Matthew 24 - part 1

C.S. Lewis was a brilliant man. Language is a primary human means of expression and understanding human thoughts; Lewis had a gift for languages. In other words, he had a gift for understanding things. He was fluent in something like seven or eight of them by the time he finished the English equivalent of high school. Like I said, a brilliant man.

But even the most brilliant men can be wrong. Lewis once wrote that Jesus was mistaken when He said that the events of Matthew 24 would happen in the lifetimes of the people within earshot. Now, Mr. Lewis meant this an example of how the Bible could be trusted, since it recorded even its own flaws, though most evangelicals (myself included) could have done without this little bit of corroborating "evidence".

Lewis was wrong. The Bible never records Jesus' mistakes. How could it. He never made any.

24:1-2 -- Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to Him to call His attention to the buildings. "Do you see all these things? He asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.


In the spring of 70 AD the city of Jerusalem fell to the Romans. A last group of defenders rallied inside of the temple, probably believing that God would protect them while they were inside. The Romans burned them out and in doing so, the gold leaf on the ceiling, as well as the golden nails that pointed up from the roof (to keep the birds off) melted into the stones. For days the Romans pulled the stones off of each other, one by one, in order to pry out the gold after it had cooled.

For reasons we will discuss in the next post, the disciples were a tad disconcerted by the prophecy. They asked Jesus about this, his coming and "the end of the age".

24:4-5 -- Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name claiming, ' I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.


Jesus wasn't kidding. During the Roman occupation (63 BC to 135 AD) historians have identified forty different 'Christs'. These were Jewish military leaders who promised 'salvation' from the Romans. And yes, they deceived many, which is why the Romans kept bringing legions in to put down the rebellions.

After this Jesus says the end is still to come and gives a vague, ominous statement of wars and famine.

24:9 -- Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death...

Eleven of the twelve disciples were martyred. Only John lived out his natural life, dying somewhere toward the end of the first century.

After this, Jesus covers the next nineteen centuries in the span of two sentences:

24:12-14 -- Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm till the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

You could preach a sermon on verse 12. Probably fill a book with all the pregnant meanings in those three verses. For now, just notice that Jesus has spent most of his time so far addressing the specific, near-term future of the people to whom He is speaking. After that He gives a brief, "Then a bunch of stuff happens and the world ends" summary.

Now He goes back to the near future of the disciples and early church members:

24:15-16 -- So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel -- let the reader understand -- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

According to early church records, when the Romans under Titus were approaching Jerusalem the church located in the city did just what this passage told them to do: they ran for it. The record doesn't say exactly why, but apparently they took this passage to mean that just like Antiochus' approach in 168 BC the next approach will mean a repeat of death and mayhem at the hands of the pagans. And this turned out to be the wise interpretation since nearly all the people who stays were killed after a long, horrific siege. Josephus lays out the gory details in his history, The Jewish Wars, I won't go into the carnage except to say that Jesus' statement in verse 21 "for there will be a great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equaled again," was certainly true for His people, the Jews. This was the worst they ever had it.

Time to play with the kids. I'll start with "...wherever there is a carcass" next.