I’m over 40, so I know what bi-focal glasses are. Bi-focals allow someone to read something up close but they also have a different part of the lense for seeing things far away, at a distance. And often people have to switch between seeing something up close, and seeing something at a distance. That’s why they have bi-focals, so you don’t have to have two pairs of glasses. I have graduated to multi-focals, so needy am I of help to see and read now.
Well, reading Luke 21 is hard work. There are lots of different understandings. Good Christians disagree on exactly how to understand it. But I think the best way to understand Luke 21 is that it is a bit like wearing bi-focals. For Jesus in Luke 21 is pointing to something that is soon about to take place. But he is also speaking of something far off in the distance. He is pointing his disciples to the end of the temple and his coming on the clouds to his father, but he is also pointing to the end of the created order and his second coming on the clouds.
Jesus has been conducting his ministry in Jerusalem and in the temple in Luke chapter 20. The temple was the focal point for religious life in Jerusalem. As soon as Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, he sets about clearing the temple. And thereafter essentially Jesus takes possession of it for his ministry. It is, after all, his Father’s house. And in chapter 20, Luke shows us that Jesus silenced his opposition in the temple. And he commanded the temple floor; he starts asking the questions. And when he has said all that he wanted, he leaves the temple for the last time.
And the disciples draw his attention to the temple building. Page 63, second and third paragraphs of chapter 21.
Herod had greatly extended the Temple built under Haggai and Zechariah’s preaching. The temple enclosure could accommodate 12 football fields. They have found stones 42 feet by 14 feet by 11 feet. At one point the temple stood 15 stories above the ground below. It was a massive and overwhelming building.
But Jesus said, it is coming down. The massive stones would be thrown down. It took 83 years to complete. And then it stood 6 years until AD 70. And then Josephus records what happened to it:
‘Caesar ordered the whole city and the temple to be razed to the ground … All the rest of the wall encompassing the city was so completely levelled to the ground as to leave future visitors to the spot no ground for believing that it had ever been inhabited’ (Josephus, War, 7:3)
Thus was fulfilled Jesus words:
Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.
And so Jesus speaks to them in judgment of the temple.
Now, understandably, the disciples would like to know about this monumental event. When? What is the sign it is about to happen? Tell us, Jesus, what will be the sign of these times?
Jesus of course does not start off giving them the answer we expect. They want to know dates and signs. But Jesus starts speaking of the general description of life as we experience it. Bottom of page 63, second last paragraph to page 64 second paragraph.
This is a bird's eye view of what life will be like when the gospel is preached. In these paragraphs, Jesus is looking generally to the future, after his death, resurrection, and ascension. He is looking to the time of the Acts of the Apostles, indeed, to our own time.
Jesus speaks of earthquakes and famines. Welcome to our world. This year, we’ve seen two terrible and powerful earthquakes, in Haiti and Chile. Go to Afghanistan, go to parts of Africa, and see if famine is merely future. No, it is present, it happens in our world, and it has been happening for the last 2000 years. And Jesus says, for these things must happen first, but the end will not follow at once.
Jesus speaks of wars, nation against nations. We know about the Iraq war and Afghanistan war, because we sent men and women. But Wikipedia lists 7 wars that are going on right now, which have 1000 or more people killed per year. And the 20 other conflicts that happen to have less than 1000 fatalities per year. But we are blind to the scores of wars being fought in our world. All of the wars in Africa, and Asia, and South America, and that are occurring right now. This is our world.
Moreover, there are false Christs:
Many will come in my name, claiming ‘I am he’.
They falsely claim God’s name, the name of his Son. They are anti-Christs. As John says:
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)
That is the present time. And there is the ongoing persecution that exists now. There is harassment and harm and murder of Christians for Christ’s namesake. Jesus says his disciples will publicly testify to the gospel and suffer for it. For the sake of my name, says Jesus, they will be beaten, arrested, and tried. Because of my name, they will be hated by all sorts of people.
And the book of Acts shows how this came true following Jesus’ ascension. James, one of the four who approached Jesus’ privately, was the first apostle to be martyred. In fact, 10 of the 12 apostles in Acts were martyred. John only died of old age, in exile on Patmos. And friends, Christians all over the world continue to be persecuted.
The gospel divides families. You will be betrayed by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. Friends, that is our world. It may not be our nation, or our city… yet. But it is our world. A world of suffering and betrayal and martyrdom for the sake of Christ. Don’t become a Christian because it is popular or easy.
You will be hated by all sorts of people because of my name. Yet not a hair of your head will be lost. Through your endurance you will gain your lives.
Here is the perseverance of the saints. Standing firm to the end, despite the hatred of all men. Father, please enable us to stand in the day of testing. We need to remember, when we pray and evangelise, we are inviting them to join us as the hated class.
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. (Mk 8:31)
Now, notice that Jesus says, these things are not signs of the end. Tope of page 64:
For these things must happen first, but the end will not follow at once. (Luke 21:9)
The signs do not indicate the end. They are part of normal life between Jesus’ first and second comings.
But the command for the disciples is ‘watch’, keep a look out, see. Last paragraph on page 63:
See that you are not deceived.
Again, page 65, second paragraph: READ.
Jesus has given his disciples a bird's eye view of the future. What is life like between the first and second comings of Christ?
But Jesus also wants to deal with the end of the temple. And my suggestion to you is that Jesus specifically deals with the destruction of the temple in third paragraph down on page 64.
Now, I should say that there are a number of different interpretations of this paragraph. Some take this paragraph to refer, as I do, to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Others take it to refer to the second coming of our Lord Jesus. Still others take it to refer to Jesus’ death.
Jesus speaks of Jerusalem being surrounded by armies. This seems to be the military destruction of Jerusalem, as a divine punishment. And so Luke records Jesus’ directive to the disciples to flee the city.
As a matter of fact, church history has recorded that the Christians in Jerusalem did escape from Jerusalem before AD 70. They did so probably because of the warnings of these passages. And they fled to the city of Pella, one of the 10 gentile cities across the Jordan. And then, the emperor’s son, Titus, beseiged Jerusalem. On August 30, AD 70, Titus captured the temple, entered the holy of holies, and later that day, set it on fire and commanded its destruction[1].
And the time after the destruction of Jerusalem, is described page 64, 3rd paragraph, last sentence.
Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations, until the times of the nations are fulfilled.
And if you go to the Temple Mount, even now it is controlled by a muslim council, with two mosques on it.
All this is not to say that the event of Jesus’ death and resurrection has nothing to do with the destruction of the temple. For it is the event of Jesus’ death and resurrection that renders the temple obsolete. When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Not only free access to God, but the whole rationale for the temple is removed. For Jesus spoke of the temple as his body. The place where people go to meet God was Jesus and his body. And in his death and resurrection, the true temple of God, the place where God and man meet, was destroyed and raised in 3 days.
So the work of the Romans in destroying the temple in AD 70 was merely a mopping up operation. It was the cleaners moving in after the new years eve celebration to pick up the rubbish. For the real work was done by Jesus himself in AD 30, when he died on the cross and rose again. This rendered the temple absolutely obsolete.
So Jesus has looked at the destruction of the temple, which was effected by Jesus’ death and resurrection, and cleaned up by Titus. But I think the words of Jesus’ here also apply to a far off event.
Imagine, we are standing on a look out and we see a mountain close to us. Perhaps only a few kilometres from us. And as we look closer at it, we see that it is smoking. It is not just a mountain, it is a volcano. And it is getting ready to erupt. We know it’s going to happen soon.
Well, that is like what the disciples would have heard. As they listened to Jesus, they would have understood that the temple was going to be destroyed very soon. In their lifetimes (except for the ones like James and Stephen that got killed of course). So Jesus has said, Truly I tell you that this generation will not pass away until everything has taken place.
And that is quite true. For the thing that they have asked about, the destruction of the temple, will occur in 70 AD. And the thing that is going to happen within the week is Jesus’ death, which starts the whole destruction off. They will see cosmic signs, signs in the sun, like the sun being darkened from 12 noon till 3pm. They will see earthquakes. Matthew records for us that when Jesus rose from the dead there was a great earthquake and the tombs broke open. And then, 40 days after the resurrection, they will see the ascension of Jesus. And then the Son of Man will come in the clouds to his Father with great power and glory. He is coming not from heaven to earth, but from earth to heaven.
But imagine that after that close by mountain erupts and emits all its pyrotechnics and is blasted out of the way, and all the dust and debris is cleared, then we begin to see behind it another mountain, much bigger, but also much further. It was hidden behind the first volcano because it was far away. But it was always there, and we can see it because it is now so big. And we can see that it is the same shape as the first volcano. It looks simply like it has replaced the first volcano. And it too, like the first one is giving off steam. The first volcano is the image of the second, but the second is larger and further away, and the first was nearer but has now crumbled revealing the second.
I think reading Luke 21 is bit like this for us. For after Jesus rose again, and ascended to the Father, he made it clear he was coming back. And the little resurrection that happened when he rose is a foretaste of the big, general resurrection, that will happen when he returns. And his coming to the Father in the clouds, seen by his disciples 40 days after he rose, will be matched by his coming in the clouds from the Father to earth, to be seen by all of humanity, whether living or dead.
And just as there were signs in the heavens and on the earth when Jesus died, the sun darkened and the earthquake, so there will be cataclysmic signs when he comes back – the dissolution of the heavens, the shaking of the earth and the removing of everything by his purging fire.
And just as the armies surrounded the disobedient city, so the hosts of angels will surround the disobedient world, to visit vengeance and judgment upon it, and to bring justice on the enemies of the saints. And the destruction of the temple will prefigure the creation of the new heaven and the new earth, which has no temple, because God and the lamb are there. No building is required to mark and symbolize God’s presence, for we will be in the very presence of God himself and of his Son, our redeemer, Jesus Christ.
All of these things are future for us. We look back and see Jesus’ death and the end of the temple and his ascension to the father, coming on the clouds in glory. We look forward and see Jesus’ second coming, and our eternity with him with no need of a temple, after he returns on the clouds in glory.
The RSL motto is: "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance". And Jesus warns us to watch all the time. Let me read to you the second paragraph on page 65 again. READ.
And the way of vigilance is this. Watch yourselves, so that our hearts will not be weighed down by decadence, sexual immorality, drunkenness, the anxieties of this life. Instead praying that we will have the strength to escape these things that are about to take place. Praying that we will stand before the Son of Man. Praying that we will endure and so gain our lives. This is what we should do in the light of Jesus’ return.
Let’s pray.
[1] F F Bruce, The Spreading Flame p157; Barnett, 250-1 .