  We see them every day, and we cannot help but hear about them the more the world is interconnected through mass telecommunications of all sorts.  Moreover, lest we who live in countries where we are quite free to practice our faith forget, persecutions of the Church continue into the present day and have never stopped.  In the previous century, many of those persecutions came at the hands of governments and political movements opposed in principle to religion.  The twentieth century's first great persecution, indeed that which would produce the term "genocide" as a legal term defined in the law, was the persecution in the Ottoman Empire of its Christian populations during the years of World War I, beginning in 1915 with the Armenian Genocide.  Today even a nominally Christian country has moved to ban a rival Church during a period of war, perhaps portending a new involvement to manifest divisions in the Church through warfare and the manipulations of governments.  Moreover, and perhaps far more threatening in effect, today our brothers and sisters in the Middle East continue to suffer under attack from armies of extremists bent on exterminating all those who do not share their nominal sectarian beliefs.  Such extremist militias are even sent to other countries across Africa, striking terror into the Christian populations there, using rape, murder, torture, and abduction of child soldiers as their weapons, even using slavery as a means of procuring wealth.  In these ways, in headlines we can read in today's news if we but look to find them, the Church and Christian believers still suffer under persecution and tribulation.  As we head toward the celebration of the birth of our Lord, and we enter into the Christmas season, keep a special place in your prayers and hopefully also in your charitable gifts for those brothers and sisters of ours, all over the world, and perhaps in a different denomination from ourselves, who suffer tribulation for their faith.  Let us, together with them, share in their suffering if we might in order to help alleviate their pain and the destruction to their communities.  For Jesus preaches not only to those who suffer, but to all of us who must share in the message, "By your patience possess your souls."   Let us through our compassion participate in prayers for our patience, extended to each one through all of us, even across the world to the faithful who suffer today.  We all must come to understand the ways in which we are meant to participate in the sacrifice of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:19-21, Revelation 13:8).   For in this way shall we possess our souls, and gain the peace of Christ that passes all understanding, if we abide in His love -- and for one another -- as He has taught us to do.

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!

And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold

 

 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 will 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 current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and it is Holy Week, the final week of Christ's earthly life.  He has been teaching in the temple and disputing with the religious leaders.  Matthew's chapter 23 is a grand critique of the practices and hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees.  Yesterday we read the final part of that chapter.  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 fathers' guilt.  Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?  Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes:  some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones  those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'" 

 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.  And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things?  Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."   In the previous reading, Jesus mourned over Jerusalem, and said, "See!  Your house is left to you desolate. . .."  Here Christ prophesies regarding the destruction of the temple.  This prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the Romans.  

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"  My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways.  So, therefore, there is no precise chronology that can be determined from it (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 is on watchfulness and the practice of virtue -- not on constructing timetables for things that haven't yet happened.  My study Bible says that Matthew's account describes the end times as involving (1) initial sorrows (verses 4-14, contained in today's reading); (2) the great tribulation (verses 15-28); and (3) the coming of the Son of Man (verses 29-31).  It notes, importantly, that the period of the great tribulation includes the entire Christian era.  It is not limited to the final years before Christ returns.

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."  These warnings against deception are given first emphasis in Jesus' response to the question about end times.  My study Bible says that of particular importance is the warning against following a false Christ, which Jesus will repeatedly stress (see also 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."  My study Bible comments that the wars here are references first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem; however, this warning certainly also includes subsequent wars.  It notes that wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but rather of the opposite.  That is, as Jesus says, 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 will 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 says here that all these calamities and all this opposition nonetheless cannot stop the spread of the gospel.  In fact, persecutions against the Church, it says, often increase the number of souls who are being converted.  It notes that St. John Chrysostom marvels that while the Romans subdued countless Jews in a political uprising, they could not prevail over twelve Jews who were not armed with anything but the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In His prophesy of the time to come following His death and Resurrection, Jesus says, "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."   We should remember that, for the Church, this entire period of the Church's history is understood as "end times."  That is, the end times are this entire period in which we await Christ's return, His Second Coming.  So, as my study Bible points out, all the warnings in Christ's summary of the period of the end apply to all times in which we live, although His warning about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple are certainly prominent -- and this did indeed happen within a generation of His prophecy.  But it seems that there are many sorts of false prophets that are alarming to people today, many varieties of what might pass for religion.  People offer theories about extraterrestrial visitations as spiritual events, or ideas regarding psychedelic drugs as a spiritual practice; even social theories may be followed as if one were worshiping the theory while rejecting God or any concept of a deity.  Some treat politicians as if they were deities, and public figures themselves can indeed serve as false prophets of one type or another.  Social media makes such things proliferate, to the point where social contagion is no longer simply a theory but studied and correlated with mass movements and trends, even of sobering trends among children (especially young women) such as anorexia several years ago, and more recently gender dysphoria.  Possibly even more worrisome is Christ's prophesy that "because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."  Lawlessness can certainly take on many forms, and Jesus here is undoubtedly speaking of those who care nothing for traditional moral and spiritual teachings, which are meant to preserve, protect, and build good community under teachings of God traced through the entirety of the Bible.  We may recall here that Jesus, in His dispute with the scribes and Pharisees, gave two great commandments.  He said, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  (See this reading.)   How many seem to have given up on the practice of both of these commandments?  Popular political and social theories teach ideas entirely contrary to Jesus' teaching in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) in which we learn that to act as a neighbor is to be a neighbor, regardless of tribe, group, race, or other affiliation of any kind.  Instead, we find popular refuge for an emphasis on the opposite, that those of a particular group or ethnicity or race may be simply evil in some ontological sense connected to their physical characteristics.  Lawlessness can indeed mean that we no longer approach people as if they were of our same nature, as created in God's image and likeness, but rather our behavior differentiates on an entirely different, physical basis.  Jesus prophesies that because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  Certainly there are many who feel that kind of alienation and an existential sense of loneliness has grown.  We can see it among young people who feel extremely isolated.  This is correlated, of course, with the effect of lockdowns on school age young people, but more recently between social media use and what seems to be a significant rise in depression levels in young people.  We should be entirely aware of this correlation between "lawlessness" and the coldness that signifies a lack of love among people, within communities, families, institutions.  We should give great care to consider that it is in the practice of our faith that love can be maintained, grown, and deliberately cultivated.  For Christ always calls us to compassion, to acts of compassion.  The story of the Good Samaritan is a case indeed for active love, crossing all boundaries, creating neighbors where there were none before, building community where none was thought to exist.  Let us consider Christ's words carefully, and see where they might apply in our lives, and where we can observe this element of His prophesy around ourselves.  Let us consider the importance, then, of living our faith, living His guidance for ourselves and for our world.  Because if love itself depends upon this, then how essential is that faith to human life and the quality of our lives within the whole of our communities?   In another important passage, Jesus stretches His hand toward His disciples, and says, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:48-50).  What He is revealing to us is the powerful force for love that is present in hearing the will of God and doing it, living it.  Let us practice the love He teaches to us.

Take heed that no one deceives you

 

 Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down." 

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"  And Jesus, answering them, began to say:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many.  But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.  These are the beginnings of sorrows.  But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.  You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak.  But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.  Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved."

 

- Mark 13:1-13 

 

 Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?  For David himself said by the Holy Spirit:  'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool."'  Therefore David himself calls  Him 'Lord'; how is He then His Son?"  And the common people heard Him gladly.  Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  These will receive greater condemnation."  Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury.  And many who were rich put in much.  Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans.  So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."

 

Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down."   Christ's prophecy of the destruction of the temple was fulfilled in AD 70, when the temple was destroyed in the Siege of Jerusalem.  Not one stone was left upon another, as there were rumors that there was gold between the stones.  Only one retaining wall remained, long known as the Wailing Wall, or today as the Western Wall.

 

 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him privately, "Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?"  And Jesus, answering them, began to say:  "Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and will deceive many.  But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.  These are the beginnings of sorrows.  But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.  You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.  And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak.  But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.  Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved."  Here Jesus begins His discourse on the end times (to be continued in Monday's lectionary reading).   My study Bible comments that Christ's account of the end times in Mark (Mark 13:1-23) occurs in what is known as chiastic (mean "cross") form.  That is, it is in a kind of reverse parallel order, where topics mentioned in the first half of this passage are then repeated and amplified in reverse order in the second half.  Today's reading begins with a warning to take heed about false christs, and we will see this repeated at the end of the passage.  The second warning here in today's passage is about wars (and Jesus will teach about tribulation in the second half of the passage we'll read on Monday).  The third warning here is regarding being delivered up to councils, whereas the third-to-last regards being delivered up (betrayed), but by family members, also in today's reading.  At the very center of this chiastic form is verse 10 of today's reading:  the prophecy that the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.  My study Bible calls this the heart of the apostolic ministry and mission of the Church (see Matthew 28:19-20). 

My study Bible comments that the Scriptures describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that there is no precise chronology laid out neatly.  But what is important is that we notice that our Lord's emphasis is rather on what we do during these times.  We can say "these times" as the Church has understood the end times to be continuing from the beginning of the apostolic period, until the time that Christ returns.  Therefore, the elements that we see noted by Jesus in this prophecy here are things that are with us, and have been with us from the beginning of what we know as the Christian era, and will continue to be with us until the time Christ returns in what we know as the Second Coming.   In my study Bible's words, then, Jesus' emphasis is not on us knowing when and how things will happen so much as it is a warning to us, plus an emphasis on how we conduct ourselves.  He asks us for watchfulness and the practice of virtue through these difficulties, and He prepares us for these times.  If we see persecutions in the world for our faith, He has warned us about them.  If we see and hear wars and rumors of wars, He has told us this.  Then and now, this is true -- certainly for the people He was addressing who would witness the horrific Siege of Jerusalem, but also for us today and clearly in recent history.  Yet, both of these things are true.  But Christ's first words (as well as His final warning which we'll read on Monday) are that we should take heed that no one deceives us.  This is a clear emphasis on our own need to be alert and aware to deceptions.  We are not meant to be like children in the sense that we are unaware of the dangers He's teaching us about, and the things to come.  We should, in fact, expect deception or those who will attempt to deceive us.  He teaches us about wars between nations, a characteristic of this time in which we have lived and continue to live.  He teaches us about earthquakes and famines and troubles as but the beginning of sorrows.  His prophecies do not make these things happen, and yet neither has He told us that we can necessarily fix or prevent them from happening, for until the time of His return there will be this struggle in the world not only affecting natural forces but also continuing in a spiritual sense.  He does not tell us which side to take, or which sort of political or other acts to take, but He does teach that these are but the beginning of sorrows.  The real tribulation for His followers comes from persecutions, and betrayals that may come even from those closest to us, with the most extreme forms of punishment meted out through even the closest and more cherished of relationships.   He even goes so far as to say that we will be hated by all for His name's sake.  The most important thing through all of these things, however, is our endurance, that we endure to the end.  That is our endurance in obedience and loyalty to His commands, to living our lives in the ways that He has taught us through the Gospels.  Most of us have not experienced the most extreme forms of the tribulation and wars He names, but nonetheless in living memory there are those for whom vicious genocide and horrific war remain clear memories in recent times, with threats of the same hanging over their heads.  Let us do what we can to uplift our brothers and sisters in the faith, to sustain those whom we cannot physically help through prayer, to strengthen our own faith so that we can help others both to take heed and to endure.  Let us be faithful to Him and strengthen faith through the ways He teaches us to live.  Let us take heed that we are not deceived into complacency or fantasies that we will not need to struggle in our own ways for Him and for the faith He gives us.

 

 

 

 

By your patience possess your souls

 

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

 

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

 

- Luke 21:5-19 

 

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

 

  Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  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.  This prophecy is quite literally true, that "not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  Of the beautiful and splendid temple, an architectural wonder as it existed, only one retaining wall remained, known for centuries as the Wailing Wall (as it was the site of pilgrims' prayers) or the Western Wall.

So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them."  In the places where we have Christ's prophecy of the "end times" reported to us, His greatest emphasis are on warnings against deception, particularly of following a false Christ (Matthew 24:4-5, 11, 23-27).  Here in Luke's Gospel, it is the first thing He tells the disciples, and so we understand the priority of this warning in this prominent place.  

"But when you hear of wars and rumors of commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven."  My study Bible comments that the wars refer first and foremost to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, but also include subsequent wars.  It notes that wars are not a sign of the imminent end, but rather the opposite, that these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately.  It's also noted that the Scriptures as a whole describe the end times in a variety of ways, so that no precise chronology can be determined (see Daniel 7 - 12; Mark 13; Matthew 24:3-31; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10, and also the Book of Revelation).  

"But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."  My study Bible comments on these initial sorrows here, which we know about from the history of the Church and especially the early period of its persecution described here by Jesus.  However, great tribulation is a part of Christ's prophecy, and this period includes the entire Christian era.  Moreover, it is not limited to the final years before Christ's return.  In the past century, we have known genocides which included millions of Christians.  Such persecution (and new threats of genocide) remain ongoing.  And yet, Jesus' emphasis here is not on the suffering, but on how we persist through the suffering:  "By your patience possess your souls."

Jesus' forewarning of suffering and end times continues to be prominent in the minds of many followers of Christ.  But it is particularly important that we understand these things are foretold, and that if we go through any form of persecution or tribulation, it should not deter us from faithfully seeking to know what Christ asks of us.  He says that betrayals and persecutions, being brought into courts and before magistrates and rulers, "will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony."  Moreover, there is a Helper who will be sent to be with us and help to guide us in that testimony:  "I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist."  Christ's followers are even told to "settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer."   It is the occasion for testimony that is important; it is the patience of the faithful that is important, even if we are betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake."  In our modern lives, where so much attention is taken up in social media, it may seem quite odd that such things are not of the kind of significance to Jesus as to make a difference to our faith, but rather may offer occasion for the practice of our faith, and for our patience as faithful.  We're often told about family values and of the emphasis on family in our Churches, but here, Jesus is saying these relationships are secondary to the communion of our faith, our participation in Christ's being and truth, even those of parents and brothers, relative and friends.  He puts this in such strong language as to say that "you will be hated by all for My name's sake."   In a world in which we see all forms of social media and other ways we are socially linked to one another used to "cancel" or to harass a person, Jesus takes it all on, even if we are hated by all for His name's sake.  We are told by my study Bible that we live in this continuing ongoing period of what is called the messianic age, in which we await the return of Christ, but continue to feel the effects of the spiritual struggle that frames and forms the background to our understanding of the world.  There are persecutions, violence, wars, betrayals -- and thanks to technology, these may continue to pose risks on a greater and more frightening level than ever.  I listened to a very interesting program on eschatology the other day, in which it was emphasized that this is a period in which Psalm 110 is fulfilled.  Lest we forget, in yesterday's reading (see above), Jesus quoted from the first verse of this Psalm, quizzing the scribes regarding both the divine and human nature of the Messiah.  The second verse reads as follows:  "The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!"  Even if we understand that wars, violence, tribulations, and upheavals and calamities of all kinds continue in our world, in Christ's completion of His mission, in His Passion, in His Ascension, He nonetheless has declared His rule over this world ("I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" - Luke 10:18), and we are those who, in the endurance and patience of living our faith, "work the works of God" and therefore participate in that spiritual battle, doing our part as His servants and laborers as we await the time of His return.  And this is the picture He gives us as He speaks of testimony even in the midst of tribulation, of the patience by which we possess our souls, even if those whom we love betray us, even if all hate us for His name's sake.  We should strive to understand His emphasis on endurance, persistence in our faith, and what that means.  For spiritual battle comes not as some contest against "flesh and blood," but by faith, "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).  We live in this age that Christ taught to His disciples, and we must emphatically play our part, through prayer and worship, through living His commandments, through deepening our faith and understanding, testimony if the proper time is given to us, and patience.