Mark 13:1-23. Jesus had just spent an intense time at the temple being challenged by and challenging the religious leaders.  He had also taken the time to teach his students (disciples) about being true servants of God; loving God involves helping others and it involves sacrifice.  On his way out of the temple one of his followers was admiring the building they had been in.

The Temple, the permanent place of sacrifice and worship of God, had originally been built by King David’s son Solomon.  It had been destroyed by the Babylonians during their siege of Jerusalem around 586 BC.  After 70 years of captivity the Jewish people were sent back to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon.  The new king of Babylon, Cyrus, ordered that the Temple be rebuilt.  Some of the people who returned remembered the old Temple and cried because the new one was so plain by comparison.  In history Alexander the Great took control of that part of the world.  After his deat his kingdom was divided among four of his generals.  The part containing Israel was controlled by the Sellucid family.  Antiochus Epiphanies, one of the Selucid kings entered the temple and slaughtered a pig on it’s altar.  This desecration fostered a rebellion among the Israelites led by the Maccabean family.  After gaining control of some of the region Judas Maccabeus rededicated the Temple in 164 BC (the same guy from the Hanukkah or Feast of Dedication or Feast of Lights story).  Ultimately the Roman cgovernment took control of much of the old Greek empire.  In the area containing Israel they put the Herod family in charge, ultimately declaring One of the Herods king of the region (Herod the Great).  This Herod took control of the area containing Jerusalem around 38 BC.  In about 20 BC he decided that the Temple needed to be improved and set about to remodel it and make it more impressive.  Herod probably recognized that the Temple was central to the lives of the Jewish people and decided to remodel and beautify it not only as an ego trip but also to improve his control over the Jewish people.  The work on the Temple continued much past his life and was not completed until around 64 AD. In the midst of this reconstruction Jesus’ follower made his statement.

Jesus statement about the destruction of the Temple must have been quite shocking.  The Jews could not conceive of a kingdom without the Temple.  If Jesus were the coming one, the promised king, certainly he would need it for his kingdom.  While the Temple does appear in prophecies about the kingdom the mistake that the people were making was in missing the fact that the most important part of the kingdom would be it’s people.  Jesus will eventually come back as the victorious king (That’s what the Book of Revelation is largely about) but he was on earth the first time to be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29, See also Isaiah 52-53 and especially 53:6).  You might also remember the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:4-38).  In that story the woman asks Jesus about honoring God in Jerusalem, her people thought that they could honor God there in Samaria.  Jesus told her that he was the beginning of the real way to honoring God, with our total lives and not with some rituals (John 4:21-24).  Although the Temple will exist during 1000 years when Jesus reigns on earth as king of the world, the Temple which Herod was remodeling was not necessary for Jesus to start the real kingdom building which involved people (See 1 Peter 2:4-5).  And ultimately, in eternity, there will be no Temple (Revelation 21:22).  The original Tabernacle (the sort of portable Temple or church building) that the Jews used until the time of Solomon was a representation of a vision Moses had about Heaven.  In a certain respect the Tabernacle and the various temples were reminders about God and will eventually be replace when we start spending eternity with God (See Hebrews 8:1-5 which describe the Jewish rituals as patterns of shadows of the reality of our real relationship with God).

So the disciples are astonished by Jesus statement and want to know when it will happen.  Jesus answer goes way beyond the question that they asked and we need to be careful not read his answer backwards into the question.  Just like the guy a few days ago asked about the greatest commandment and Jesus answered with two commandments, here I think that the disciples were asking about the crazy idea that the Temple would be destroyed.  His followers had a hard time not seeing him as a political savior and they probably though that the destruction of the Temple wouldn’t fit with Jesus becoming king.  Jesus answer took their immediate concern and gave them the real answer, that the building of the kingdom would be an extended process during which the world would see a lot of trouble.

As I said before the real kingdom involves people first and Jesus’ followers were going to be the ones who started bringing people into that kingdom (spiritually, since the actual physical kingdom doesn’t come until later).  Paul tells us that followers of Jesus are like ambassadors (representatives of a king or kingdom).  He also tells us that our job as ambassadors is helping the people of the world see how they can have a new relationship with God through Jesus (See 2 Corinthians 5:16-20).  The world wasn’t going to appreciate Jesus’ representative (starting with those original followers but even us today) and Jesus warned them (and us) that they would experience trouble.  It is interesting in response to their question that Jesus describes the whole picture leading to the establishment of the kingdom in the future.  That big picture involved not only an extended period of time and a life of trouble for his followers but trouble for the world in general.  In my mind this is an interesting detail since the kingdom of God is described in the Bible as a period of peace (see for example Isaiah 11:6; 65:25).  In Mark 13:7, 11, 13 Jesus encourages them to not be afraid when the trouble comes on them.  Why?  Because there eternity is secure, but the world needs to hear the good news so their eternity can be secure too.  We can have peace in the midst of trouble but the world live in trouble and the only lasting solution will be Jesus.

In Mark 13:14 Jesus quotes from Daniel regarding the whole coming of the Messiah.  The background for this involves Daniel 8-9, 12 at least).  In a nut shell the book of Daniel gives some of the most specific and amazing prophecies regarding the future history of Israel and her king, the Messiah.  Daniel 9 contains a very specific prophecy concerning both the coming of Jesus and his death.  The timing of the coming of the Messiah into Israel was linked to an event that would not happen for several decades after Daniel’s life, the decree by Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.  That clock started running in 444 BC and the 483 years later the Messiah was “cut off” according the prophecy.  This corresponds with the crucifixion of Jesus.  According to Daniel’s prophecy there is still a seven year period dedicated to the Jewish people fulfilling their destiny as God’s representatives to the world.  This final seven year period is described in the book of Revelation and involves a treaty between a coming world ruler and the people of Israel and also another desecration of the temple similar to what Antiochus Epiphanies did.  By quoting from Daniel, Jesus brings all of this information into the conversation including the idea of the Messiah being “cut off”, the gap in the timetable (Daniel’s prophecy contains and intermission of sorts between the “cutting off” of the Messiah and the final seven year period), the assurance of a final kingdom, and the assurance that the Jewish people will fulfill their destiny and that God will fulfill his promises to them.

So Jesus answer about the Temple being destroyed informed his followers of the long road ahead for them and the people they would lead to Jesus as well as the assurance that in the end all their expectations would be met and more.  Today’s reading ends with a warning to be careful who they listen to.  Jesus is the real fulfillment but others will come who will try to lead them in another way.

I think it is cool how Jesus took advantage of a statement by one of his followers about the Temple and was able to see behind it all of the hopes and dreams of the Jewish people.  Even better was his ability to show that those hopes and dreams would be fulfilled beyond their wildest imaginations.  There would be a kingdom but it was going to extend beyond their own little world to all the nations (v. 10).  I think this would have been important to Mark’s readers in Rome because they were part of those “nations” that Jesus was trying to include.  Also it would be reassuring because, now that they were believers,  they could see that they too would experience trouble but that there would be an end to it all in which they were on the winning side; with God in eternity.  I appreciate it that Jesus was real with his followers not pretending that being one of his disciple would mean a life of ease and immediate fulfillment of their dreams.  I also like it that Jesus keeps reminding his followers that he is about saving people from every nation.  I need to remember to see the world through his eyes, I need to see a lost world that God loved enough to become a man and die for.  I also am glad that I do not need to serve Jesus and experience trouble with out help.  I am glad that the Holy Spirit is given to us as a helper.

God help me love people as much as you do.  Help me love your plan and not always be looking for what I want.  Thank you for the warning and the help.  Help me endure any trouble that comes my way because I am following you.  Help me listen to you Spirit in my life and faithfully share what he asks me to say.  Thank you for making your plan known way in advance so I can be sure that you are the real deal.  Help me listen.