#disciplemaking
#adventcalendarday21
#willyoujoinme

Hello to everyone joining me ‘unwrap’ the life and ministry of Jesus on our advent journey. Please go ahead and read chapter 21.

And what a chapter! The first two verses and the last two are easy enough but in between . . . I’m no expert on what is broadly known as ‘the end times’ (and I simply don’t have time or space to deal with it all properly here) but in this teaching there appear to be (roughly) five sections:

1. Jesus prophecy of the destruction of the temple (vv5-7) – to the disciples, this would have seemed improbable and horrific. It was a large and beautiful building, protected by the walls of the temple mount which were huge and imposing and seemingly impregnable. And, 1^st Century Jews, as devout Jews still do today, saw the temple as the ‘tabernacle’ of God, his dwelling place. For the temple to be destroyed would imply that god had been defeated in some way. And yet, no more than 40 years later (AD70) it had in fact been destroyed by the Romans as a reprisal for civil disobedience.
2. Warnings against deceivers and false teachers (vv7-9) – Jesus warns that others will come claiming to be him and that we should not be fooled. That we should not be frightened of various wars and that these will not in themselves signal the end. Of course we know that to our collective human grief, wars continue.
3. Events of the end time leading to the coming of the Son of Man (vv10-28) – Jesus warns that there will be persecution of his followers because of their faith in him, but that they should not worry because he will give them the words to say and wisdom to understand. Over the centuries, we know that this too has occurred. (note v18-19 – I can only interpret these verses as meaning ‘in terms of your eternal life in God’s Kingdom you will gain life, even if you lose your earthly life’.

None the less all these highly disturbing things will transpire, some literally, some metaphorically, by way of heralding the return of Jesus as King.

• The lesson of the fig tree (vv29-33) – Jesus compares the natural observation of the seasonal effect on trees to these events. His implication – ‘in the same way you know summer is coming, you will know when the end times are here and the Son of Man is returning in glory. It will be as plain as day’.
• Exhortation to watchfulness (vv34-36) – so we are to keep watch and pray that we will be able to escape the traumas of the end times.

I find myself pretty perplexed by all this apocalyptic teaching. We know some of the things have happened, some are still happening, and some are yet to happen. There’s so much more to Jesus than the birth of a baby, the ministry, mission, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. There’s us and our engagement with it all!

• How does this passage make you feel? What do you make of Jesus words that “heaven and earth will pass away”? (v33)
• To what extent do you feel we are living in the end times now? How then should we live?