Daniel 7: 9 – 14 Luke 21: 20 – 36
To understand the Gospel I have just read, you have to go back towards the beginning of the chapter and verses 5 & 6. Jesus and his disciples are in the temple in Jerusalem. We read: “Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ‘As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down’.” This gives the context for his teaching in our Gospel.
This was the third temple to be built on this site. The first was Solomon’s temple built in the glory days of the 10th century BC. This was destroyed in the 6th century BC, when Israel foolishly took on the Babylonians, Jerusalem was sacked and the people deported to Babylon. After fifty year or so, when Persia become the dominant power, King Cyrus allowed many of them to return, and a second temple was built, although they were only allowed to build a smaller version, and we read in Ezra chapter 3:12, that those who could remember Solomon’s temple wept when they saw the small scale of the new foundations.
Nevertheless, all the temple functions could be resumed, and this temple proved a potent symbol which helped the Jewish people in the great struggle that was to follow, when the Greek empire made strenuous efforts to impose Greek culture and religion.
But when Herod the Great came to power, he planned a magnificent rebuild. Work began in 19BC and by the time Jesus visited the temple at the age of twelve, (as Luke describes in chapter 2), it was substantially complete. However work continued for over 60 more years and it wasn’t entirely finished until 63AD.
To get an idea of what Jesus and the disciples were looking at, you have to turn to the Jewish historian Josephus. The pillars were of white marble, forty feet high, each made of a single block of stone. One of the adornments was a solid gold vine, each of the clusters being as tall as a man. He writes (see quote):
No wonder the disciples from the Galilean countryside were mightily impressed. No wonder it was unthinkable to the Jews that it could ever be destroyed. But Jesus says it will be utterly demolished, and when asked when this will take place, he warns them of the signs. ‘When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that the desolation is near’ and he goes on to tell them to get out as quickly as possible when they see this happening.
The Roman attack in which this prophecy was fulfilled was in 70AD. A Jewish rebellion led Emperor Titus to lay siege to Jerusalem, sack the city and fire its temple, just seven years after that wonderful building, so greatly admired, had finally been completed. Josephus says that over a million people died in the siege and final assault, and about 100,000 were subsequently deported. So Jesus’ prediction and warning were only too tragically fulfilled. With political upheaval shaking the foundations of the Roman Empire at the same time, it must indeed have felt as if the end of the world was coming. The temple site was destined to lie vacant with little except what we now know as the Wailing Wall remaining, until the Islamic Dome of the Rock was built on Temple Mount at the end of the 7th century. Jewish temple worship was gone for ever.
Jesus could see only too clearly beyond the dazzling temple image in front of their eyes. Perhaps this was partly because, like some of the greatest of the prophets before him, he too came from the countryside, and was never impressed by bright city lights, impressive buildings and political intrigue. But more importantly, he was never deceived by media headlines, popular opinion, impressive people with high-sounding words – all the things which crowd in on us, then as now. His focus was on God his Father, and by daily prayer and obedience to his Father’s will, he could see through it all. He could see the truth about his own life and where it would lead him, inspite of all the reassurances of the disciples that God would step in to prevent any attempt on his life. And he could see through the political compromises of his day. He knew only too well that the impulse to rebellion against Roman occupation was too strong to be kept down indefinitely by those who struggled to maintain the status quo. Jerusalem was doomed and this was intimately intertwined with Jesus’ own fate, and we read on in the next chapter about how Judas agreed to betray Jesus. The two go together.
For there is much more to this prophecy than just the destruction of a city and a temple. Luke, who is writing not only after Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed, but also as a Greek to commend Jesus and his kingdom to Greeks, could see exactly why Jesus here introduces the reference to the prophecy in Daniel which we read earlier.
Daniel has a vision of Almighty God on his throne in great glory, and then of what he calls ‘one like a son of man’ coming with the clouds of heaven (from earth), approaching God’s throne, and being led into his presence, where he is given by God authority, glory and sovereign power.
This is the prophetic vision which is gloriously fulfilled at the resurrection and ascension. Luke has this prophecy clearly in the front of his mind when he describes in Acts chapter one how the risen Jesus ascends with the clouds of heaven to the Father (exactly as Daniel had said). And in the letter to the Hebrews, we read how now we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God – who is at the right hand of the Father, and who ever lives to intercede for us.
Luke was Paul’s companion on some of his missionary journeys, and I feel I can see as he writes this Gospel passage, having experienced at least part of its fulfilment, how the temple has now completely lost its relevance and become consigned to history, because our great high priest is now in heaven, having made once for all the perfect sacrifice for sin. And here on earth, Paul has smashed through the barrier of Jewish law and sacrifice, and taken the Gospel of the Kingdom to him, a Greek, and hundreds like him all over the empire. And with the coming of the Holy Spirit, redemption is not now centred in any earthly place, such as a temple, but – free as the wind – can carry to the ends of the earth.
So Jesus could see only too clearly how the day of judgment on Israel was at hand. Their rejection of God’s anointed Messiah brought judgment on them, while (on the positive side), it released the Gospel to the whole world – and of that we ourselves are, of course, among the beneficiaries.
So far so good. But, beyond all of that, we sense here Jesus’ prophetic eyes seeing far into the future and to a final day of judgment. It will be a day of judgment on the world (verse 35), but Advent calls us to note very carefully that it will be a judgment also on the Church (verse 36). We have taken Israel’s place. We are now God’s chosen people to be a ‘light to lighten the Gentiles’. We have the full revelation of God’s promise in Jesus. We have the full power of God in the Holy Spirit. From the fig tree learn the lesson. If the Church fails, God will find another way.
Advent calls us to consider our faith, our worship, our priorities, our mission. Jesus’ words here are a solemn warning to the Church which sadly, at the moment, seems fatally divided and spends its time quarrelling over internal and often trivial matters. How much we need to repent and change our ways. And unless we do, God’s judgment will just as surely fall on us.
But there is also here a message of hope. There is a call here to lift up our eyes and see beyond the sinful mud on our feet that bogs us down, and to focus on the glory that is to be revealed. There is the encouragement that helps us shake off all that weighs us down, and look for the day when Jesus will come again in glory. This Advent, Jesus is here calling us to repent of our pathetic divisions and shameful lack of conviction, and to do so by lifting our eyes to the sovereign Jesus to whom all authority has been given, from whom all our inspiration comes, and who will one day come again in glory. To see that vision is the first step in our preparation for Christmas.
DISCUSSION
1. In what practical ways can we best prepare to celebrate Christmas?
2. ”He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” (Nicene Creed). What do you understand by this?
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