Jesus, the Second Coming, and the Temple of Doom | Mark 13:1-31
Are you worried about the future? A recent study found that 3 out of 4 young people aged 16-25 struggle with anxiety over the future. There have been moments of hysteria over the “end of the world” in recent years. In 1938, Orson Welles’s The War of the World’s broadcast on the radio scared his listeners thinking this was happening. Anyone remember Y2K? The theory was all computers would melt down in 2000 and there would be a nuclear and financial destruction. There is big business in the end of the world. How many books and movies have been made about the end of the world? The Left Behind series with Kirk Cameron and Nicolas Cage; there was 16 books written and 7 of them are best sellers. In recent years, we have zombie apocalypse shows, the Walking Dead or Last of Us. We have Doomsday-preppers who have built bunkers and have enough canned raviolis for years. People are afraid about terrorism, nuclear war, fiscal cliffs, pandemics, and climate change. But for believers in Christ, we are not to live in fear but in hope. The end of the world shouldn’t be scary for believers. As R.E.M said, “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”
Jesus has concluded his teaching and time at the Temple. The Temple was the holiest place on earth where heaven and earth overlapped. Yet, Jesus has just taught that the Temple is now obsolete, cursed and rejected like the barren Fig Tree. As he and his disciples leave to go to Bethany to stay at Lazarus’ house, Jesus stops on the Mount of Olives to teach them about the future and how they are to live their lives considering what is coming. William Lane says that “in the gospel of Mark, there is no passage that is more problematic than chapter 13.” These passages are difficult, but just because they are difficult does not mean that they are unimportant. On the Mount of Olives, Jesus is going to predict both the imminent destruction of the Temple and the ultimate consummation of the age, and call all believers to endure with hope.