BaptistWay Bible Series for February 10: Discipleship in Dangerous Times

Posted: 2/08/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for February 10

Discipleship in Dangerous Times

• Mark 13:1-13, 32-37

By Andrew Daugherty

Christ Church, Rockwall

Jesus has just told the disciples that the two cents a poor widow put in the offering plates were worth more than all the big checks written by the rich people. He has just given them more than a PhD’s worth of education about financial stewardship, but upon leaving the Temple, the disciples are more mesmerized by the size of the building than they are the sacrifice of the broke widow. They are stricken with an edifice complex over a stone facade that will one day be as negligible as the poor woman. Despite being an architectural phenomenon, the palatial Temple structure will one day lie as a pile of rubble. Jesus spoke matter-of-factly about the demolition of the Temple that would leave only a heap of dust and ashes.

Naturally the disciples want to know exactly when this is going to happen. Even more, they want to know what the events will be leading up to the sure-and-certain demise of this most holy site. Rather than give them a date and time to put in their Blackberries, immediately Jesus warns them about false teachers that will claim to be speaking on Christ’s behalf. He begins to describe what will be happening in the world leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple: wars and rumors of wars, nation rising up against nation, earthquakes and famines (13:7-8). About these circumstances, Jesus is quite candid, including his personal admonition that the disciples would endure difficult times, including torture, because of their association with him (13:9).

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The political and social unrest of the time is evident in Mark’s Gospel. Some believe Mark wrote after the destruction of the Temple and the war against Rome, offering insights about the meaning of its destruction in the aftermath of war. Imagine the poignancy of Mark’s account if his listeners were already witness to their friends being beaten or hauled off due to Nero’s persecution.

No doubt the people of Jesus day and Mark’s listeners would have had a sense of their world coming undone. If the life and times Jesus describes is commensurate with the experience of the people, then Jesus has a word to speak to our life and times, too. After all, his short list of the “signs of the times” is headlined each day in our morning newspapers. The news headlines then were just as bad as they are today.

Some parts of the Christian community have taken these experiences as more universal signs of the coming of the Son of Man as mentioned later in chapter thirteen. More than just a historical moment in Jewish life, the expectations of the “Day of the Lord” has been extended and applied to the contemporary expectation of Jesus’ “second coming.” Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth made him a lot of money many years ago, as he tried to uncover what even Jesus himself confessed he didn’t know: the day and hour when Christ would return. The more recent Left Behind Series suggests that a “rapture” will begin God’s end time events. In this scenario, some people will be snatched away by God while others will be left behind on earth to endure a tribulation period. Though this certainly is not the final word on the end times, it is a popular example of apocalyptic speculation that provokes a panicky sense of the future during turbulent times.

Scripture holds no classified information about the end times. However, whenever global crises arise, apocalyptic conjecture often accompanies it. Series of crises arise that make us question what exactly is going on in our world. Jesus says “keep awake,” meaning at least that our faith must bear through these disorienting episodes of natural disasters, social upheaval, political persecution, and national wars.

Penelope Duckworth, in a message called The Abomination of Desolation, echoes that apocalyptic writings emerge in times of crisis. "These ever-present forces are the well-springs of prophecy, poetry and art. But, in times of great stress, they emerge in bold and raw forms to enact perceived contemporary events on a cosmic scale. While the apocalypse is a strange form, we must not dismiss its power or influence, or even its truth."

Duckworth asks, "How can we understand apocalypse in this last decade of the twentieth century? Does it have meaning for our lives? I think it does. First of all, it speaks to our anxieties about the future. More than historical catastrophes, these passages speak to us of the last things—of the end of the world. They attempt to answer the anxious questions: Toward what end are we heading? Who or what will have the final word?

"The answer is always the same. God is in charge. Trust God through hell and back. Difficult times are to be expected, but the ultimate victory belongs to God…. Those who have trusted in God will be saved. I'm not suggesting that we simply trust and wait. Jesus taught us to live fully—to serve God and no other master; to turn to our neighbors with responsive love; and to trust that our acts of obedience justice and love will be part of God's plan.”

This message is another way of saying “Keep awake.” No matter how or when or where Christ may return, be the salt and light of the world in the meantime.

The story is told that I n colonial New England, state legislators were meeting one day when an eclipse occurred, causing the daytime sky to become very dark. Now when that happened, several of the lawmakers panicked and requested that they adjourn, thinking that the world was about to end. But then one of the legislators stood up and said: "Mr. Speaker, if we adjourn and this is not the end of the world, we will all look like fools. And if it is the end of the world, I would prefer to be found doing my duty. So I move, that candles be brought in and that we continue with our work."