Jesus storms out of the temple with His disciples, having just finished tearing into the Pharisees. His disciples point out the temple buildings which had undergone significant renovation by this point, so they looked quite nice. So they may have just been making idle chatter like tourists or had some point about the temple to make since Jesus said Israel had just lost its protection. He points to the buildings and makes very clear He’s talking about the physical, literal structure this time, and says it’s all coming down.

He sits back on the Mount of Olives, from where He can see the entrance to the temple, perhaps mournfully. Things didn’t have to be like this. He wants to be their protector and care for them, but they won’t have it. These beautiful buildings unfortunately hold little purpose, so they will be destroyed, as will hundreds of thousands of Jews. The disciples ask when this will come to pass and what sign of His return to look for.

First of all, don’t be led astray. Many will come claiming to be Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, and people will fall for it. In modern times, we’ve seen a number of cult leaders appear and claim to speak for God, leading to their destruction as well as that of everyone following them. Wars, chaos, mayhem, and destruction will happen (or be claimed to have happened) but that’s just part of God’s plan and not necessarily a sign of the end times. No shortage of major wars and calamities have taken place and very frequently people claim that the end is upon us or nearly so. I’m sure during the World Wars, there were Christians expecting Jesus to appear and fix everything any second now, but here we are a century later. He speaks of nation rising against nation, natural disasters, and starvation as things to NOT ascribe Biblical and apocalyptic significance to. Bad things do happen separate from the return of Jesus. Besides which, crying wolf about Jesus returning every time there’s an artillery shot somewhere in the world is just going to discourage people from believing at all. All this misery are the beginning of birth pains. Not going into labor or giving birth, but just the earliest hint of a trend. He says that they’ll be hated by all nations and killed for His sake. Scholars are divided on how this pertains to the second coming and pre/postmil end time debates, but taken literally, all but one of the apostles is killed for supporting Jesus. Some aren’t going to accept the high price of believing in Christ and will turn away to enjoy worldly comforts and others still will go as far as to turn in friends and family to escape punishment or gain reward. All this while false prophets are popping up.

So, lets look at the picture. We’re expecting wars, human suffering, and natural disasters, but not as signs of the end in their own right. Christians are being persecuted for following the Lord, causing some to abandon the faith and others to actively turn traitor. Then new, false prophets appear, encouraging adherence to a false religion. As Christian influence diminishes and chaos expands, love for one another grows cold and nihilistic lawlessness grows. Self-serving detachment from humanity and concern only with the fleeting pleasures of this life turning people into little more than animals. Those who endure to the end will be saved. As in, if you remain loyal and faithful to Christ, then you’re good. If you fall away from the faith, not so much. Of course, then we accidentally end up discussing if you can lose your salvation or if you never had it and “once saved always saved” but that’s neither here nor there. Prep for the worst, hope for the best. If you don’t betray God, you don’t have to worry if your get out of jail theology will apply or not.

None of this is meant to interfere with the work Christians are called to do, namely spreading the gospel (literally “good news”). The good news being that God and heaven ultimately prevail and the price of entry has already been paid. That said, when you see the “abomination of desolation in the holy place”, you need to get out of town to safety. Don’t even stop to grab your things. What exactly this will look like is up for debate, some say it’s already happened, and this is more end times stuff where things get a little murky. Anyway, He says fleeing to the hills is going to be hard on pregnant or nursing women and pray it’s not in winter. Anything more about end times, timing, and tribulation I’m going to decline to speak on for now. Entire bodies of research exist to study that.

Jesus reminds you to dismiss anyone claiming to be Christ. Kind of like if a tyrannosaurus had just bit your car in half, you’d know. You wouldn’t need someone to interpret it, you wouldn’t go off rumors, it would be plainly evident. Jesus will not have to prove anything or be interpreted on His return. You will not be able to mistake it for anything else. This becomes fuzzy in the face of signs and wonders, I’ll admit. The goal is to deceive even the strongest followers and I think if someone started performing miracles, the temptation would be there. But I think the thing to hold on to is “if you have to ask, the answer is no”. If the sky rips open and somehow it’s bright on all sides of the earth and everyone can see Jesus no matter where they are, that’s probably a good indicator. He goes on to say that all the people of earth will mourn. Unsure if this includes the elect, since we’d be happy to see Him. Though I guess it still signals hard times, so at minimum anyone who wasn’t a believer is in for a rough one. Angels are sent to scoop up the faithful at least. Either way, this is going to be horrifying. God is good yeah, but this is going to be so far beyond our normal comprehension I don’t think even the most pious man alive will be mentally prepared for it.

Heaven and earth will pass away but not His words. Which is to say that when we point to the past, His words (the bible) is just as valid now as they were then. There’s no “oh well God wrote this for ancient desert people, this doesn’t apply right now”. So they need to hold onto this. It seems almost written for us living in the modern day trying to decipher when and how and what all this is in reference to. Did it already happen? Did Jesus make a wrong prophecy? No, it’s Jesus and He often speaks in a way that’s not immediately obvious and we need to trust that He didn’t just spontaneously predict the apocalypse to have a joke at our expense. To reinforce this, He says that no one knows the day or hour aside from the Father. No not even the Son. So if Jesus can’t speak on the hour of it, I don’t think some youtube video or facebook post claiming to have read the Bible upside down and backwards to decipher the HIDDEN NUMBERS that reveal the end of times actually has any idea what they’re talking about. For this reason, He says we should live as though we’re always anticipating His return, not like the people of Noah’s day, who lived their lives in blissful ignorance even as the waters rose and he boarded the Ark.

Confusing time: 2 men in a field, one will be taken and one will be left. Taken? Some believe this means he’ll die in the end times catastrophes while the other guy is protected with blessings. Others believe that everyone on Earth will die except those scooped away by angels. This is that “rapture” that people imagine happening where people just vanish (are taken) and clothes and stuff are left behind. Women are grinding at mills, one is taken. We are again reminded to stay awake, spiritually awake. You can’t sin up a storm because you can just confess next Sunday. Don’t put off baptism because you think you might not be ready. You need to live as though Jesus is coming knocking tomorrow and you aren’t going to have time to get your pants on, let alone whatever you’ve been putting off. If you KNOW Jesus is here, your window to please Him has just shut. He will come like a thief in the night. You would certainly prepare if you knew what hour that would be, but since you don’t, you need to remain vigilant. The last parable is simple because either as children or adults, most of us have experienced what He’s describing. The sensation of not knowing that your parents or boss was coming back, so you decided to goof off, only to be caught with your pants down when they returned early. Don’t do that with Jesus, of all things.