Tuesday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 28, 2023

Luke 21, 5-11

While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”  Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”

“Some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings.”  The spectacular Temple in Jerusalem with its broad porch and enormous courtyards dazzled the eye forty years before the Romans destroyed it.  Few temples in the ancient world rivaled it, and the Jews rightly took great pride in it.  It presented a sign of God’s presence among his chosen people and also reminded the people of their past glory, for as much as possible, it was modeled on the Temple Solomon had built a thousand years before.  And like .solomon’s Temple in its day, it seemed like it would last forever.  “All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”  The Lord’s words, approaching blasphemy, must have shocked his hearers into silence.  First, those who had followed him from Galilee and acclaimed him as king when he entered Jerusalem a few days before, believed that he had come to proclaim the restoration of David’s kingdom.  They had become convinced that a new great age for Israel was about to begin, and here was the One whom they expected to begin it announcing that instead Israel was coming to its end.  And the devastation of the Temple would be total, exceeding even that wrought by the Babylonians on the original Temple.  

“Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”  When the people regained their voices this asked in hushed tones about the timing.  They do not scoff, they do not ask why.  They ask when, that is, How soon?  They believe in him even after hearing these terrible words.  Perhaps their minds went back to the Prophet Jeremiah who foretold the destruction of Jerusalem if the people did not repent from their idol worship, but no one at the time believed him.  “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!”  That is, claiming to be the Son of Man.  “Many will come”.  He does not say over the space of how much time they will come.  But the proof that none of these is the Son of Man returned from heaven is that they make the claim and then declare that the end has arrived.  And indeed, many, many people have come forth over the centuries claiming to be experts or prophets and announcing that the world will end due to this or that cause, but it has not.  Teaching that the world will end in the very near future through earthquakes induced by the lineup of the planets, or overpopulation, or over cooling, or overheating,  pollution, or by the bombardment of large meteorites has become a cottage industry.  This is because people who panic spend money and yield power to those who panic them.  And then there are the religious charlatans who form cults which sometimes become established religions after their prophecies do not come true.  “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”  The next war, the next drought, the next flood, the next fall of an empire does not portend the end of the world.  The coming of the Lord will happen at a time no one expects.

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”  The lectionary Gospel Reading cuts off here, but in the Gospel of Luke the Lord goes on to say, “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you” (Luke 21, 12).  Perhaps the greatest sign that the world is nearing its end is a persecution.  St. Matthew gives the Lord’s description of how grievous this shall be: “[A] great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be again. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24, 21-22).  The persecution will cause so many to apostatize that in another place the Lord wonders if when he comes again any faithful people will remain (cf. Luke 18, 8). 

It is necessary for us who want to be saved to pay attention for the signs that the Lord Jesus gives and not to put too much stock in the predictions of any others.  In tomorrow’s Gospel Reading the Lord will teach us what to do in any persecution or temptation against our faith, pertaining most of all to the end of the age.