A PRAYER TO START
What seems new in our life of faith is often actually a very old reality expressed freshly in our context. Jesus says that he has come not to disregard what came before but to fulfill it, to draw out to us what is both old and new in the treasure of living in God’s kingdom together. With that in mind, let us pray with John Ballie this prayer…
O Father, your eternal presence is hidden behind the veil of nature and history, and enlightens the mind of all people, and was made flesh in Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank you that he has left me an example to follow in his steps.
Jesus said, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
O Father, move my heart to follow in this way.
Jesus said, Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
O Father, move my heart to follow in this way.
Jesus said, Do good…and lend…expecting nothing in return.
O Father, move my heart to follow in this way.
Jesus said, Love your enemies.
O Father, move my heart to follow in this way.
Jesus said, Do not fear. Only believe…
O Father, move my heart to follow in this way.
Jesus said, Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
O Father, move my heart to follow in this way.
Jesus said, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be open for you.
O Father, move my heart to follow in this way.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.
GETTING THOUGHTFUL
Often we read the words of Jesus and ask, “What does this have to do for me, or us today?” It is a natural question, but one that if we ask first can cause us to either miss or misunderstand the heart of any given passage; most especially those passages like Matthew 23:29-24:34. Here, we must remember the context or else be in danger of much confusion.
Jesus has declared that “all the righteous bloodshed of the earth, form the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah” (23:35) will “come upon this generation” (23:36) of people, and especially the leaders of Israel. Jesus is saying that all of the rejection of God and his way which the Father has patiently endured, sending “prophets and wise men and scribes”(23:34) to call his people back to repentance, is now finally run its course. This will be the generation in which their rejection of the One God has sent will end in them being rejected. Jerusalem, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” (23:37) is now going to be made desolate: abandoned as the place where God and the humanity come together (23:38).
The disciples are a bit confused. Certainly they recognized the need to cut off of the “foolish” and “worthless shepherds” (Zechariah 10:15, 17) as judgment, but does not the coming judgment lead to the restoration of Israel, their king coming mounted on a donkey and colt (Zechariah 9:9-10; Matthew 21:1-11), ready to rule and reestablish the temple as the dwelling place of God for all the nations? Surely Jesus’ victory will bring peace, harmony and the end of destruction; for Israel and all the world. This is why they “point out to Jesus the buildings of the temple” (24:1). It is not as if they are showing Jesus a temple he has not seen hundreds of times before, pointing out interesting features yet to be appreciated. No! They point to the temple in confusion. Would it not be through the cleansing of the temple (21:12-17) and replacing of the unworthy shepherds (23:1-36) that the world would be saved? A little religious cleaning up and clarifying vision crafted, then all things would be good; right?
Jesus once again asks them a discerning question, “You see all these, do you not?” “all these” are not simply the buildings they are pointing out, but the works of Jesus these last three years. Do they still not understand what he is doing? Apparently not fully, so he says it bluntly; “Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another what will not be thrown down.” Not only the heart but also the edifice of religion, of how they relate to God and one another, as the disciples have known it will be deconstructed. The self-serving religion of the religious leaders, as well as the religion of spiritual exchange bought into and honored by the people (like that of rich young ruler, Matthew 19:16-28), is being put to death so that something new might be raised up in Christ.
Only when the book of history is at its final chapter would such a deconstruction of relating to God take place. At least that is what the disciples thought. They read the prophets’ out cry at the rejection to the invitation “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), as an ever ongoing appeal. After all, had not God throughout Israel’s history allowed for rejection and re-acceptance? Is Jesus saying that now is the last days of humanity, where there is no more opportunity to repeat the cycle? This perspective is what lies behind their questions of “when” and “what will be the sign…of the close of the age?” (Matthew 24:3).
What follows in 24:4-34 is Jesus’ exhortation that while he is indeed “the Branch” who “will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day” and who will “build the temple of the LORD…bear the royal honor…and shall sit and rule upon his throne” as “those far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD” (Zechariah 3:8,9; 6:12-13, 15); nonetheless the world changing peace will be proclaimed amidst tribulation (Matthew 24:13-14). Yes, there will be opportunity to repent, but now the way of repentance will be through each person “deny[ing] him/herself and tak[ing] up his/her cross and follow[ing] Jesus” (Matthew 21:24). A way of living that can, at moments, feel like the end of the world when the structures we thought necessary for measuring how God is working in our life and others are removed.
The disciples believed the end of the world would come when sin was judged; and as you and I know the judgement of the cross did not usher in the end immediately, but rather a time to invite others to follow Jesus who rose again and rules as the world continues still today (Matthew 28:18-20). In just a few days from Jesus' statements in Matthew 24, the disciples vision of how and when God works will be thoroughly challenged. Not to mention the fact that in several years after Christ’s resurrection (the A.D. 70) the temple and the city of Jerusalem would be removed from the people of Israel for nearly 1900 years. Figuratively and literally, the edifices of their faith would no longer exist.
And so, Jesus implores them to not be alarmed or pulled into the panic of what seems like delayed salvation. The time is here when the temple, religion as it was known, will be destroyed and the earth seems like it is in chaos, “but the end is not yet”, “for this must take place” (24:6). The in-between is necessary. It may feel like “lawlessness will be increased” (24:12), but be ready to persevere, endure for the “gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations” (24:13-14) in middle of all this mess! Our life together in Christ will be the testimony, the way we live with one another and the truth we speak to one another and our neighbors will be the proclamation that the kingdom of heaven is indeed here! Repent, turn and follow Jesus with us! This will be the impetus and driving mantra of the church going forward as the disciples reflect upon the words and works of Jesus.
Verses 13-14 mark the centripetal force of Jesus’ statement. What follows flows back into them and is meant for the generation that heard them, who “will not pass away until all these things take place” (24:34). In verses 15-22 Jesus warns his disciples to “stay calm and stay out” of the nationalistic zealousness and pseudo-messianism that follows his bold words, salvific actions and transformative resurrection. There would be many who come after Jesus who will use Jesus to try and usher in a new order, to reclaim a lost perspective, or to overcome a present evil. Yet all will fail in their attempt to save (and still do), and Israel will certainly feel the weight of their rejection of God and his Messenger. When the temple falls with the city of Jerusalem in short time, it will certainly feel for these residents that the end of the world is truly here. Yet, remember that this too is not the end, “For as lightening comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (24:27). The end won’t come through condemning predictions or through passionate reclamation movements but in the sudden flash of a world awakening light.
While the destruction of religion as the disciples knew it seems like a catastrophe, in all reality it will be a new world, a new beginning that will usher in a transformation and salvation. Commentator David Garland (237-38) points out, that while we often read verses 29-31 as end-of-history language, the words used actually have already been used by the prophets of past to describe the destruction of cities and political/religious disasters ( see Isaiah 13:10, 34:4; Ezekiel 32:7; Joel 2:10, 3:15, 4:15 as few examples). Likewise, the description of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and in great glory (24:30), is a “symbol of a mighty reversal of fortune within history”, that along with the blaring trumpet (24:31) will signal to those that follow Jesus to “start the gathering of all the peoples into the kingdom”! The cross and resurrection will alter history, even defining time (think "B.C." and "A.D."!). Therefore, now is the time for the gospel to go forth to every tribe, tongue and nation; as we invite others to follow Jesus in the way of Jesus, in the way of kingdom living!
The final few verses (24:32-35) confirm the inevitability that all that Jesus has said would come to pass. The holy temple and the hope of the world through a singular nation would pass away, but the Branch would be pruned and ripe for new fruit. Fruit that would continue to produce fruit for all eternity (John 15:1-15). It will certainly be difficult for the disciples to experience the deconstruction of what they had grown up hoping in, but the words of Jesus, the truth of Jesus, the hope of Jesus would not pass away.
REFLECTION
The first half of Matthew 24 was written to men and women who were about to experience an upheaval of what they held most dear politically, ethnically, and religiously. The tension that would feel like the end of the world was not. Indeed it was actually the beginning of a new way of life for them as they participated in the gospel spreading forth across the entire earth. The renewal of all things would come in the middle of the destruction of all that they knew. Would they be ready? Would they be willing? Would they endure? Will we?
Use the questions in the section below to help you prayerfully reflect individually and/or discuss as a DNA group.
What stands out to you in this passage?
In what ways have you or those you know, endured (or are enduring) a deconstruction like that of the disciples?
Where to you feel conviction as you prayerfully read this text and commentary?
What do you recognize the Spirit is asking you to believe, to do, and/or tell?
ECHO
In his poem, A tired man leaves his labor, Wendell Berry expresses the reality of living in-between, as the way and world we thought we own dissolves in a world of generosity beyond what we can grasp. Might we be ones who endure aside our forebears the dissolution with grace, and labor with joy as we realize that all not raised by fire, by water is brought down. May these words echo in your heart, in your mind, upon you lips and in your actions this week.
A tired man leaves his labor, felt
In every ligament, to walk
Alone across the new-mowed field,
And at its bound, the last cut stalk,
He take a road much overgone
In time by bearers of his name,
Though now where foot and hoof beat stone
And passed to what their toil became,
Trees stand that in their long leaf-fall,
Untroubled on forgiving ground,
Have buried the sledge stone with soil
So that his passing makes no sound.
He turns aside, and joins his quiet
Forebears in absence from that way.
He passes through the dappled light
And shadow that the breeze makes sway
Upon him and around him as
He goes. Within the day’s design
The leaves sway, darkly, or ablaze
Around their edges with a line
Of fire caught from the sun. He steps
Amid a foliage of song
No tone of which has passed his lips.
Watching, silent, he shifts among
The shiftings of the day, himself
A shifting of the day’s design
Whose outline is in doubt, unsafe,
And dark. One time, less learned in pain,
He thought the earth was firm, his own,
But now he knows that all not raised
By fire, by water is brought down.
The slope his fields lie on is poised
Above the river in mere air,
The breaking forewall of a wave,
And everything he has made there
Floats lightly on the fall. To save
What passes is a passing hope
Within the day’s design outlawed.
His passing now has brought him up
Into a place not reached by road,
Beyond all history that he knows,
Where trees like great saints stand in time,
Eternal in their patience. Loss
Has rectified the songs that come
Into this columned room, and he
Only in silence, nothing in hand,
Comes here. A generosity
Is here by which the fallen stand.
In history many-named, in time
Nameless, this amplitude conveys
The answering to the asking rhyme
Among confusions that dispraise
The membering name that Adam spoke
By gift, and then heard parceled out
Among all fallen things that croak
And cry and sing and curse and shout.