Stories of Promise
Mark chapter 13 is often referred to as the “Little Apocalypse.” In our reading this morning we get a small glimpse of why that may be. The temple will be destroyed. Wars are on the horizon! There will be earthquakes and famines! To put this in a softer, more comedic manner, “Lions and Tigers and Bears. OH MY!” As contemporary readers we really struggle with this genre of literature in our Scriptures. We tend to read our contemporary selves into the passage, we tend to fear the literal end of days in our midst, and we tend to bend and twist these passages at will. We can neither skip over these passages nor can we imagine that the writer of these passages wrote them for twenty-first century America. These warnings on Jesus’ lips anticipate challenges faced by the Jewish community in Palestine with the war and destruction of the Temple. It is easy to imagine these events felt like a telos- which is an end, completion, or perfection- for those who watched them unfold. Jesus tells us these things shall happen, and he invites us to remember that our lives and creation are in the hands of the Maker of heaven.
Lo and behold! What do you think I found in my mail? This week I received two fliers in the mail that stood out to me. Both were advertising the same event. Perhaps you saw it? In the very town of Hamilton there was a prophecy conference. “Discover the truth about these current times!” This conference heralded the interpretation of these tumultuous pandemic days through the abacus of Revelation. It promised answers for these current days and noted that the end was near! It had the impressive hook, “Want to know what America’s latest election has to do with the coming days?” From what I could gather it seemed that the events in America were the ones that would initiate the end times. Pay no mind to elections in other countries, past pandemics, or even the most minuet tools of Biblical interpretation! It is America that will be ushering in the end times! Folks, do not buy this theological hogwash.
As we have mentioned previously, Mark was likely written during or after the disastrous Jewish rebellion against Roman imperial occupation in Palestine (66 – 70 CE). Mark’s world and the world of Palestinian Jews was shattered and shaken to its core. The Roman armies vanquished the rebellion in the most brutal fashion you can imagine. They sought not only to put down their revolution, but to destroy their cultural and religious centers. They wanted to quell their rebellion once and for all. The Romans destroyed the Jewish temple, desecrating the sacred heart of the world and the center of their worship. The message of Mark’s Gospel is thus a message of hope proclaimed in the midst of catastrophe, grace in the midst of violence and ruin. To really hear it, we must listen from a position of desolation, chaos, and bewilderment; we have to listen alongside the traumatized soldier, the displaced refugee, the pregnant teenager, the addict and his heartbroken family, the activist discouraged by lack of real progress.[1] This is where Mark lives. These are the depths from which Mark proclaims God’s good news.
Mark 13 within the larger whole of this gospel serves as Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples. Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple in verse two will be referred to again at the trial scene (14:58) and at the cross (15:29). While the essential, last word for disciples in John is a command to be united in love with Christ and with one another and in Matthew and Luke the final order is to be engaged in the mission to the Gentiles, the central thrust of Jesus’ last will and testament in Mark is to watch for the coming of the Son of man. This latter command does not contradict or nullify the other two, but it does presuppose an acute awareness of the absence of the Lord, coupled with an intense yearning for the renewal of his presence.[2] Mark 13 meets the yearning of the disciples and the groanings of creation with a sure and certain hope founded on the solemn promise of Jesus in verses 30 and 31. “30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”[3] Heard in the context of all the Gospels, Mark 13 gives urgency to the church’s sense of mission and a future dimension to her fellowship of love.
The events Jesus describes are merely the “beginning of the birth pangs” (13:8). Imagine the first hearers of this gospel. Wars have broken out and the temple has been destroyed. Imagine their fear, concern, and constatation. In his final address to the disciples, Jesus addresses the harsh reality of suffering in our world. But he does so first by telling the disciples to “Beware.” With the lack of clarity on these events’ timeline, it makes sense that Jesus would warn the disciples not to be led astray by those who would claim to come in his name, claiming “I am.” It is tempting to cling to anything that promises a foothold at times when we feel everything is out of control.[4] After Jesus cautions the disciples, he tells them of the things that are to come but does not provide a timeline. Jesus has not provided us a map for which we can interpret the end times, but an invitation to be a part of God’s reconciling work. Jesus tells them these wars, earthquakes, famines, and struggles are not the culmination of the things to come. We need not try and calculate when the end shall come, we need not be alarmed! War, earthquakes, and famine will happen, but these things give way to the glorious promise of God with us. This is a grand hope. The culmination of the world will not be ecological disaster or human self-destruction. The end, completion, or perfection of the world is the Messiah Jesus.
We are nearing the end of a second pandemic year. A second year of this liminal space. A second year without travel. A second year worrying about “the spread.” A second year of disinformation campaigns and ideological struggle. A second year of anxiety and dread. A second year of wondering when we will go back to normal. Maybe we are in our own “Little Apocalypse.” A time filled with fires, hurricanes, droughts, and creation’s groaning. Maybe we like those first century Palestinians are desperate for hope. We need not look for the simple answers of those who claim to know the time and place of Jesus’ return. We need not look to those who seem to have all the answers. God invites us into a deeper relationship. A relationship built on faith, hope, and love. We are given invitation into the great mysteries of God. Questions with no answer. Paradoxes with no explanation. We are given invitation to look beyond these intellectual problems, and to enter the warming presence of our Almighty God. Where simple answers might soothe our cravings for a moment, the vast mysteries of God shall sustain us for an eternity.
The good news of Jesus’ presence may seem a fantasy in the midst of constant crisis and disaster, but his promises show that God is always about making new futures possible. This morning the promise of Jesus in chapter 13 is a promise that hits home. Heaven and earth will pass away but the enduring presence of God will not. Imagine a new future without homelessness, wealth inequality, and equal access for medical care. Imagine a new future where sustainability and harmony with creation would quench creation’s groanings. Imagine a new future where the proclamation of God with us would be realized in our church. Imagine our church being multi-generational, multi-cultural, and representative of the cultural, generational, and economic makeup of our valley. The good news for us this morning is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. We need not the prophetic word of goofy preachers deciphering the Bible like an abacus. We need not fear our end or the end of the world. Mark 13 reminds us to not be led astray by messianic claimants that cannot save us. We look for Jesus and the Spirit already at work in our valley. We are given a mission that Jesus’ promises us will be accomplished. We are given the hope of the gospel that is not just for sin, not just for the healing of our bodies, but a gospel that imagines all of creation in harmony with one another as it is reconciled to God. Imagine all the possibilities before us!
Mark 13 is a little apocalypse that exhorts us to truly believe in God’s promises. It is truly a story of promise. Yes, buildings shall pass away. Wars will rage. The environment will groan against its exploitation. All these things will truly happen, but the Spirit of God continues to testify to God’s activity with us here in the present. Our present doom pales in comparison to the glory of God which has been revealed in part and will be revealed in full at the second coming. Jesus told the man crucified next to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”[5] This is our promise that is realized in part today. Verily, we have received the first fruits of our redemption! Truly, I tell you that the work of God’s Spirit is alive and active in our church. During a time when we could have closed shop, when we could have given up, or when we could have merely worried about ourselves, we are expanding the possibilities of how we love one another and envision our church. We are utilizing technologies which make it easier for us to gather for worship, studies, and meetings. We are faithfully bringing back traditions with newfound life. I sense in our community, the Spirit of God moving us and prompting us to new possibilities in our prayers, in our worship, and in our fellowship.
[1] Elizabeth Myer, “Birth Pangs: Salt's Commentary for Twenty-Fifth Week after Pentecost” (SALT Project, November 8, 2021), https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/lectionary-commentary-for-twenty-sixth-week-after-pentecost.
[2] Lamar Williamson, Mark, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Atlanta, GA: J. Knox Press, 1983), 238.
[3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Mk 13:30–31.
[4] Amanda Brobst-Renaud, “Commentary on Mark 13:1-8,” Working Preacher (Luther Seminary), accessed November 10, 2021, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-33-2/commentary-on-mark-131-8-5.
[5] Luke 23:43.