Mark 13: No temple? No problem.

Mark 13 is one of those passages that preachers try to avoid.  Predictions, prophecy, apocalyptic sounding scenarios; few preachers relish having to explain it all.  The easiest thing to do is to avoid it altogether, but I would argue that even if we don’t totally “get it”, we can still learn some very valuable things from what Jesus says in this chapter of Mark’s gospel. 

First of all, the church’s true location is not the building where it meets, but Jesus Christ, and those who follow him as disciples.  By predicting the destruction of the temple, Jesus is showing that faith is about much more than a building.  It was a prediction that would cost Jesus dearly, as it comes up at his trial in 14:58 and at the cross 15:29 (where his words are distorted).  When he says “there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down”, it strikes a very unpatriotic claim.  And yet, when the Roman general and future emperor Titus burned the Jerusalem temple in 70 AD, unfound reserves of gold melted and ran between the cracks, leading the Roman troops to literally pry the stones apart to get to the gold.  The destruction of the temple rocked Judaism to its core, to the extent that the temple was never again rebuilt.  It is true that the Jewish faith survived in synagogues across the Middle East, and even Europe.  But things were never the same.  Contrast this to the church, whose locus is not a geographical point on a map, or a sacred building.  Rather, the church finds its home in the person of Jesus Christ.  We always view buildings as being much longer lasting than individual people, however, when Jesus Christ defeated death, he provided for us a foundation for our faith that will last for eternity.  I preached this text on the 90^th anniversary of our church meeting at its current location in Glenmora.  We’ve spent those years in two different buildings, which have undergone renovations or additions.  We’ve even added a family activity center.  All of those buildings are great tools for ministry, but our celebration wasn’t about the church building, it was about the church.  It was to mark 90 years of the church assembling, of Christians assembling for worship, in one location.  Churches sometimes perish in fires, tornadoes, or hurricanes; sometimes they have to be torn down and replaced because of age or wear-and-tear, but so long as the church locates itself in the life of Jesus Christ, it has a home impervious to destruction. 

Secondly, the church will witness great calamities, and yet remains as a faithful witness to God’s mercy and grace.  Jesus words in this chapter are haunting and foreshadowing all at once:  “when they lead you away, handing you over.”  They are words that would have spoken to the experience of the first Christians to likely receive this gospel, the church in Rome.   Many of the calamities were man-made, a result of false messiahs and prophets:

“Anyone might make himself king as the head of a band of rebels who he fell in with, and then would press on to the destruction of the community, causing trouble to few Romans and then only to a small degree but bringing the greatest slaughter upon their own people.” – Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews

There would be wars, and rumors of wars.  Think again of the Christians in Rome, undergoing persecution and at the same time hearing rumors of the war in Judea, the birthplace of their faith.   Think of the struggle of churches to remain faithful in Nazi Germany, where speaking against the evils of the regime was fraught with danger.  Think of what some of our fellow Christians have witnessed, in wars fought around the globe. 

Some of the turmoil would be from “natural disasters”, earthquakes, famines, and the like.   Just a few years after this gospel was written, Pompeii was obliterated by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.  I think of what churches in New Orleans and the surrounding area experienced with Katrina just a few years ago, as a city of hundreds of thousands was ravaged by incomprehensible forces of nature.  Think of what Christians in Japan endured with the earthquake, tsunami, and resulting destruction.  Yet despite all these things, the church remains.  In fact, it is usually the church that is found working in the midst of it all, to show mercy and compassion, testifying to the love of God, when there is very little hope for people to cling to.  Jesus was often found in the midst of illness, suffering, and death, and so the church that finds its home in him must locate itself there as well.   

Finally, the church’s mission is to set its eyes firmly on Jesus Christ, rather than the events of this world.  Jesus attempts to get his disciples to focus less on the things that will happen, and more on the one who will bring them about, the Son of Man.  The future will be determined less by signs on the earth, and more by signs in heaven.   One time in New England, a solar eclipse led to an uproar at the state house, where some assemblymen even moved to adjourn.  One man rose and said, “Mr. Speaker, if it is not the end of the world and we adjourn, we shall appear to be fools.  If it is the end of the world, I should choose to be found doing my duty.  I move you, sir, that candles be brought.”  His example is a good one.  What do we want to be found doing when Christ returns, spectating or working?  Make no mistake about it, when Jesus returns we won’t have to sit around and read the tea leaves to figure out what’s going on.   C.S. Lewis once said that when the author himself comes on the stage, the play is over.   In other words, when Jesus returns, it will be unmistakable.  Perhaps instead of lamenting the things taking place in the world around us, we should spend our time looking to the Son of Man, who has the ability to govern events both on the earth and in heaven.  Only then will we have the proper perspective to love in the midst of calamity, and go to the places most in need of God’s love.