This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Mark 13:1-13. The English Standard Version presents the reading as two passages. It supplies the headings “Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple,” (verses 1-2) and “Signs of the Close of the Age” (verses 3-13).
We must read the passages with an interpretive tool which Jesus supplied earlier. You can find it in Mark 11.
Mark 11 tells us Jesus made a final, triumphant entry into Jerusalem. He arrived on a donkey. He entered the Temple. He looked around. It was late. He left. He returned the next day. He overthrew tables. Drove out traders. Stopped traffic. He left. He cursed a fig tree.
Many bibles supply headings like “Jesus cleanses the Temple” to the account of what Jesus did in the Temple.
Some scholars suggest a better title would be “Jesus shuts down the Temple.” I agree with these scholars. Because Jesus said he cursed the fig tree since it had only leaves. No fruit. This is how Mark puts it:
When [Jesus] came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
A few sentences later, in verse 20, Mark tells us Jesus’ little band saw that “the fig tree [had] withered away to its roots.”
Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree is an enacted parable. A tree which doesn’t bear fruit must be cut down. A temple which doesn’t bear fruit must be cut down.
How did the Temple not bear fruit?
Those who worked the Temple worked it for their own benefit, not for the benefit of God and society. That’s the gist of what I said last week, when I explained why Jesus so often confronted scribes who promoted, defended, and sustained the Judaism of the day.
The religious teachers and leaders got it. They understood what Jesus did. We read in Mark 11:18,
“… the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him …”
Do you see the Temple in the fig tree? Do you see that when Jesus entered the scene, it was already late? It was time’s up. Do you see why he disrupted Temple operations? Do you see that the withering of the tree “from the roots” is the withering of Temple-rooted Judaism?
That’s the background to verses 1-2 in today’s reading.
In verse 3, Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives. He’s looking at the entrance of the Temple which he had left. Which he had “left” just like God’s presence had “left” the same entrance once before. Shortly before it was destroyed. As narrated by the prophet Ezekiel (Ez 10:18-19).
In verses 1-2, one disciple shares with Jesus his joy in the splendour of the Temple. As I said in a footnote last week, this was King Herod’s revision of the second Temple. It was the grandest structure of the time.
The Jewish leaders of the day thought poorly of Herod. But they gloried in the Temple he built. He’d built it of massive, beautifully cut and polished stones of white marble.
Much of the Temple was covered in gold. The leaders said things like “He who has not seen Herod’s Temple has never seen a beautiful building.” This was the Temple which Jesus said would be utterly destroyed.
Now, let’s turn to the next portion of the reading.
Mark points out that Jesus said there will be many false readings of tragic events in our world. Tragic events such as wars, earthquakes and famines. “False readings,” because people will “read” these events as signs of the end of the age. But actually, they’re birth pangs.
Mark is concerned about false preachers, messiahs. He reports that Jesus said,
“Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.”
It’s very likely that Mark was writing while the Temple was under siege by the Romans. Over the years, militaristic, rebel leaders had captured the imaginations of large numbers of the Jews.
Together, they rose up and rebelled against Roman rule. They believed that God would protect his Temple. In AD 66, They succeeded in evicting the Romans. They established a revolutionary government.
Emperor Nero in Rome responded. He sent a general, Vespasian, to crush the rebellion. Vespasian was victorious over most of Judea. He began planning an assault against Jerusalem.
But he returned to Rome when Nero died in AD 68. In AD 70, Vespasian’s son Titus overwhelmed Jerusalem. He looted and destroyed the Temple. Not one stone remained upon another. Just like Jesus had predicted.
The Romans brought some leaders of the revolt to Rome and marched them as prisoners in a victory parade, before punishing them. Some were executed. Some were imprisoned. Some were enslaved.
The Romans put up two arches in Rome to mark their crushing of the Jews.
They also used some of the Temple’s gold to mint coins. On the coins, they put the inscription “Judea defeated.”
The website Livius.org has many articles on ancient history. The one titled Titus’ siege of Jerusalem helped me grasp the extent of loss fed by the false belief that God would protect the Temple, a failed institution.
Many today say, based on their reading of certain Bible passages,[1] that a new Temple will be built on Mount Zion.
But I see the Temple in the fig tree. I see the Temple as the root of a Judaism which has been made extinct – because we have a new High Priest in heaven, as the book of Hebrews tells us.[2] I see the Temple as dead, never to rise again – unlike Jesus who died and was raised again.
Recall the gospel’s stories of two women who gave so much. One gave her last two small coins to a Temple doomed forever (Mark 12:41-44). Another gave very expensive perfume to anoint Jesus, the “Temple” who would be destroyed, then, three days later,[3] would rise again (Mark 14:3-9).
Now, I’ll offer a final thought on this reading. Verses 9-13, warn us that we’ll be persecuted for our faith, and that God will help us in our moments of need.
Why do some bibles supply the heading “Signs of the Close of the Age”? Is it to encourage us to read the signs? Or is it to warn us to beware the temptation, as we endure persecution, to make false readings?
Are we enduring persecutions because of our faith?
Peace be with you.
[1] For example, Ezekiel 40-48; Daniel 9:24-27; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.
[3] See John 2:19; Luke 24:46; Matthew 27:63.
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