By Herb Montgomery
Note: This week we are looking at the seventh of the eight final prophecies of the nonviolent Jesus concerning the two fates that lay before Jerusalem. In each prophecy up to this point, we have seen Jesus laying out two potential paths, each having its own outcome, either life in a world made new, or annihilation. In this part, we will see that this is the final time Jesus will lay out these two contingent outcomes. In this seventh prophecy, he will do so in greater detail than he has in any prophecy up to this point. This will be the final time. His eighth prophecy, which we will look at next post, will be given while he is actually carrying his cross to Golgotha. In that moment, he will only give a warning of what is coming, for at that stage, to all appearances, Jerusalem has rejected the way of nonviolence. They have chosen a militaristic messiah instead of Jesus, a nonviolent one. But we will get to that in part 8. For now, let’s dive in.
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“Some of his disciples were
remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts
dedicated to God. But Jesus said, “As for what you see here, the time will come
when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown
down.” “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be
the sign that they are about to take place?” He replied: “Watch out that you
are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The
time is near.’ Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not
be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right
away.” (Luke
21.5-9)
The disciples are remarking about the beauty of the temple, Jesus warns of the temple’s destruction, and then the people ask how they will know when this is about to happen.
What is
missed by many is that the title used by the questioners for Jesus is “Teacher.”
The Greek word here is didaskale. In
the book of Luke, this title is never used by the disciples when addressing
Jesus. It is used 11 times in the book of Luke, and in each instance it is used
by the people—never by Jesus’s disciples.
As he did
in the fifth prophecy, Jesus responds by warning the people not to follow false
militaristic messiahs (see part 5) placing their hope in violently overpowering
Rome. Stating that these violent false messiahs will come, Jesus offers the
people another path; a path of hope.
What
Jesus lays out next are two possible futures. In the first, Jesus describes
what the future will look like if Jerusalem
should, in this final hour, turn and follow Jesus’s teachings. In the second,
he describes what the future will look like if she [Jerusalem] does not.
“Then he said to them:“Nation
will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great
earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and
great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay hands on you and
persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be
brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you
will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how
you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of
your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed
even by parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some
of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your
head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.” (Luke 21.10-19)
Jesus
initially lays out the great cosmic signs that would accompany the coming of
his Kingdom, but he is doing so as if it would happen through Jerusalem, as if
Jerusalem would still in the end embrace Jesus and be his conduit of an
enemy-loving revolution.
The
context of this whole section is vital. Luke has couched this seventh prophecy
within a time of Jesus’s ministry where the people (the ones asking the
questions here) are actually receiving and following Jesus as their messiah.
Just before this passage, Luke is careful to point out the positive response of
the people after Jesus’s behavior at the temple:
“Every
day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the
law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could
not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words” (Luke 19.47-48).
And just afterward, Luke is quick to remind us:
“Each day Jesus was
teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the
hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning
to hear him at the temple” (Luke 21.37-38).
The picture we get from Luke is that this was a time in Jesus’s
ministry when it looked as if Jerusalem might be turning the corner and
actually beginning to embrace this “narrow way” of enemy love that Jesus was
offering the people. According to Luke, Jesus is speaking here to a very large,
supportive audience. Those who are presently surrounding Jesus are farmers forced
by taxes and debt to become day laborers. They are also the destitute and the
starving who have been drawn to Jesus given his promise that his Kingdom would
restructure society in their favor. (See Luke 6.20-26.)
Jerusalem, at this time, was a large center of poverty, where
streets were lined with “beggars.” A
significant section of the population of Jerusalem lived chiefly on charity.
Jesus’s words gave this crowd hope! Therefore, Jesus’s seventh prophecy includes
what a future would look like in which Jerusalem would not be annihilated by
Rome, but instead would be the avenue through which Jesus’s Kingdom is established
once again on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Jesus speaks of the
persecution, arrest, and imprisonment this nonviolent revolution/movement,
growing out of Jerusalem, would encounter. Yet God would use all of this for
Jerusalem to “bear testimony.” Before
the great cosmic “signs” that would accompany the coming of Jesus’s kingdom,
Jesus lays out the plan for the healing of the world from the self-destructive
way of violence through the Jewish followers
of Jesus embracing their own crosses of nonviolent noncooperation. Jerusalem, if
she would in this late hour follow Jesus, would be brought before the judges of
the Roman Empire to give their testimony. (Although Jerusalem ended up
rejecting Jesus and therefore not experiencing this, we do see this is exactly
what happened with the Apostles who actually did embrace this movement that began
in the nonviolent teachings of Jesus.)
Yes, even at the hands of loved ones
Jerusalem could expect that many would be put to death, losing their lives in
this revolution, but they would not perish permanently. No, though they did not
fully understand, Jesus was saying that even if they lost their lives for the
Kingdom, their lives would be given back to them. They would find life given
back to them, not in a world as it had been, but in a whole new world, renewed,
restored, healed, once again under the reign of the nonviolent Christ. Here, Jesus
was offering, as an alternative to Jerusalem’s destruction, a transforming
nonviolent movement that would turn Jerusalem and even the entire world around.
It is well worth noting that even in this, Jesus is emphasizing the way of the
cross (both his and his followers’) as the means of transformation.
Then
Jesus quickly warns of another possible outcome if Jerusalem should end up
rejecting Jesus. Jerusalem’s fate was on the edge of the blade during this
final week of Jesus’ life. His Kingdom could come through them if they embraced
his way of nonviolent enemy love. But
if Jerusalem did, in the end, choose to remain on their path of violent, eye-for-an-eye,
punitive retribution toward the Romans, Jesus is quick to warn of Jerusalem’s
possible annihilation and the coming of the “times of the Nations”:
“When you see Jerusalem being
surrounded by armies, you will know that its DESOLATION [rather
then restoration] is near. THEN let those who are in Judea FLEE to the mountains, let those in the
city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the
time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it
will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be
great distress in the land and wrath against this people. THEY WILL FALL BY THE SWORD AND WILL BE TAKEN AS PRISONERS TO ALL THE
NATIONS. JERUSALEM WILL BE TRAMPLED ON BY THE NATIONS UNTIL THE TIMES OF THE NATIONS
ARE FULFILLED.” (Luke 21.20-24, emphasis added.)
But this
next section is the best part of Jesus’s seventh prophecy. Even if Jerusalem should be annihilated, even
if the nations wiped her out, Jesus’s Kingdom would still come. The nonviolent
reign of Christ would still ultimately triumph even if Jerusalem and the temple
should be no more.
Jesus is saying that the Kingdom could come through
Jerusalem, if she so chose. Yet even if she rejected this Kingdom of nonviolent,
enemy love, she would be destroyed by her enemies, and the Kingdom would still come. If Jerusalem chose the way
of annihilation, the “times of the Nations” would then ensue. But even given this worst-case scenario, the
“times of the Nations” would also have their limits. The prophecies of the Son
of Man would be fulfilled: “He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language
worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion” (Daniel 7.14).
Jesus
describes the coming of his Kingdom if rejection of Jesus, Jerusalem’s
destruction, and the victory of the Nations (i.e. “the times of the Nations”)
should be the path Jerusalem would choose.
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and
stars. On the earth, NATIONS will be
in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will
faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the
heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time THEY will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to
take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing
near.” He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When
they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even
so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21.25-32, emphasis added).
The
imagery of the sea and the waves, in the culture to which Jesus was speaking,
had long been used to refer to the Gentile world:
“Woe to the many
nations that rage! They rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who
roar—they roar like the roaring of great waters!” (Isaiah 17.12).
“Reach down your hand from on high;
deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners” (Psalms 144.7).
John, too, uses this imagery for the times of the Nations in his
Apocalypse:
“Then the angel said to me, ‘The
waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and
languages’” (Revelation 17.15).
The heavenly bodies were identified by the Jewish people with the
gods of Greco-Roman religion and regarded by them as “the powers” which
presided over the pagan nations.
“In that day the LORD will punish
the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below” (Isaiah 24.21).
“Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is on all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter . . . All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall” (Isaiah 34.1-4, see also Ephesians 6.12).
What Jesus is explaining in the passage here from Luke is that
even if Jerusalem falls to Rome, there is nothing permanent in Gentile
domination. In the end, the reign of the nonviolent Christ will be restored.
Jerusalem could be a significant part of that, or she could become a stepping
stone herself, in her destruction, toward that end. Ultimately, all nations,
including Jerusalem, would be judged in history from the standpoint of a new, nonviolent
humanity centered on Christ.
The idea that the path of violence would end in destruction was
not only for the Jews. Unless “the nations” would turn and be transformed, the
nations too would destroy themselves by their violence, each in turn, until
Christ’s Kingdom is the last Kingdom standing. (This is the mustard seed
prophecy in which the Kingdom of Christ is growing subversively all while “nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom” till the last Kingdom standing is the Christ’s. (See Luke 13.19, Revelation 11.15)
Yet, even this second option had contingencies. Even if Jerusalem did reject and crucify Jesus, even then, she was not beyond repenting still, turning from violence and embracing Jesus’s upside-down
kingdom in which the poor and suffering are given first place and in which we
love our enemies:
“He told them, ‘This is what
is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name TO ALL NATIONS, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke 24.46-47).
If Jerusalem should reject and crucify Jesus, she would be no
different from any other nation, but would still be called to submit to the
nonviolent reign of Jesus and His Kingdom, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
What we see Jesus doing here is describing a revolution, an
alternative to destruction. Every
generation faces these inflexible alternatives: violence and annihilation, or
nonviolent, enemy-embracing, enemy-forgiving love, and thus eternal life in a
world made new. Transformation or annihilation—these are the inflexible alternatives Jesus sets before us. These
are the events, the alternatives, that the “generation” Jesus was speaking to
that day would see transpire before them.
Which path would they choose?
“Truly I tell you, this generation will
certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth
will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Luke 21.33)
When
will the nonviolent, enemy-embracing Kingdom of God come for our generation? It comes right now. Our
choice right now, globally, is the same as was Jerusalem’s. It is a choice
between the inflexible alternatives, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also said,
of “nonviolence or nonexistence.” Our generation too will choose either the
nonviolent Kingdom that Jesus told us is within our power, thereby bringing
healing to the world, our we will choose the horrific alternative of annihilation.
“Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these
things have happened.”
I close
this look at Jesus’s seventh prophecy with the hope that is found in the
following passages. Hoping against hope
that it will give you, dear reader, the courage to believe in the healing power
of Jesus’s Kingdom of nonviolent, enemy forgiveness and love as well.
Our
world doesn’t have to end in annihilation, but our world must end, and a new
world begin. Either way, the nonviolent reign of Christ must—and will—come. Will we be a part of that
revolution, or as in Jerusalem, will it pass us by, leaving us to our own
demise? I still hold out hope:
“He was given authority, glory and sovereign
power; ALL NATIONS and peoples of
every language worshipped him. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is
one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7.14)
“Who
will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. ALL NATIONS will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been
revealed.” (Revelation 15.4)
“THE NATIONS will walk by its light, and THE
KINGS OF THE EARTH will bring their
splendor into it.” (Revelation 21.24)
“On each
side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS.” (Revelation
22.2)
The nonviolent revolution, the enemy-embracing Kingdom, starts now! Till the only world that remains is a world where this love reigns.
Our Lord
has come! Let us follow the nonviolent Lamb.
-Herb
Montgomery
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