By Will Kynes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
Stand Strong to the End
Matthew 24:1–14
The last two years have offered ample opportunity to imagine the end times may be upon us: A global pandemic, fires, hurricanes, political division, riots, the rumblings of World War III. But when seen in the perspective of history, these afflictions are not as unprecedented as they may feel when we live through them.
Rather than signs of the apocalypse, they are more likely symptoms of the brokenness of a fallen world.
It is OK to wonder about the end times. (1–3)
The temple was God’s house, where He came to dwell with His people (1 Kings 8:10–11). But after pronouncing prophetic woes against Jewish religious leaders for their hypocrisy, pride and violence (Matt. 23), Jesus declares, “Your house is left to you desolate” (v. 38).
Significantly, then, this passage begins, “Jesus left the temple” (Matt. 24:1). The disciples still see significance in the temple building’s physical presence. There was a time when the towers, ramparts and citadels of Zion, God’s holy city, testified to His presence (Ps. 48:12–14), but Jesus says no longer. As in the Babylonian exile, the temple in the midst of a rebellious nation will be destroyed (v. 2; cf. Ps. 74:2–8; 2 Kings 25:9, 13–15).
The disciples naturally wonder when this will occur. They understand it to be “the end of the age.” Jesus entertains their question, but His evasive answer suggests that they haven’t asked the right one.
Don’t let the traumatic events of the world deceive you. (4–8)
Instead of telling them when the end will come, Jesus describes the devastation and division that will come between now and the end: The deception of false messiahs, wars, famines and earthquakes. These are not end-time events, but the endemic effects of sin in a broken world. As Jesus says, “Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”
Jesus intends to give His disciples hope to endure, as He does in His last words to them in John 16:21–22. Jesus employs the metaphor of a woman in labor to encourage the disciples to persevere through present pain in pursuit of a greater joy.
Don’t let persecution keep you from sharing the gospel of Christ. (9–14)
Along with wars and natural disasters, Jesus prepares His disciples for the persecution they will face. He does the same in John 16:1–4, even claiming people will think killing the disciples is an offering to God.
Paul, who demonstrates this “murderous” opposition before his conversion (Acts 8:1; 9:1), paints a similar picture of the persecution Christians will face “in the last days” (2 Tim. 3:1). But his description, like Jesus’, could apply to most of human history: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:2–5, 4:3–4).
Yet the response he endorses also conforms with Jesus’ and likewise applies across time and cultures: Stand firm and declare the gospel (2 Tim. 3:14, 4:2; Matt. 24:13–14).
As in the temple and in the world as a whole, rejection of God leads to the departure of God’s presence and the suffering that accompanies sin. As a result Jesus says in John, “In the world you will have tribulation.” But he doesn’t stop there. Instead, anticipating His crucifixion and resurrection, He continues, “But take heart; I have overcome the world” (16:33).
In the midst of suffering, even suffering of apocalyptic proportions, we can have hope.
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