Mark 13: 1-2; 32-37

1 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" 2 And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."

32 "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning-- 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” †

Big Buildings

"Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!"

How can you tell who are the first-time tourists to New York City? They’re the ones—the only ones—who walk around looking up. Amazed by all the skyscrapers, it is only natural for them to trip over sidewalk cracks as they survey, slack-jawed, the sights above.

There were certainly sights to marvel at in ancient Jerusalem. Herod the Great’s temple mount was a wonder of its day—some of the stones at the base of the temple are remarkable by the standards of any era. One of the largest construction stones in the world sits low on the western wall—one among many that would have been visible in Jesus’ day.

The biggest stone is one of the heaviest objects ever lifted by human beings without powered machinery. The stone is 45 feet long and an about 13 feet wide. It weighs an estimated 570 tons (that’s 1,140,000 pounds).

The construction of the temple mount is truly a wonder of the ancient world, but this is not a matter of the  Disciples doing the hayseed/tourist thing. They’ve been to Jerusalem before, probably on a nearly-annual basis since they were children, therefore the exclamation must refer to something deeper—more along the lines of something you and I might say today:

“Isn’t it amazing how far we human beings have progressed!”

The source of amazement is not the buildings themselves, but the soaring accomplishments of humanity. When the Disciples say, “Wow, look at the buildings!” they are really saying, “Wow, look at us! Look at what collective humanity can accomplish!” Many people express similar  awe today:

•Science has put us on the Moon and soon we’ll be on Mars!

•Modern medicine has extended life longer than ever before!

•Computers are uniting the entire planet into a single, human network!

•Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk—amazing!  

It’s not hard to identify with the Disciples. It’s easy to be amazed at the technological advances that hit us like whiplash. What we know about our world has multiplied exponentially, even in the past half-century. What we can do—the ways we can observe and shape our world at the global level and subatomic scale—truly boggles the mind. Peoples around the world sharing science and technology, learning from one another’s histories, and cooperating economically in research and development will be able to do almost anything.

This is more likely the tone of the Disciples’ conversation. We’ve heard it before:

Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves…” (Genesis 11:4a)

The Disciples were impressed with the power of human achievement. In the Babel story, humankind thought they could—through their accomplishments—raise themselves up to the level of gods. They may have believed themselves to be gods already, but God intervened to humble them.

The heavenly court seemed almost worried about how far they were advancing. Genesis 11:6 reads:

And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

So the Lord had them fall into confusion and the diversity of many languages.

But what about today? With all of our science, technology and collective ambition, are we not coming together in the same way? Can you see it? Between coding language, mathematics, science and even the arts, do we not seem to be coming together to raise up humanity into something like collective divinity?

Just as the ancient residents of Babel thought their building technology would put them on the par with the gods as if to say, “Who needs the gods? We shall become our own gods! We can match them!”—can’t we read the subtitles of our own times and our own generation? Human ambitions have not changed and our technology now seems a greater threat to Heaven than any ancient, Mesopotamian stone tower! We, like the Disciples, might marvel in exactly the same way.

The Disciples were impressed with human accomplishments, but Jesus was not.

Jesus tells the Disciples not one stone will be left upon the other. Ultimately, all human accomplishments are a kind of vanity and God alone has the final word in shaping the world and humankind. We are fools to trust too much in our science, medicine and technology—all crumble and fall at the coming of The Lord.

Jesus wants us looking up, but not in marvel at human ambition. He wants us watching for something else.

Beware

The next section—the bulk of chapter 13—is an apocalyptic discourse, which means Jesus talks about the end times and his ultimate return. The key word in this discourse is beware. Three times Jesus tells his disciples to beware—be aware—and do not be misled. Deceivers are coming who will claim to be the Messiah. They are not to be believed. Beware and don’t drink the Koolaid. Don’t let charlatans play you for fools, and  when persecutions come, don’t be anxious, but trust in the Holy Spirit who will give you what you need to say.

The kind of writing that makes up much of chapter 13 is called apocalyptic. The word apocalypse is commonly used to indicate the ultimate war or an end of days cataclysm, but the word literally means “uncovering.” In the Bible, an apocalypse is a revealing of God’s purposes. The book we call Revelation is literally The Apocalypse of John.  

Apocalyptic literature is best handled in a class on the book of Revelation. It is a sure attention-getter because it is mysterious by nature and susceptible to all kinds of speculation and wild interpretations. Again, we need to hear Jesus saying to us: beware that no one leads you astray.

Throughout Church history, con men have led hundreds of thousands astray by suggesting that they know the real and final truth behind these mysterious texts. Every generation produces self-designated “prophets” who are eager to tell all who are willing to hear them that they have been finally given the keys to the true meaning of these texts. Again,  Jesus says beware.

I did not include the apocalyptic discourse in this sermon series because it seemed to me better to minimize risks of interpretive mayhem, but I will point out three aspects which characterize all the apocalyptic writings:

1. It appears in times of great persecution as a source of hope.

2. It seeks to communicate the mysterious mind and acts of God.

3. It always carries the absolute promise of divine action and triumph.

The upshot of these passages is that God cares for us and loves us even when the world hates us; and that God will never abandon us. God is above all and will in the end wipe away every tear and vindicate the faithful for their faithfulness.

Our watchfulness is not a matter of obsessing over biblical timetables. Jesus makes very clear that we are not on a need-to-know basis for these things. Being watchful does not mean our eyes are constantly on the skies like hayseed tourists in New York City, but rather that we are cool and faithful, attending to the mission God has given us as we await his coming.

There are no bonus points—no office pool— for guessing the day of Jesus’ return. I personally see no virtue in the kind of frenzied, end time enthusiasms that fill YouTube and the best-seller shelves in Christian bookstores.

We are to be watchful, yes, but that means that we never abandon the urgency of announcing the gospel to all peoples. When Jesus comes again, he should find our noses in our work, our mission, and not up in the air.

We do well to take advice from that famous, British poster from World War II:

Keep Calm and Carry On

Don’t panic, don’t get hysterical or otherwise over-excited, and attend to our mission.

Stormy Forecasts

In our final verses,  Jesus tells the disciples three times again to “Keep awake.” The day of the Lord will come, and we need to be watchful both day and night. Three times the Disciples (and we) are told to stay awake.

Question: How well, in general, do the Disciples do with the commands of Jesus?

Many times in Mark Jesus tells people to “tell no one” when he has healed someone or otherwise revealed the divine power. In fact, he “strictly orders” them not to tell, not to reveal what they know about him. That is a command. So what happens?  They tell.

What Christ tells the Disciples he also means for us.

The stormy forecast is only in part about the destruction of the temple around them. It is also about the power of blasphemy throughout our world in history. As Jesus predicted, the temple was defiled and destroyed between 68-70 AD.

The honoring of God’s name is under attack by the same powers that built the tower of Babel, whic are the same powers that would elevate humankind to the level of God-hood. We live, work and worship in a culture that becomes increasingly content with disrespecting The Lord. It can get on our nerves, but we don’t have to fight; neither do we have to be defensive.

It isn’t helpful to the gospel mission for us to withdraw from the world and culture in order to keep ourselves separate and pure. It helps no one if we, the Church, should set ourselves up and against culture. Rather, we are going to love all and serve all. We are going to love the very people who hate God, because God loves them. We do the Lord no honor by taking sides against the people he seeks to redeem.

“But they’re sinners!” we might think, “They’re blasphemous! Not only do they fail to honor God, but they curse him! How can we be expected to love such people?”  Answer? The same way he loves us.

We just start. We choose to love. Jesus commands it and it is our pleasure and honor to obey. There may be storms on the horizon—or even directly overhead—but our role is the same:

Keep Calm and Carry On.