The Return of Jesus

Mark 13:24-27, NLT -  “At that time, after the anguish of those days,

the sun will be darkened,

    the moon will give no light,

the stars will fall from the sky,

    and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory.  And he will send out his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

 

                I remember as a child in Sunday School learning about the details in the reading above.  Someday, Jesus will appear in the sky and everyone will see Him.  His army of angels will gather all us Christians from everywhere an take us to heaven to be with Him forever.  I also remember constantly being reminded that this could happen any day.  Even now, decades later, I think about those images anytime I take time to notice the clouds and sky.  I find myself rehearsing what I was taught all those years ago; “it could happen any day.”  I also think about the fact that Jesus’s followers have been doing the same thing I’ve been doing for two thousand years now.  Someday, we will all be together with Jesus. 

                Jesus used imagery from the prophets Isaiah and Daniel to paint this picture of His return.  In Revelation, we have another version of how the return of Jesus will happen that uses quite different imagery.  Other visions of the return of Jesus have been offered throughout the New Testament as well. Even more writings were offered that never made it into the Bible. Though the details across all of these accounts vary greatly, they all end with the same result.  Jesus and all His people will be gathered together.

                Even as a child, I wondered how everyone all over the world could see Jesus in the clouds at the same time.  But to think that way misses the point.  The point is that we all get to be together with Jesus someday.  This is where history is headed no matter what it might seem like in our uncertain times.  Though I still think about Jesus every time I look toward the clouds, I don’t care if the result comes about in exactly that way.  I just work at reminding myself about the end of the story.  I work at trusting that the God who will bring it all about is moving it toward that glorious ending. 

 

Question:  What is the picture that you hold in your head and heart regarding the return of Jesus?

 

Prayer:  Lord, come quickly.  Help us to trust you in the meantime and be ready when You come to gather us.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the people of Turkey in the wake of the disastrous earthquake a few days ago.

 

Song: The Great Day – Michael W. Smith

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo_BPNEGBgU&t

“Abomination That Causes Desolation”

Mark 13:14-23, NIV - “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out.  Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak.  How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!  Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

“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.  At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.  For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

 

                We continue our uncomfortable journey through “The Little Apocalypse” that is Mark 13 with some graphic descriptions of the things Jesus says are coming in the near future.  Remembering that Mark is written in the time when those terrible things have happened, we can understand how these words would offer comfort to those experiencing unprecedented suffering.  To describe these coming events in a way that His hearers would understand, Jesus recalls a prophecy from the Old Testament Book of Daniel.  The term “abomination that causes desolation” is a direct quote from Daniel that most scholars believe refers to the practice of the Greek King Antiochus IV began of offering pagan sacrifices in the Hebrew Temple.  To bring this event in history to mind would serve to describe another heinous violation of the Temple of God that is to come, namely the Temple’s utter destruction in AD 70. 

                At the time that happened, Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem and laid siege to the city for many months.  It was a time when things got so bad people had begun to resort to rampant crime and even cannibalism.  Eventually, the entire city was burned to the ground including the Temple.  The early historian Josephus reported that a million people died during that siege, although more modern historians question that figure.  In any case, it was a time of “distress unequaled from the beginning” that was seared into the psyches of Mark’s first readers in the same way the 20^th century Jewish Holocaust would be in the minds of those who lived through it.  Jesus said it would have been even worse if God had not directly intervened to “cut short those days.”  A confirmation of this truth is that Jesus had taken care to warn them before it happened so that they would be more prepared when the time came. 

                The message here to Mark’s early readers is that God has not abandoned them.  Though the time is unequivocally evil, God will preserve God’s people.  There is life on the other side of this terrible time.  Over the couple of centuries since Mark’s gospel was written, Christians have gained similar reassurance from Mark 13 in times of great suffering.  The same comfort can be gleaned from Jesus’s followers in the present and the future. To say it another way, I’ll borrow a similar reassurance from Jesus recorded in the book of John:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

                We currently live in a time when the Church has been decimated by a combination of a global pandemic, in-fighting about hot-button cultural issues, seismic shifts in technology/politics/culture and many other systemic causes.  Churches are closing at an unprecedented rate in America and people are understandably concerned for the future.  Though times are not as dire as first-century Jerusalem, the same hope offered by Jesus then is available now.  God is not “surprised” by these events.  God has tried to warn us and prepare us.  God will be with us through all of it no matter how bad it gets.  We will never be abandoned by our God.  More on that next time.

 

Question:  What would you imagine it would be like to live in a time of great distress like that of the first-century inhabitants of Jerusalem?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, these warnings are hard and even scary at times to read, much less full understand.  Help us gain a sense of your reassuring presence in the midst of our life’s darkest times.  Help us cling to the truth that when everything else in our life fails, You are still God. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia.

 

Song:  Jesus, I Have My Doubts – John Foreman

This is a playlist of two videos; if you click on it, it will play both in succession.  The first is a helpful introduction that explains the thoughts behind the lyrics. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGir8S9zAgY&list=PLWJPPes3ocEMVOYSX3XOcxFTj82YRWfBa

Not Winning Any Popularity Contests

Mark 13:9-13, CEB - “Watch out for yourselves. People will hand you over to the councils. You will be beaten in the synagogues. You will stand before governors and kings because of me so that you can testify before them.  First, the good news must be proclaimed to all the nations.  When they haul you in and hand you over, don’t worry ahead of time about what to answer or say. Instead, say whatever is given to you at that moment, for you aren’t doing the speaking but the Holy Spirit is.  Brothers and sisters will hand each other over to death. A father will turn in his children. Children will rise up against their parents and have them executed.  Everyone will hate you because of my name. But whoever stands firm until the end will be saved.

 

                Throughout the Old Testament of the Bible, people who live according to the way God leads consistently run into resistance and often open hostility from others, even others who claim to be people of faith as well.  Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.  The people Moses led constantly grumbled against him.  Saul tried to kill David multiple times.  Job’s own wife told him to “curse God and die.”  And the prophets . . . not a one of them escaped open resistance.  Some have even tried to create an axiom that asserts that you’re not doing the right thing if you’re not encountering resistance.  I’m not sure this statement holds true all the time, but I am quite convinced that if you consistent follow God’s leading, you WILL, at some point, encounter people who at least question your direction.   

                So Jesus’s words above should not be surprising at all to people familiar with the history from which Jesus springs.  What is surprising is that Jesus get specific.  Family members will turn on each other, even parents against their own children.  Believers will be brought before councils and even rulers to give an account of themselves.  What is even more surprising is that Jesus instructs his followers to welcome such trials as an opportunity.  When else, after all, would a normal citizen get to witness to their faith before a king?  The resistance encountered presents previously forbidden chances to move the mission forward.  Mark does not include Matthew’s great commission, but it is here in this passage; “First, the good news must be proclaimed to all the nations.”  Resistance and hostility actually serve that mission.

                Jesus also includes two important encouragements in these instructions.  First, when those unforeseen opportunities present themselves to give an account of your faith, the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say.  So instead of crumbling under pressure, we trust and expect that our words and actions in such circumstances will come to us via God’s direct leadership.  Second, Jesus assures us that no matter what may happen to us as a result of living out our faith, we “will be saved.”  We should note that almost all of Jesus’s 12 primary disciples who are hearing these instructions will martyred for their faith.  So Jesus’s promise of being saved must mean a rescue from beyond death.  There is a vindication from God that transcends even those who die for their faith.  Mark’s first readers needed to hear this because many were dying for their faith.  There are still many hundreds of Christians martyred each year in our own time who, along with their families, need Jesus’s assurance offered here.

                For most of us who do not risk our lives expressing our faith, these words of Jesus as till crucial for us to hear and digest.  We need to hear that doing the thing God wants us to do will often not popular.  Though we may not face violence, we will most likely face ridicule and or sacrifice our popularity at some point.  Many times, when we face such situations, our tendency is to get quiet, perhaps even mute.  It’s not pleasant to know people in our faces are not with us, so we feel pressure to simply go with the flow, or at least, not continue to move against it.  Jesus reminds us that these situations can be an opportunity to allow out true faith to be seen and possibly heard when it might not have been otherwise.  If we will embrace those opportunities and rely on the Spirit, we will be led in what to do and say.  And regardless of what happens as a result, final vindication will eventually be ours. 

 

Questions:  Can you think of times when you felt pressure to hide or minimize your identity as a follower of Jesus because you sensed resistance or hostility?  What did you do?  What will you do next time?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, sometimes, being a bearer of Your name seems to put us at odds with those around us.  Help us navigate the balance between being at odds with others and being at odds with You. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those Christians around the world who face fierce persecution for their faith in Christ.

 

I Am Not Ashamed – Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AStr4gfQGTM

The Trouble w/ Trouble

 

Mark 13:5-8, CEB - Jesus said, “Watch out that no one deceives you.  Many people will come in my name, saying, ‘I’m the one!’ They will deceive many people.  When you hear of wars and reports of wars, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen, but this isn’t the end yet.  Nations and kingdoms will fight against each other, and there will be earthquakes and famines in all sorts of places. These things are just the beginning of the sufferings associated with the end.

 

                As we make our way through Mark’s “Little Apocalypse” (Mark 13), we hear Jesus, speaking a couple of days before His crucifixion, trying to prepare His disciples for the things that are to come.  By the time Mark writes his gospel and people begin to read it, many of the events Jesus warned them about have already happened.  More than a couple of “self-proclaimed saviors” after Jesus have come and gone, creating disillusionment in their wake.  Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, fires, and other natural disasters have occurred.  Revolts have been mounted against the Roman Empire and crushed.  The Temple has been destroyed with “not even one stone . . . left upon another.” Jesus warns there will be even more calamity. 

                Two centuries later, the calamities just keep coming.  Depending on how you count, there have been at least 250 wars since Jesus’s crucifixion with countless more “rumors of war.”  Hundreds of would-be saviors have taken leadership with boundless hope with varying degrees of success, but none have been “the one.”  The natural disasters seem to overlap each other in our day.  The word of Jesus still remains.  More suffering will come before the end.  The first piece of instruction Jesus gives for such times is to keep watch. 

                Jesus elaborates on what He means by this later in Mark 13, but for now we know it involves at least two things.  First, don’t be deceived by those who claim to have all the answers or solutions to the challenges we face.  We already a Savior and His name is Jesus.  The more we invest in our relationship with Jesus, the more likely we are to recognize Him in the Second Coming.  Many missed the opportunity to embrace and submit to Jesus’s lordship while he walked the earth.  Many more will miss His re-emergence because they do not know who for whom they are looking. 

                Second, suffering will never have the last word.  If you see or are experiencing suffering, know that redemption and deliverance will come.   Keep watching for it. Keep expecting it.  This is counterintuitive because, when we suffer, we tend to focus on the fact that we are suffering.  But suffering is but the preamble to deliverance and redemption.  The worst thing is never the last thing because the last thing is redemption.  Watching for that is our job in the midst of calamity. 

                This is not a new instruction.  Psalm 121 is the ancient recitation of this focus on redemption when redemption seems far away.  We will end today’s reflection with Eugene Peterson’s translation of this Hebrew wisdom:

I look up to the mountains;

    does my strength come from mountains?

No, my strength comes from God,

    who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

He won’t let you stumble,

    your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.

Not on your life! Israel’s

    Guardian will never doze or sleep.

God’s your Guardian,

    right at your side to protect you—

Shielding you from sunstroke,

    sheltering you from moonstroke.

God guards you from every evil,

    he guards your very life.

He guards you when you leave and when you return,

    he guards you now, he guards you always.

 

Question:  What are your typical thought patterns when going through a tough time?

 

Prayer:  Pray through the Psalm above, inserting your own thoughts and cries to God as the scripture prompts you.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are waiting for news or developments about a big issue (health, job, family member, etc).

 

Song:  Psalm 121 – Kristyn Getty, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeFa6iSP_XQ&t

What’s With the End of the World?

 

Mark 13:1-4, CEB - As Jesus left the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look! What awesome stones and buildings!”

Jesus responded, “Do you see these enormous buildings? Not even one stone will be left upon another. All will be demolished.”

Jesus 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? What sign will show that all these things are about to come to an end?”

 

Mark 13, along with it’s parallels in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, has been called “The Little Apocalypse.”  This is because it speaks of the end of the world.  Traditionally, people tend to respond to this chapter in one of two extreme ways.  Some, who note that the end of the world has not come in over two thousand years since these words were spoken, simply choose to ignore it.  Others try to “match up” the events mentioned by Jesus with events in their current time as a way to be certain that the end is near and Jesus will return any minute.  Neither of these approaches to this chapter are very helpful.  Over the next few reflections, we will pursue a different path.  By paying attention to some of the details, we can both take the message seriously in every set of circumstances and also keep it all in healthy perspective with the rest of the gospel. 

                Although vs. 1-4 are the text for today, my encouragement is to read the whole chapter today at least once.  Make some notes to yourself about what questions this “Little Apocalypse” poses for you.  Ask God to use this chapter to speak into your life and our world circumstances right now.  In the coming reflections, we will hopefully address some of those questions specifically.

 

Questions:  What are your opinions regarding the “end of the world?” How does this Mark 13 speak to those opinions?

 

Prayer:  Lord, it seems that every generation believes that the world is ending soon.  Help us find a healthy and Holy Spirit-inspired perspective on what is happening around us and the larger world.  Help us to see ourselves and the world as you do.  Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray your way through Mark 13.  As you read it again, Let the verses guide your words and questions to God. 

 

Song: End of the World – R.E.M.

(I Couldn’t Resist!)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsxavPANO8s

A Stark Contrast

Mark 12:35-44, CEB - While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, “Why do the legal experts say that the Christ is David’s son?  David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said, The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right side until I turn your enemies into your footstool.’ David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ so how can he be David’s son?” The large crowd listened to him with delight.

 

As he was teaching, he said, “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They want to be greeted with honor in the markets. They long for places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.”

Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money.  One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny.  Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury.  All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.”

 

Jesus’s final teaching in the Temple targets the legal experts and leaders with which he has been sparring.  He does so by first pointing out a discontinuity in the legal experts position concerning the Messiah.  Two centuries later, the point is a bit confusing to us where it probably was not to Jesus’s audience that day.  The experts position was that the Messiah would be a descendant of David.  Jesus seems to cast aspersion of this notion by quoting David himself in Psalm 110 where David refers to the Messiah as my Lord.  Jesus asks the rhetorical question, “David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ so how can he be David’s son?” The confusion for us is that Matthew and Luke Gospel take great pains to point out that Jesus, the Messiah, is indeed a descendent of David.  Furthermore, this contention is crucial because it fulfills multiple prophecies.  It seems that Jesus, in this story recalled in Mark, contradicts this notion. 

I’m not convinced that Jesus is actually contradicting this.  I think (and I do stress that this is only my opinion) that what Jesus was trying to point out is that you can use scripture to support or refute any notion you want.  I believe the language used elsewhere in Mark supports the notion that Jesus does see Himself as both as David’s son and David’s Lord/Messiah.  He is taking something his students believe as true and proof-texting scripture to improperly “contradict” it as an example of something foolish anyone can do.  I see support for this opinion in the fact that, from this illustration, Jesus launches His attack on the religious leaders for their hypocrisy when it comes to the scriptures.

Specifically, he mentions the fact that they have used their influence and authority to take advantage of widows who trusted them to steward property on the widows’ behalf.  Jesus is calling out the fact that they have used a scriptural responsibility to take care of widows as the very basis for exploiting those widows for their own gain.  They do so all the while parading around in their expensive robes and elite “sacred” jewelry.  This criticism reaches a climax with Jesus noticing a widow putting all she has into the Temple treasury.  The irony of her giving all she has in support of and trust in the institution that is exploiting people like her is almost too much to take.  Jesus identifies the religious leaders as the principle perpetrators of this gross injustice. 

Lest we too quickly distance ourselves from the abuses and hypocrisy of the leaders Jesus is condemning, it behooves us to remember that almost every long-established religious institution has fallen into such abuses including the Christian church itself.  The reason this teaching is in the gospel of Mark is that Mark’s audience, the early Christian church, needed to hear it.  The twenty-first century church needs to hear it as well.

Scripture is not to be manipulated to suit the ends of those trusted to represent it.  It is neither to justify our own opinions or behavior.  Twisting the words of scripture to serve self-centered outcomes is gross injustice and worthy of the strongest condemnation.  The aim is to have the heart of the generous widow, who exceeded to “prescribed-by-law” amount to be contributed to God.   She follows scriptural teaching and then exceeds it. 

The last point to be made here is that the widow’s sacrifice of all directly foreshadows the sacrifice of all that Jesus will make just days from this event.  He will give his very life for greater good of humanity.  Every story in Mark from this point on will highlight this sacrifice as the basis for Jesus’s Messiahship. 

 

Question:  Have you ever seen scripture “used” to support something you knew was wrong?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, illumine your teachings for us in a way that keeps us from using them for self-serving reasons.  May we see spiritual abuses where they are present and call it out whenever we have the opportunity to do so.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for Bishop Tom Berlin, our new United Methodist Bishop in Florida as of January 1.

 

Song:  Have Thine Own Way – Adelaide Pollard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CYI1zgiWzc

Prime Directives

 

Mark 12:28-34, CEB - One of the legal experts heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord,  and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself.  No other commandment is greater than these.”

The legal expert said to him, “Well said, Teacher. You have truthfully said that God is one and there is no other besides him.  And to love God with all of the heart, a full understanding, and all of one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is much more important than all kinds of entirely burned offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered with wisdom, he said to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.” After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

 

This is the last question posed to Jesus by the religious leaders and experts in the temple and Mark uses it to highlight Jesus’s most important teaching.  More accurately, it is a summary of all His teaching.  Another noteworthy aspect of this exchange is that it is a positive conversation between Jesus and the legal expert, which is rare in all the gospels.  In Mark it is the only positive exchange. 

To the question of what is the most important of all the commandments, Jesus combines quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus to arrive at what I have often summarized as “love God and love people.”  However, when we’re looking at the specific text, it’s important to note some unique details to Mark.  First, Jesus begins His answer by quoting the Shema (“Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord”).  Jews since the second century BC have quoted this confession of faith twice daily.  It grounds Jesus answer in the everyday life of a person of faith and links what will be the Christian faith to the Hebrew faith of old.  It also affirms that both the Hebrew faith and the Christian faith are monotheistic.  There are times when the Christian faith is accused of being polytheistic (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).  Jesus’s quote of the Shema refutes that accusation. 

Another important detail concerning Jesus’s quote of the Torah is that Jesus adds “mind” to the list in Deuteronomy of things with which we are to love God.  It brings to mind the 20^th century Paul Tillich’s definition of theology (loving God with the mind”).  The faith that Jesus invites us to is not one that requires us to leave our brain at the door.  This idea is strengthened by the fact that this theological discussion that Jesus is having with the legal expert ends with Jesus proclaiming, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.” 

The core of the Judaic (and Christian) faith, according to Jesus is three loves – love of God, love of people, and love of self.  Love of self is assumed in Jesus’s statement, but it is still important.  Where love of self is lacking, love of others becomes strained, if not impossible.  Both love of self and others though, comes after love of God, which is our prime directive.   

Love God and love people is simple, but far from simplistic or easy.  We can do a thousand beneficial things without love and miss the point.  This is the “not far” of Jesus’s final statement to his questioner.  It’s not enough to know the centrality of love in following Jesus.  Love is a verb.  As such, one cannot possess the love Jesus speaks of, only practice it.  We love God and people by the many things we do and refrain from doing each day.  As soon as we stop actively practicing love, we have strayed from the Kingdom. 

 

Question:  Thinking about your actions over the last few days, how have you actively loved God, self, and others?

 

Prayer:    Lord, because You love us, we can love ourselves, return our love to you,  and extend that love to others.  Give us eyes to see the specific opportunities we have to actively love today. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:   Pray for people experiencing chronic pain today.

 

Song:  Luv is a Verb – DC Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfFuhrdGKM