Seeds for 01/17/2024 - Matthew 24:15-35

Scripture: “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

“If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.

“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

“Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Observation: In the context of the immediately preceding text, these words from Jesus could refer to the destruction of the temple. Two things He says would support this line of thought. First, His specific prediction referencing the temple in verses 1-2:

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when His disciples came up to Him to call His attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Second, His comment in verse 34 that this generation will experience what He describes:

Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

The manner in which He speaks in the text today suggests a cataclysmic and disorienting event. The destruction of the Jewish temple in AD 70, as the center of worship, scripture instruction, and community life, would have been experienced that way. So perhaps that’s it.

That said, this chapter has sometimes been grafted into overarching conceptions of the End Times. This is understandable since it draws on a variety of prophetic texts from the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Daniel. The scenes that Jesus describes, whether read as metaphorical imagery or as literal descriptions, evoke similar visuals from passages both in the OT prophets and John’s Revelation. So it’s not unusual for Christians to see this chapter as comporting with an End Times model.

The truth is that there’s no particular way of understanding the End Times that has been canonized for orthodox Christianity. The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds—the essential, historic standards for traditional orthodox Christian belief—sum the topic up similarly and briefly: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.” (Nicene Creed) That’s it. Ascribing to one or another theory of the End Times simply is not a litmus text for biblical Christianity.

So let us imagine being the disciples and hearing Jesus speak in that moment. What is the overall sense that we get from Jesus’ words? What does He want us to understand? In the midst of all this unsettling, confusing, even frightening talk, what I comprehend clearly is the importance of knowing Jesus and holding fast to Him. This is a continuation of Jesus’ conversation with the disciples that we began reading yesterday. The theme is staying close to Him no matter what happens. The key for me is found in verse 23:

At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.

False messiahs—false saviors—abounded in the first century. False saviors abound today as well, demanding our faith and trust, promising deliverance and offering to make us whole. They are counterfeits. Know the real thing, Jesus of Nazareth. Know Him well and accept no other.

Application:

• What false saviors/deliverers stand out to you today?

• What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?

Prayer: Lord, give me ever deepening faith in you and ever more dogged loyalty to you. Amen.

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“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

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