By this point in the gospel of Mark, there is no turning back. All events that will lead Jesus to the cross have been set in motion. The religious leaders have seen the size of the crowds and the kinds of emotions He can stir. And they know they are powerless to contradict Him. They have to act before it is too late. Likewise, Jesus has to warn us before it is too late.

Contrary to what some would hope, we do not live in a “Christian nation”; if for no other reason that a nation cannot repent and choose to believe in the Messiah. Only people can do that.

Of course, the phrase is meant as a statement about the roots of the nation and the path its founders supposedly intended it to follow in the future. In that case, the statement is merely a proposition to be proven or disproven using data, facts, and logic. But whether the result of that examination is to support or tear down the original proposition is immaterial because it says nothing about the personal convictions of the individuals that comprise that nation.

No one can be of the illusion that simply being born in a “Christian nation” makes every citizen born, a Christian. At best, the most compelling argument that could be made regarding the benefit of such a nation would be to argue that it would facilitate the spread of Christianity among its people because it upholds and defends those values.

But again, that would be a proposition to examine; in this case, based on historical data. If the measure of a commitment to follow Christ is the personal decision to pick up your cross and follow Him – that is: a people living a life of selflessness dedicated to loving God and loving the neighbor, any and every neighbor – is that the hallmark of the citizens begotten by this nation since its inception? Is that the ideal “American” we all aspire to be?

I would say that the people the populace admire today, and the leaders we choose, argue against that conclusion. But that is not a particular flaw of our nation. I think it is a fantasy to expect any nation, no matter how well founded, or how well intentioned its laws are, to have any power to shape the human heart. Because that power is always, eventually, stymied by human nature itself.

You could argue that I haven’t proven wrong that proposition regarding the value of a Christian nation; that I am just putting up another argument; itself to be tested; yet to be proven… especially since this nation is still rather young.

But I don’t think I have to. We have another case that, according to the proposition, is similar to that of this nation: a nation that takes that premise and the facts and the resolution of the facts to the extreme. I am talking about the nation of Israel in the time of Jesus.

If we indeed believe the Bible, then we are 100% certain that the foundation of the nation of Israel was established on God’s Law. And there is zero doubt regarding the direction God intended that nation to take. As I have mentioned elsewhere, their mission was to teach the world how good, how logical, how beneficial it was to be willingly subject to the God who made the universe.

But as a nation they went through periods of faithfulness and periods of rebellion. And those oscillations got more severe over time until they ended up reaping what they sowed: sent into exile and then eventually conquered by the Greeks and then the Romans. Something went horribly wrong. It is called human nature.

Could even the arrival of the Messiah turn that trend around? Jesus is about to answer that question.

The rule of the self-righteous is a sign of the end times

Last time we saw the religious leaders try their best at challenging Jesus’ authority based on their own foundation of authority, namely, their knowledge of the Scriptures. They failed. So, now Jesus puts the “final nail in that coffin” by showing them that their knowledge leaves much to be desired.

Mark 12:35-37 And Jesus answering said [as he was] teaching in the temple, How do the scribes (teachers of the Law) say that the Christ is son of David? [for] David himself said [speaking] in the Holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand until I put thine enemies [as] footstool of thy feet. David himself [therefore] calls him Lord, and whence is he his son? And the mass of the people heard him gladly.

Jesus puts His question in the form of the kind of conundrum that Rabbis and teachers of the Law debated throughout their history. Much of their fame as erudite teachers was derived from their mastery of such questions of debate, where each one could point out to a famous Rabbi that held this or that position… and maybe they themselves developed new lines of argument.

But the fact that the religious leaders have no answer for Jesus’ question proves that there were obvious quandaries regarding the Scriptures that they never devoted time to settle. It’s like when the Ethiopian eunuch in the Book of Acts has to ask Philip who the prophet Isaiah is talking about when he gets to the passages about the Suffering Servant. The eunuch did not know.

Was he ignorant or was he taught that there was no sure answer, that it was too difficult to understand? Yet, his is a crucial question because any reader of the Book of Isaiah finds himself faced with two distinct Messiahs: The Suffering Servant and the Avenger of Blood. Which one is the Redeemer? And why are they so different?

It just seems to me that the religious leaders, human like all of us, were more than glad to tackle the puzzles they thought they could handle but when faced with something too difficult, they would rather leave it aside… leave it for another time… leave it for someone else to worry about.

There is a danger in that attitude:

What if that question that I have refused to ask, to try to get answered, is the question whose answer will change my life?

(Think back to the early chapter in Mark when Jesus teaches the parable of the Sower and the soils, and then He tells the disciples, and those that came with them, that, because they asked, He would explain it to them. But those who did not care to ask would remain in ignorance.)

So, Jesus asks the religious leaders to explain: How could the Son of David end up being a personage of higher honor than his famous father? I mean children are supposed to honor their parents. But here it is the reverse and much more than that. Here it is David referring to the Messiah (the promised Son of David that would rule the kingdom of Israel forever) as his Lord AND as a Lord that himself has above him the LORD. (Similar puzzling statements about such a Lord appear in the prophecies of Zachariah.)

The question is baffling to the utmost unless they start thinking about the Messiah as son of man, Son of Man (in the sense of the prophet Daniel), and Son of God all at the same time; and accepting that when it comes to God, time and birth order are unimportant. (For, clearly, David was born before his Son but if the Son is the Lord, then he pre-existed David.)

They have no answer. And now Jesus puts them in their place:

Mark 12:38-40  And he said to them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, who like to walk about in long robes, and salutations in the marketplaces, and first seats in the synagogues, and first places at suppers; who devour the houses of widows, and as a pretext make long prayers. These shall receive a severer judgment.

Not only was their knowledge and authority selective and defective, it was, in the end, self-serving. And for that they would be judged more severely. For they claimed to know the truth and to teach it, but they did it all, not to honor God and proclaim His power, but for the sake of attaining their own honor and power.

Instead of teaching the ignorant ,and leading people to God, the transparency of their hypocrisy only served to drive people away from God’s mercy. Jesus already warned about the awful weight of such sin: Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall be a snare to one of the little ones who believe [in me], it were better for him if a millstone were hung about his neck, and he cast into the sea.

Did these religious leaders indeed lead their nation away from God?

Consider the phrase I underlined in Jesus’ warning, about these people devouring widows’ houses. That society, in the time of Jesus, was strongly patriarchal. Women had few rights and little power. If a woman’s husband died, his land, his property, his business – the source of the family’s livelihood – would not simply pass to her for her to manage. Rather, a male relative was supposed to take over that duty. But what if the widow had no such relative? Then the community expected the religious leaders to provide that role, to help her manage that property for her family’s benefit.

Given what we know about human nature, and Jesus’ rebuke here, we know what happened. Those people in authority, that were meant to protect widows (by God’s express instruction; e.g. Deuteronomy 14:29), ended up managing those assets for their own benefit… while all along telling the widow and everybody that what they were doing was what God ordained.

The result is the piteous scene that Mark gives us next:

Mark 12:41-44 And Jesus, having sat down opposite the treasury, saw how the crowd was casting money into the treasury; and many rich cast in much. And a poor widow came and cast in two mites, which is a farthing.

And having called his disciples to [him] he said to them, Verily I say unto you, This poor widow has cast in more than all who have cast into the treasury:  for all have cast in of that which they had in abundance, but she of her destitution has cast in all that she had, the whole of her living.

As others have pointed out, regarding this passage, Jesus is making no moral judgment about the heart of either the rich or the widow in this scene. He is just making an observation: The rich had plenty to live on; so much, that what they gave the Temple (as they were taught was right and necessary) did not make a dent on their livelihood. The poor widow, also doing what she has been taught is required and necessary, shows up and gives all that she has left.

If Jesus is not exaggerating and, indeed, she has given out of her destitution, she is essentially reducing herself to penury. Not far in the distant future she will probably be reduced to becoming a beggar, just to survive.

Is this right?

No.

But why does she think she has to do this?

God certainly never required in the Law anyone to give all they had (instead of a percentage) as offering for the Temple. In fact, the same passage I alluded to in Deuteronomy 14 is talking about how the Law provided for those in extreme poverty to always find something to eat.

This widow is a product of a society that has been shaped by the religious leaders… both her extreme state and her actions there at the Treasury, stand as “witnesses for the prosecution” against them.

The passing glory of the temple and the world

A lesson we learn from studying the history of the Kings of Judah in the Old Testament is that the way the leaders go, soon becomes the way the people go. With the religious leaders presenting such a poor example of what matters to God, the whole society eventually follows their lead; it becomes the norm.

Pride and opulence became hallmarks also of Herod’s Temple.

We know the Temple built in 516 BC, by the first wave of people returning to the land after the exile, was a shadow of the former glory of Solomon’s Temple.

Ezra 3:10-13 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Jehovah, they set the priests in their apparel, with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Jehovah according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang alternately together in praising and giving thanks to Jehovah: For he is good, for his loving-kindness [endureth] for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout to the praise of Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid.

But many of the priests and Levites and chief fathers, the ancient men that had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice, [when] the foundation of this house was laid in their sight; and many shouted aloud for joy. And the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a great shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

They wept because they saw how small that new foundation was compared to the original. Yet, that was the Temple that God enabled them to build, as their prophesied return under Cyrus King of Persia was fulfilled. Maybe that “humbler” house was meant to be a reminder of the awful price they paid for rebelling against God.

But in the first century BC, Herod began rebuilding and expanding on it. As Ronny Reich says: Its “exaggerated enlargement is unprecedented among temples in the Hellenistic and Roman East.” (“The archaeological manifestation of Jerusalem as the Jewish Temple-City in the early Roman (-second Temple) period.”; Revue Biblique, Vol. 124, No. 4 (2017), pp. 545-567.)

A proud people built a proud Temple. Jesus’ disciples were carried along by its magnificence:

Mark 13:1-2 And as he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples says to him, Teacher, see what stones and what buildings! And Jesus answering said to him, Seest thou these great buildings? not a stone shall be left upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down.

Jesus is prophesying about the destruction of the Temple by Titus and his army in 70 AD. It is said that, literally, no stone was left on stone because the great fire melted all the gold of the Temple, and it flowed into the cracks between the stones. And the Romans took the rubble apart to get to the gold.

The Temple, which to that community represented their connection with God, their relationship with God, had become something closer to an idol… certainly so to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. To the extreme that, as John tells us, they would rather destroy the Messiah than lose the Temple.

John 11:47-53 The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many signs. If we let him thus alone, all will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place (the Temple) and our nation.

But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, Ye know nothing nor consider that it is profitable for you that one man die for the people, and not that the whole nation perish. But this he did not say of himself; but, being high priest that year, prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that he should also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

From that day therefore they took counsel that they might kill him.

Just as Jesus commented matter-of-factly on the people giving money at the Treasury, Jesus’ comment about the Temple sounds to me the same. Twice, Jesus cleansed that Temple, once at the beginning of His ministry and once at the end. The tables of vendors and money-changers returned after the first time; they were sure to return after He was gone.

The Temple, like the religious leaders, had become part of the kingdom of the world. There was no longer any point for it to remain standing.

Mark 13:3-8 And as he sat on the mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what is the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?

And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any one mislead you. For many shall come in my name, saying, It is *I*, and shall mislead many. But when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be not disturbed, for [this] must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be earthquakes in [different] places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these things [are the] beginnings of throes.

The end is coming. If by now the disciples had begun to accept that Jesus was not going to be a Conquering Messiah, they still wanted to know that there would be a future hope. But Jesus can only tell them the truth: Don’t expect a Messiah to “save” this world. Some will claim they can do that, claim they are that Messiah that will bring world peace. But there is only one way for the kingdom of the world to end, and that is in self-destruction.

And on the way there it will try to hide the truth at all cost. It will try to place the blame elsewhere… on those who choose to stand apart from it:

Mark 13:9-10 But *ye*, take heed to yourselves, for they shall deliver you up to sanhedrims and to synagogues: ye shall be beaten and brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them; and the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.

There is no surprise here. This is the way Jesus has always spoken to His disciples: Truth in advertising. From the standpoint of the Kingdom of God, whatever happens in the kingdom of the world, be it misfortune or be it purposely inflicted evil, it is unimportant because what matters, the only thing that matters, is the Mission: God’s Plan of Salvation. And so, when the disciples are taken by force and put on trials, that will be the world trying to defeat them but from God’s standpoint, it is all part of the Plan. Because that will serve to proclaim the gospel, even to the religious leaders.

And if it is God’s Plan, then He will ensure that His servants can carry it out:

Mark 13:11 But when they shall lead you away to deliver you up, be not careful beforehand as to what ye shall say, [nor prepare your discourse]: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak; for *ye* are not the speakers, but the Holy Spirit.

And then, in words reminiscent of God’s words to Jeremiah, when He warned him about his relatives…

Mark 13:12-13 But brother shall deliver up brother to death, and father child; and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye will be hated of all on account of my name; but he that has endured to the end, *he* shall be saved.

This closes by coming full circle to the Sermon on the Mount and the end of the beatitudes.

But what about Israel?

The next section of this chapter seems to be addressing Israel as a nation and its role in God’s Covenant history. Even though God announced through Jeremiah that the Old Covenant of the written law would pass away to be replaced with the New one, where the law is impressed in the human heart, the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still stand and still await fulfilling.

But just as there won’t be a Messiah to save the kingdom of the world, neither will the Conquering Messiah come to save the worldly Israel from its final exile.

Mark 13:14-20 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not, (he that reads let him consider [it],) then let those in Judaea flee to the mountains; and him that is upon the housetop not come down into the house, nor enter [into it] to take away anything out of his house; and him that is in the field not return back to take his garment.

But woe to those that are with child and to those that give suck in those days! And pray that it may not be in winter time; for those days shall be distress such as there has not been the like since [the] beginning of creation which God created, until now, and never shall be; and if [the] Lord had not cut short those days, no flesh should have been saved; but on account of the elect whom he has chosen, he has cut short those days.

This is apocalyptic language, in tune with Daniels’ prophecies. Only a remnant will survive, thanks to the Lord’s mercy. And then Jesus gives the people of Israel the same warning He gave His disciples: “Don’t fall for the fake Messiahs that will come.”

Mark 13:21-23 And then if any one say to you, Lo, here [is] the Christ, or Lo, there, believe [it] not. For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and give signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But do *ye* take heed: behold, I have told you all things beforehand.

Notice how He warns them about those false prophets: that they will try to prove their credentials with miraculous deeds; which Jesus never did. Paradoxically, the very signs in the heavens the Pharisees had asked Him to produce will finally come but not to bring joy to the nation:

Mark 13:24-27 But in those days, after that distress, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give its light; and the stars of heaven shall be falling down, and the powers which are in the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall they see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory; and then shall he send his angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from end of earth to end of heaven.

And then is the operative phrase. After all the tribulation, then the Conquering Messiah will finally come to set all things right.

Mark 13:28-30 But learn the parable from the fig-tree: when its branch already becomes tender and puts forth the leaves, ye know that the summer is near. Thus also *ye*, when ye see these things happening, know that it is near, at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall in no wise pass away, till all these things take place.

The generation of humanity will not pass until God accomplishes what he set out to do.

What are we to do about the End Times?

Mark 13:31-32 The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away. But of that day or of that hour no one knows, neither the angels who are in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father.

Jesus seems to be telling us there is nothing we can do… because we cannot change the course of human history. And any attempt at anticipating it is pointless and counterproductive.

Why would we want to know? So that we can do what?

Human nature would take advantage of that knowledge to get as much as it can out of the kingdom of the world before time runs out. But we are not living in the kingdom of the world, and human nature is not what guides our lives. If we are living in the Kingdom of God, it is the Holy Spirit that is supposed to be guiding our lives. And from the viewpoint of the Spirit, it does not matter when the end is scheduled to come because our lives must look the same whether it comes tomorrow or 300 years from now. Therefore…

Mark 13:33-37 Take heed, watch and pray, for ye do not know when the time is: [it is] as a man gone out of the country, having left his house and given to his bondmen the authority, and to each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper that he should watch.

Watch therefore, for ye do not know when the master of the house comes: evening, or midnight, or cock-crow, or morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

But what I say to you, I say to all, Watch.

As imminent as the End Times seem (from both the Gospel and the letters of Paul) we cannot ignore that almost 2000 years have passed since Jesus told His disciples about it. Therefore, it becomes easy to think, in the back of our minds, that it may never happen. But there is a difference between imminency and immediacy.

The End is imminent. It will happen. How do we know? Because God laid out the plan long ago and revealed it through His prophets. That Plan required the Suffering Messiah to enter our world first before the Conquering Messiah could make His appearance. And not only did Jesus come as the Suffering Messiah, He already told the disciples He is both…

Mark 8:35-38 For whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall save it. For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul? for what should a man give in exchange for his soul?

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man also be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

The Suffering Messiah brought us the life-giving Gospel; that is: eternal-life-giving Gospel: to open our eyes to the way of Salvation: whereby Repentance is rewarded with the forgiveness of sins, and forgiveness of sins occurs through God’s supernatural power that cuts out the heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh, a heart that can now love with God’s Love. Now we can finally obey the two great commandments and love God above all things and love our fellow human beings.

If we indeed do that, we act and live as citizens of the Kingdom of God. And the kingdoms of the world will therefore, eventually, become our enemies. But we cannot be cowed. The same supernatural power that changed our hearts, resides from then on inside us: the Holy Spirit. And through that Spirit we can withstand anything the world throws at us; be it temptation or trial. We can: we have the power. But we must also, at every moment, have the will. That is our part… It has always been. That is Faith, by choice.

But even that Faith, even though it is our part, our duty, is not purely human, otherwise it would be just stubbornness. That Faith is itself empowered in us by the Spirit through the assurance of God’s irrevocable Love.

Remember:

Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the underlying reality of that which we Hope for, the evidence of the accomplished things that we have not yet seen.

We become co-laborers with Christ in His Plan of Salvation through this Hope (Romans 8:24), a Hope that is not seen and yet is utterly real; and we know it is real because the Love of God has revealed it to us (Romans 5:5).

Thus, living in that Hope, carrying out the Messiah’s will in our lives, we may end up paying the ultimate price and lose our physical lives. It happened to most of the apostles and has happened many times since then in History. But that possibility changes nothing because there is still a world of people still open to be saved.

And that is Jesus’ point in that quote above from Mark 8. How the world will respond to us, what it may do or not do, is irrelevant because the Mission still stands. We must choose to “stick with it”.

It is, to me, a paradox… That for all the supernatural power that God willingly pours into our lives to enable us to follow His Son, even the power to strengthen our will in the face of any and all adversity, we can still choose to give up. That is Jesus’ warning there in Mark 8; a warning that can only be meant for us, His followers:

For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man also be ashamed…

Do you see it? His enemies could never be “ashamed” of Him. People who have never heard of Him, could never be “ashamed” of Him. Only us who have called Him Lord could find ourselves in a position to become ashamed of Him…

The paradox:

That if I have given my life to the Lord, from then on…

I am the only person that can ever defeat me.

The powers of Hell cannot prevail against His church; but I can willingly surrender. Yes, it’s scary. But it need never happen…  not as long as we remember that He is with us, till the end of the age, in the person of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us.

John 14:15-20 If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him; but ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you. Yet a little and the world sees me no longer; but ye see me; because I live ye also shall live. In that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Therefore, since we can be faithful to the end (we have the power), Jesus’ message to us is: use that power:

having left His house He has given to his bondmen the authority, and to each one his work…

We are those bondmen. We His followers, are His servants, and there is one job He has passed on to us: carry on the Plan of salvation – each one of us according to the work assigned us – until the day that the Master returns.