As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’[a] standing where it[b] does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.
20 “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
Question 1
Do you sometimes wonder how the world will end?
Question 2
Why do you think Jesus warned his disciples about this?
The next section of Mark’s book is a difficult one to understand, and we’re going to look at it in two parts. One of the disciples was obviously stunned by how lovely the temple building was. Jesus’ response is to say that the temple is going to be destroyed. A little later a small group of disciples ask him how this is going to happen, and how they will know when the end of time is coming. It is therefore important to notice that there are two questions here.
In the part we’re considering today, Jesus deals with the first part, which is when the temple will be destroyed. In the time between Jesus going to heaven and when He comes back to judge the world, he says a lot of things are going to happen. Many people will come saying that they are the Messiah; there will be many wars, earthquakes and famines; Christians will be persecuted; the Gospel will spread throughout the world; the Church will receive the Holy Spirit.
On top of all this, followers of Jesus will see ‘the abomination that causes desolation.’. This is an Old Testament reference to the period when Israel’s enemies put idols in the temple and sacrificed to them. Jesus says this is going to happen again – and indeed, the Romans did just that in the year 70 when they destroyed the temple. This was a time of great suffering, when many people had to flee Jerusalem.
Note that Jesus doesn’t mention specific dates, just the sort of thing to expect. We can see that these things have happened in the past, and that some of them are still happening, but we can’t say for sure when the end will come.
Question 3
How should thinking about these things affect our behaviour today?
Question 4
Why doesn’t the Christian have to worry when faced with all this?
Pray
that the Lord will keep you from being deceived and strengthen you in facing all kinds of suffering for his sake.
