"Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone will be left on another, every one will be thrown down."
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, "When will these things happen and what will be the sign that they are to be fulfilled?"
Jesus said to them, "watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name claiming 'I am he', and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famine, these are the beginnings of birth pains.
Mark 13:1-8
Our story this week falls right on the heels of the widow's offering. In fact, the disciples had just left the temple with Jesus; they had just seen the widow offer two small coins, less than a penny, to the treasury. They had for a moment considered her small and simple act of love and the words of Jesus regarding this woman's offering: "Truly I tell you this poor woman has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had to live on." It was a jarring juxtaposition to the wealthy walking by dropping in large sums. Perhaps it made the disciples think back to Jesus' words on the first and the last, the foolish and the wise, the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God. But, if they had these thoughts they were fleeting at best. No sooner were they out of the temple and the disciples were remarking: "Look! What massive stones! What beautiful buildings!" After all, the kingdom of this world is so compelling with all its accomplishment and beauty.
Jesus uses this seemingly innocuous and yet remarkably ignorant comment: "Look! What massive stones! What beautiful buildings!" to speak to his disciples in what is the longest teaching of Christ in the book of Mark (we only have 8 verses of 37 in the chapter in our reading for today). This teaching is remarkable because it stands at the intersection marking the end of Jesus public ministry before the time of his passion. It is remarkable because it is an apocalyptic text like we find in Daniel and in Revelation - Jesus is pulling back the veil to reveal what has been, what is and what is to come.
"Do you see those great buildings," Jesus said to them, "not one stone will be left on another, every stone will be thrown down." Despite what Jesus disciples knew of him and the earlier discourse in the temple, this would have unsettled, even shocked his followers. This apocalypse with its' talk of wars, natural disaster and the destruction of the temple brings with it a warning of judgement on Israel, a judgement on sin. And yet, in the midst of this passing away the people can trust that the times are in God's hands - he will act to save them.
The disciples (well, James, John, Peter and Andrew) naturally want to know more: what will the signs be? When will it happen? Perhaps if they can just get the inside scoop on this development they could be in a better position to manage it, to lead through it. And what does Jesus say to them? He offers parting words to them about how to live in the midst of the upheaval, destruction and death: "Watch out that no one deceives you. Choose your leaders well. Be on guard! Do not be alarmed! This is not the end" This ending is a beginning in and of itself, just as the pain of labour ends in new life.
In the days following these words of Jesus to his disciples he would be betrayed, arrested, deserted, wrongly accused, sentenced, mocked, hung and dead. But in this ending God would have for us a beginning, he would make a way. He would defeat death and usher in his reign forever.
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.
Salvation has been accomplished, is being accomplished and will be accomplished in the fullness of time.
In this week of terror and destruction in the world we recognize so acutely our own human tendencies towards fear and suspicion; towards xenophobia. We confess that in the midst of all that is unsettling and fearful we are vulnerable to wrong thinking, poor decision making, to sinful attitudes and actions. Jesus words to us are especially poignant: do not be deceived, do not be alarmed. Hold steady, endure.
This week my thoughts were drawn to Dr. King and the civil rights movement and their response to the evil and terror that pervaded in their time. I recently watched the movie 'Selma' which focuses on the marches from Selma to Montgomery that took place in an effort to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Despite the passing of the Civil Rights Act, one year earlier, black voters were still being turned away, unable to register, in the American South. The first march in Selma turned violent as young segregationists attacked the peaceful march and in the ensuing chaos a young man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was killed. Dr. King appealed to the moral courage of all religious leaders to walk alongside the protesters in Selma for justice. On March 9, 1965, religious leaders of all faiths responded to the call and came to Selma to walk with their brothers and sisters for freedom. As the marchers crossed over the Edmund Pettis bridge, the state troopers in sight, Dr. King knelt down to pray, he then stood up and turned the march around. That night, James Reeb, a peaceful protester and a priest from Boston, was beaten to death by young segregationists.
Moral courage. Endurance. The strength to love. These words have been running through my mind this week. How will we respond to the violence and hatred in the world? How do we walk with moral courage, endurance and strength to love and teach our children to do likewise? Christ provides a way for us. He shows us the way of forgiveness and love in the world through the cross. This is the good news and the hard news. It is the good news because we know the darkness of our own souls, we have sensed at times what we are capable of and we too can be forgiven, "we can live in freedom because the strong love of Christ has reached across all borders and all boundaries."(Andrew Murray Purra) And it is the hard news because if we are to take Jesus seriously, we are to see that we aren't that different than 'those people' and we are to follow Christ and meet him there in the face of the other because "God has assigned infinite value to all elements of society "(Fleming Rutledge).This is our participation in the exodus of Christ initiated through Jesus' death on the cross. And this exodus is for all people and it is not limited to freedom from physical slavery but it "breaks the chains of slavery from all forms of sin and evil that bind the human spirit; it brings the promise of unending life and love and liberty as well as an unfettered relationship with God." (Andrew Murray Pura)
This Sunday is Reign of Christ Sunday and we sit with the jarring image of our crucified King identifying himself with all that is wrong and sad and shameful and broken in the world and yet has been redeemed through his death and made new. And so the cross which stood as a notorious symbol of death has been subverted - the cross has become the way of life! May it ever be before us.
