The Bible Binge: The End is Near(er) - Mark 13

Missing the Signs

How many of you have ever ended up someplace quite a distance from where you thought you were going because you missed a sign? I’ve been burned twice driving from Dayton to Cleveland on my way to my grandmother’s house. There’s a point along I-71 as you head into the Cleveland area, if you miss the sign (especially if you’re not a resident), you end up in Akron. The first time, I caught myself… turned around at the first exit. Second time, I was about 10 miles in until I realized none of what I was looking at was familiar. I had missed the sign to stay on I-71 again.

Signs are important. Signs have all shapes, sizes, and colors, all of which tell you or warn you about what’s coming. Follow the signs and theoretically, nobody gets hurt, and you get to where you’re supposed to be going. You know what you’re not supposed to do with signs? Stare at them. Study them. In fact, that’s what goes into the colors and shapes. You know a red octagon means stop… and all you do is glance. You see a big green sign? You get the exit number and the road in about a second. Every once in a while you’ll see someone slow way down to read a street sign. And what happens. People get mad. People can get hurt. Signs are there to help, but they’re not the point of the drive. It’s your response to the sign that is important.

I can’t emphasize this point enough as we look at one of the most controversial passage in all of the biographies of Jesus. One of the problems with a passage like what we just read is that we live in a world where people just want to stop and study the signs. And that’s not the point here. That’s not what Jesus would want us to do with what he says. There are so many bad assumptions with this need and this addiction that Christians have to want to study signs. And what happens is a bunch of bad ways of thinking about what Jesus is saying here.

The End is Near

We’re back in Mark again this week as part of our Bible Binge specifically to talk about this passage because of what’s been scrolling across our social media and our computer screens for the past month. All sorts of people from all sorts of religious and political persuasions weighing in on what’s happening in the middle east between Israel and Palestinians. And the common denominator among a lot of the talk of Christians talking about the events in the middle east boil down to one idea: the end is near. And more often than not, claims are made about whatever we’re seeing over there is some sort of direct fulfillment of the Bible, and if you listen closely, somebody is bound and determined to talk about Mark 13. And as I see them tweet and post and hear their YouTube videos and podcasts, I have to wonder if they are reading the same Mark 13 I’m reading. People are being both hurt and scared by the manipulation of scripture to fit political and theological perspectives that don’t stand up to the Bible or even historically.

Make no mistake, the stuff we’ve seen from Israel and Palestine is evil. But people are using that evil to perpetuate a lot of bad ideas about what Jesus is saying here… and to instill anger and fear and hate in the listeners.

All that said.. what is Mark 13 saying? We’re not going to get into all the details because that’s not the point of our time together around Word and Sacrament. This is going to be a flyby highlighting the key verses to get a picture of what is being said. And we have to begin with the first couple of verses of Mark 13, because this not only sets the stage for what Jesus says, this provides important context to keep us from getting goofy with this passage. Here are the first four verses:

Mark 13:1–4 As he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look! What massive stones! What impressive buildings!” Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another—all will be thrown down.” While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives across from the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”

As he was going out of the temple. This is the scene. Jesus and his disciples, his best friends, have just spent a very long day in the temple. Jesus had all sorts of confrontations with the religious leaders in the temple. It must have been exhausting. It ends with Jesus making note of a poor woman who puts her entire bank account into the money box. It’s quite apparent that Jesus sees what others don’t. Don’t make the mistake of looking at the outside to see what’s on the inside.

But old habits die hard. The disciples aren’t paying attention. They’re leaving the temple, and they remark,

“Teacher, look! What massive stones! What impressive buildings!”

Jesus has just finished saying that this poor woman just gave all she had into the money box and in doing so put more money in than anyone else and they say, Oh hey, look, what massive stones. And Jesus shocks them again… this time, saying "Yeah, about that. None of these stones are going to be left standing.” You’re not impressed with the poor woman, but you’re impressed with the architecture.

They then proceed across the street (or two), and go find seats up the hill on the Mount of Olives. They are directly across from the temple area and from their perch, they can see the entire temple complex. And now Jesus has their attention. That temple was absolutely massive, by that day’s standards. It didn’t quite have the glory of the original temple, but it was still a significant building. Some of the stones that comprised the wall of that temple were 43 feet by 10 feet high. Just massive stonework done by Herod the Great. Jesus is saying it’s all coming down. And now these disciples have two questions:

When will these things happen?

What will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?

The rest of Mark 13 is answering those questions, and like Jesus is in the habit of doing, he gives them an answer without really giving them what they’re looking for. In fact, he doesn’t really answer the first question until the end of the chapter. We’ll come back to this. He spends a good amount of time on the sign issue, but even then, he is more interested in the response. But we need to stop and pay attention to the conversation on the hillside as they look at the temple.

The questions are about the temple. Most of Jesus’ answers are about THAT temple. It’s part of that conversation. That keeps us from falling for a lot of the goofy stuff you hear about this chapter. This is a normal conversation being had between normal friends. Jesus is correcting their thinking along they way, the biggest point of which is the same as the poor woman at the money box: stop getting caught up in what you can see. Don’t be enamored with power and glory and money.

We can condense all that Jesus says here into just a few points for us to consider:

The end has always been near. These have always been the last days.

Most of what the sign are about.. this temple. All happened in AD 70. The temple was destroyed. AD 70 is a big, big deal when it comes to this entire chapter. Because again, a lot of the goofiness would just stop if we allow the text to say what it is saying about that temple and recognize that Jesus is talking about what is coming in AD 70 and the destruction of the temple. But Jesus says when all this happens...

It is not yet the end (Mark 13:7)

The end is near. The end was near in AD 30. The end was near in AD 70. The end is near. The end is always near(er). I had to chuckle last week when I heard a pastor say, that the events in the middle east are a reminder that we’re living in the last days. And what he meant was, oh this really shows us. Well, no. The last days have always been here. Jesus’ death ushered in the last days. St. Paul and St. John believed they were living in the last days. The end has always been near. It’s just near(er) than it was yesterday.

The primary focus of the last days is the gospel

In the middle of all of this conversation, Jesus emphatically makes this point:

It is necessary for the gospel to be preached to the nations (Mark 13:10)

Given all the other stuff being talked about in the signs, this is a remarkable statement. It’s almost like Jesus stops the conversation to make this point. Martin Luther was once asked, “If Jesus death and resurrection, means it is finished, and he has accomplished everything he came to do, why not just end the world then?” Luther’s simple answer: because the Gospel is yet to be preached. The church has a mission to give the gospel to the whole world.

Jesus is returning

Along the way, Jesus shifts the conversation from the temple they are looking at, to the end of the world. Some of the guys he’s talking to will be on hand to witness all the stuff that goes down between AD 66 and AD 70 when Rome marched to Jersualem and shut down the Jewish rebellion once and for all. And it will feel like the end of the world for those going through it. It won’t be the end, but it will have that look and have that feel. And to those who are going through that and those who have since been through horrific circumstances, Jesus gives us a glimpse of himself. And he does this to sustain our hope:

Mark 13:26–27 “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. He will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”

This really is the centerpiece of the entire chapter. And again, I can’t emphasize this enough. You know what the worst thing is about all the charts and all the deep dives into the signs that people spend thousands of hours pouring over and spending millions in conferences and seminars and books and videos? They miss Jesus. Jesus never meant for any of that with his words here. The Son of Man. The One who was Promised in Daniel and Ezekiel as the awesome and all-powerful Son of Man he’s our hope and he’s our focus. Why? Because there is coming a day when all this sadness and sowrrow and hurt and war and fear will be over. And the gospel that is being preached to all nations is finally going to be realized as a reality as Jesus gathers all of his people from all over the world and from all over heaven.

Jesus is the point of history. Not what’s happening with the temple. Not what’s happening with Israel. Not what’s happening in anything else since. Jesus is the point. Jesus is the focus. Jesus is the big deal. And if that isn’t our focus, we’ve missed the point of Mark 13. It’s why no one knows the “when?”

Mark 13:32 “Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—but only the Father.”

I find this quite ironic. Jesus is saying the day and the hour are not the point. Don’t worry about the “when”. We have numerous examples throughout history with people claiming to know “when”. And Jesus says that’s a red flag when you here someone claiming to know when. Nobody knows when. Only the Father. It’s quite possible the earth and its people are here for another couple of thousands of years before Jesus returns. We don’t know.

Our response: Be Ready (in faith)

He spends quite a bit of time giving his disciples a variety of signs to look for. There’s this. And there’s this. And this will be a sign. But again, the signs are not the ends in and of themselves. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, there are all these things, but here’s what I want you to hear: Be ready. The response is more important than the signs. In fact, 12 times in this chapter he hammers it over and over and over again… all variations on this theme: Be ready. Here they are:

Watch out.

Don’t be alarmed.

Be on your guard.

Don’t worry.

Don’t believe the lie.

You must watch.

Learn.

Recognize.

Watch.

Be alert.

Be alert.

Be alert.

Jesus is a broken record. If we come away from Mark 13 more interested in the signs than the responses Jesus is looking for, we’ve missed the point. Don’t be fooled by all the spectacular things being said. Don’t become enamored with the claims being made. Be alert. Watch for my coming. Watch for me. Preach the gospel. Put your eyes and your hope and your trust in me. Do this in AD 30. Do this in AD 70. Do this in the 1500s. Do this in 2023. Be expecting Jesus. What Jesus is concerned about when he mentions all these signs is not to scare us or give us a road map to exactly know every detail of his coming or to get granular about knowing the signs, but to make us, his followers PREPARED and ready to RESPOND in the midst of some really difficult things.

The Bible has a fascinating way of understanding “watch” and “be alert”. These ideas are throughout the Old Testament. A familiar phrase we have in the Psalms is “wait” and “wait on the Lord”. Those phrases and this idea of “watch” can be summed up like this:

Watch: anticipating Jesus in faith

I can’t tell you how important that is. Jesus is not saying in Mark 13 to watch and be alert for all these signs. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that, and if you just listen to Jesus… he is saying.. when you see the signs.. watch and be ready. Don’t watch for the signs. Watch for me. Be ready for me. Have faith in me. Listen to me. Orient your lives around me. That’s what it means to watch in this passage. That’s what our lives are for. It’s what gives our lives meaning in the last days.

Things are terrible right now in the middle east. Some of you have difficult lives you are living right now. There is fear. There is angst. But that vision of the Son of Man riding in the clouds of glory. That is meant to calm your soul. That is meant to give you peace. The Son of Man Rides in the clouds of glory FOR YOU. That’s the hope. That’s the promise of Mark 13.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

Watch. Be ready. You know how you are watching and are ready for Jesus to return? When you find yourself at this Table again. This is where we watch. This is where we are ready. This anticipates Jesus in faith.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.