Tuesday, July 16, 2024  

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Today's Scripture
Matthew 24:1–14

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus answered them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birthpangs. “Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come. (NRSV)

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Reflection

The cover story in the July/August edition of The Atlantic is an extended meditation on the city of Phoenix by George Packer. I’m not even halfway through it yet, but I’ve read enough to be chilled by Packer’s description of the desert city (pun intended) as a place with diminishing access to water, dangerous summer temperatures, and unabated building and expansion. Given all this, it is easy to imagine an uncomfortably proximal future in which a great American city ceases to be, at least in the way we know it now.

I wonder if a similar kind of doomed meditation is behind the disciples’ question to Jesus in this story about the when and the what of the future he is foretelling, when the temple will be “thrown down.” For Jewish people in Jesus’ time, life without the temple would be hard to imagine; it was the towering center of all religious and civic and cultural life. Rebuilt after the exile centuries earlier, it had been expanded by Herod the Great and was now one of the great marvels of the world. How could such a monument cease to exist?

Jesus’ answer to the disciples goes on some beyond these verses, but we get a good feel for the tone in the “beware” that launches it: false messiahs, wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, executions, betrayal. In short, apocalypse. Not a roadmap for specific future happenings, yet also not all that different from most seasons of human history someplace. The watchwords for disciples are “beware” and “be prepared.”

If my read of this is right, what we are to beware of is getting too comfortable with things as they are in the world at any given time, and what we are to be prepared for is change. Nothing is given, and besides, the status quo that works beautifully for some is grinding others down. So disciples live at arm’s length from those centers of power that have their own preservation, rather than the flourishing of all people. We entrust our lives and the life of the world not to political leaders and movements but to the good news of a “kingdom” where the poor and meek are blessed and the hungry are filled with good things.

Perhaps we don’t comport ourselves toward the end that is coming with enthusiasm, much less with resignation, but with a quiet trust in God’s purposes for the world God created and continues to create.

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Prayer
Come, Lord Jesus. Amen. (Revelation 22:20)

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Reflection written by Rocky Supinger, Associate Pastor for Youth and Worship

Reflection © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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