“As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’ ‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’” (Mark 13:1-2)
On July 24, 2001 billionaire Larry Silverstein signed a 99-year lease for the biggest real estate deal in New York history. He paid $3.2 billion for the hottest piece of property on Manhattan and took control of the 10.6-million-square-foot World Trade Center. Yet his boasting over the deal was short lived. Fifty-three days later, on September 11, his 110-story Twin Towers lay in the heap of ruins. The Twin Towers were built to last hundreds of years. But they had less than two months of life left.
This chapter begins with Jesus foreseeing a similar fate for the temple. This was King Herod’s Temple, which was larger and more adorned than either Solomon’s or Zerubbabel’s Temples. It was the most spectacular building the disciples had ever seen, and they couldn’t help sharing their excitement over it with Jesus. Yet, Jesus let them in on a disturbing secret. The time would soon come when this glorious temple would be completely leveled, without one stone remaining on another. This took place forty years later, in AD 70, when the Roman army razed it to the ground.
Jesus took no delight in pouring cold water on His disciples’ enthusiasm for the Temple. But He needed them to focus their attention on His Second Coming so they would prepare for it by evangelizing the world.
Often times it takes a calamitous event to remind us that this present world is passing away and we must focus on the world-to-come. And, sure enough, Jesus’ shocking prediction concerning the temple led to one of the lengthiest discussions on the end times and Christ’s Second Coming.
What will Christ have to do in our lives to direct our attention and affections from this life onto the next? Will disappointment come? Will promotions and pay raises be denied us in this life, so that we’ll begin to look ahead to our eternal reward? Will our thirst for recognition go unsatisfied, to make us ore earnestly yearn for Christ’s “Well done, good and faithful servant”? The Scripture commands us, “Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on the things of this earth” (Colossians 3:1-2).
REFLECTION
- Have you ever been passed over for promotion? Have your sacrifices and achievements ever gone unnoticed and unrecognized?
- Did you become embittered – or did you look ahead to Christ’s reward?
- Let the disappointment and tragedy in this life prepare you for heaven.
