Proper 28 (33) (Year C)
5Some people were talking about the temple, how it was decorated with beautiful stones and ornaments dedicated to God. Jesus said, 6“As for the things you’re admiring, the time is coming when not even one stone will be left upon another. All will be demolished.”
7They asked him, “Teacher, when will these things happen? What sign will show that these things are about to happen?”
8Jesus said, “Watch out that you aren’t deceived. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I’m the one!’ and ‘It’s time!’ Don’t follow them. 9When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end won’t happen immediately.”
10Then Jesus said to them, “Nations and kingdoms will fight against each other. 11There will be great earthquakes and wide-scale food shortages and epidemics. There will also be terrifying sights and great signs in the sky. 12But before all this occurs, they’ll take you into custody and harass you because of your faith. They’ll hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you’ll be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13This will provide you with an opportunity to testify. 14Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance. 15I’ll give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to counter or contradict. 16You’ll be betrayed by your parents, sisters and brothers, relatives, and friends. They’ll execute some of you. 17Everyone will hate you because of my name. 18Still, not a hair on your heads will be lost. 19By holding fast, you’ll gain your lives.”
Prayer:
Blessed God, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of the Life of the Ages, which you’ve given us in our Savior Jesus the Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
I have to say it was really hard to choose which lesson I would use for my reflection today. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to use the passage from Isaiah (one of my personal favorites) or the Gospel Lesson (since it’s an often misunderstood passage and I’ve addressed its parallel passage from Matthew). I chose the Gospel passage as I prefer to go with the words of Jesus over others voices.[2]
One of the methods I use when I “inwardly digest” the scriptures is from Ignatian Spirituality — imagination. That is, one places oneself within the story. Be a person in the crowd. Smell the dust in the air. Feel the breeze on your face. Listen to the bustle of the crowds or hear the birds in the air. Feel the chill from the sea and then the warmth from the fire. Taste the fish and the bread. Drink the wine at the wedding in Cana. When we do this, the stories take us to a deeper level. It helps us grasp how the original audiences would have understood what was being said or happening.
I remember being at a men’s Bible study once and was asked if I would lead the group in this passage (and its parallels) since I’ve studied eschatology for many years. I was eager to help others see a better way of understanding the supposed “end times” than most are accustomed, especially where I live. So I attacked the passage with the same prayer, passion, and dedication I usually do. When the night arrived, I was prepared.
Or so I thought.
I guess I was naïve to think that people were open to other views of the passage. It seemed all they wanted was some insight to more of the same: we’re living in the “end time” and the passage is speaking to us about things we’ll experience.
I went through the normal introduction — the disciples asked Jesus about things they’d experience and Jesus answered them. He said “you” 20 times in the passage above. “If we’d been standing there with them,” I asked, “what would we think when Jesus said, ‘Watch out that you aren’t deceived.’ — that he was speaking to us or to other followers thousands of years in the future? Certainly, we would have thought Jesus was speaking to us. Clearly, then, Jesus was speaking to the disciples, his original audience, about things they’d experience.”
Except.
The group was quick to point out the “great earthquakes and wide-scale food shortages and epidemics” that were in the news as if the things we face are somehow worse than the things the first century followers experienced. And, since that seemed to be the case, Jesus wasn’t actually speaking about things the first century people would go through; he was clearly speaking about “our time.”
No matter how hard I tried to steer the conversation back to the context, it would always spin quickly out of control and jump back to something happening in the news. It was like I wasn’t even there!
“But that’s not what Je …” I’d protest.
“Did you guys see that news story about …” someone interrupted.
“It sounds like it could be about anyone’s time,” someone else said.
“If that’s the case,” I countered, “how is this helpful to the disciples?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the disciples asked Jesus when the Temple would be destroyed and what they should be looking out for. And Jesus replied, ‘Watch out that you — the disciples — aren’t deceived.”
“No, he meant the people who saw the things he was talking about. And that’s us.”
I just sat there with a blank look on my face and shook my head.
And that was pretty much how the whole evening went. It was a disaster.
Now, I don’t know if anything I said at that meeting planted a seed or caused someone to question their views, but I’d like to think so. That’s the only thing keeping me moving, working, serving, writing.
When we place ourselves in the story above — not move the story into our time but move ourselves into their time — we quickly see that Jesus was, indeed, talking to them about things they and their contemporaries would experience. They were admiring the Temple that was then standing and Jesus told them that it would be demolished. This was accomplished in 70 CE.[3]
By placing ourselves into the biblical story, we can be released from the fear and terror of those who take scripture and twist it out of context with tales of a supposed coming apocalypse. We can see that the story is not about our time, as some would have us believe, but about the time of the disciples and their contemporaries. May God grant us the courage to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest holy scripture as to not be led astray by fictitious fables but, with the holy imagination, be immersed within the story to listen, see, identify, grasp, and absorb the context of the original setting and audience so we can then implement the full nature of what’s being communicated.
~~~
In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
[2] And, yes, I’m aware that we can’t “prove” 100% that Jesus said these things but we can get pretty close. See here and here. Furthermore, traditionally, it’s been understood that Jesus actually said most of the words as recorded by the Gospels.
[3] To find out more about this way of seeing the “end times,” check out my series, New Testament Eschatology.
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