NOTES for Mar 13:1-37

Today we read a passage in which Jesus speaks to the disciples about what is coming, about what awaits them and their descendants. This speech of Jesus is the longest one in Mark. Let us listen to it more attentively: what prompted the conversation? what can be said about the disciples' attitude toward Jerusalem and its temple?

Jesus' own words can be divided into three parts: about the destruction of Jerusalem, about His return and the end of this world, and two parables. The intersection of these themes can seem unexpected, but prophecy is not a chronological account of the future. It is, rather, various images of it, so that in the destruction of Jerusalem one can also see the end of this world.

It is interesting to trace whether the disciples' initial curiosity receives an answer. It appears that a direct answer sounds only at the very end of the chapter: in the parable of the fig tree He speaks about signs. But about the exact time it is said that it is hidden from everyone except the Father. And if He himself is what matters to us, then we must keep watch, like the doorkeeper in the second parable. This final summons will help us hear all the other words of Jesus as well, which seem to stand apart from the disciples' question: He is addressing each of us personally.

If Jesus does not answer the disciples' question before verse 28, then what is He speaking about in verses 5-27? What stands out is how often Jesus addresses them directly. Jesus is concerned not so much with the future itself as with people, His disciples, in that future. Jesus makes them understand that what they need most in this life is God and His guidance, something that is especially visible "against the background" of the end.

When reading this chapter, a natural feeling often arises: although one would very much not want to take part in the events described, there is one thing to be glad about. If all this does happen, then (vv. 19-20 and vv. 24-27) Jesus will return and save His chosen ones. He is God and Savior.

When speaking of the imminent destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the end of time, Jesus undoubtedly has in mind not a distant future, but a near and even very near one: the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, following the anti-Roman revolt begun by the Zealots, only a few decades after the conversation reported by the evangelist. Jesus mentions ‘pains’ (the corresponding Greek word literally means ‘birth pangs’, or the pain experienced in childbirth), pointing to famine, epidemics, natural disasters and wars as their source and root (such is the meaning of the corresponding Greek word, which literally means ‘beginning’, ‘cause’, ‘source’). The ‘pains’ mentioned by the Saviour are clearly connected with the birth of something new—in this case the Kingdom, which, as He repeatedly said, must sprout in the world like a seed cast into the earth.

These ‘pains’ clearly refer to what Jewish tradition usually calls the ‘messianic tribulations’: persecutions and upheavals that fall upon God's people just before the coming of the Messiah, signalling the imminent advent of the messianic age and the establishment of the messianic Kingdom. Evidently these are the tribulations of which Jesus speaks, for alongside famine, epidemics, earthquakes and wars comes the persecution of His disciples. All this takes place against a backdrop of numerous false messiahs springing up like mushrooms after rain, drawing the gullible after them only to abandon them to their fate.

There were indeed many such false messiahs at that time. All of them called for rebellion and war, and all such uprisings ended in punitive expeditions. Their leaders often managed to slip away, while punishment fell on those who would not or could not flee in time. Thus, according to the Saviour's words, history turns out to end with the end of the Second Temple, built long before by the repatriates who had returned to Judaea from Babylon. Everything that follows is no longer the old history running its course, but something new, unfolding according to different, new laws.

In the Gospel reading we read of Christ's Second Coming, before which there will be wars and diseases, and many will be deceived. But ‘the Gospel must first be preached to all nations’. The Gospel is not only a law but also a part of our world. It is the very world in which a Christian lives. And not only the spiritual world, but also the world as the earth, the universe. For what happens on the day of the Second Coming will be the end of the world. Our entire world, created by God, is Christ. At the very beginning of the apostle Peter's epistle we read these remarkable words of blessing: ‘May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord.’ This is a call to study the Gospel continually, to work continually for the glory of Christ and according to His commandments. To each person and to the whole world have been given promises which the apostle calls precious and great. These are promises of eternal life in Christ. And a terrible fate awaits the person who has lived without Christ, following the ways of this world. Therefore, in His infinite mercy, He calls for this knowledge to be preached to everyone and for everyone to be given the opportunity to follow the way of the Gospel. Those who have been given this opportunity and have chosen this path must ‘make their calling and election sure’. And follow Christ through everything that lies ahead for us and for the world.

What are the ‘pains’ whose ‘beginning’ is marked by wars and rumours of coming wars, of which Jesus speaks? Of course, any war, especially one that lasts a considerable time, is almost always accompanied by devastation, and therefore by famine, disease and other social calamities. In this case, however, judging by the context, Jesus is speaking of what Judaism sometimes calls the ‘messianic woes’: the persecutions and upheavals that precede the coming of the Messiah and the advent of the Kingdom. Wars and rumours are spoken of not only as the beginning, but also — according to the meaning of the corresponding Greek word — as the source and root cause of the ‘messianic woes’. These would seem to be entirely different things: wars have always existed in the fallen world and always will, whereas the ‘messianic woes’ are directly connected with the coming of the Messiah or His return, which would seem to be in no way dependent on wars started by human will. And yet every war is a serious spiritual trial. It exhausts those fighting it not only physically but spiritually as well. Then the principle that ‘things break at their weakest point’ comes into play: with such spiritual exhaustion, all kinds of spiritual breakdowns are possible, but on the other hand, direct intervention by God can always be expected too. Of course, this does not mean that any particular war will necessarily lead to the end of time. But it may become the beginning of the end. And it is worth being ready for that.

As far as we can judge, the Lord Jesus Christ’s prediction of coming disasters refers first of all to the destruction of Jerusalem that was to occur in AD 70. This tragedy still lay in the future when the evangelists, including Mark, wrote down their accounts. Yet what the Lord says next is striking. His words can be applied to practically any time, to any era of human history. We can therefore see in these words a brief summary of the way the history of the world always unfolds, in every age.

The Lord speaks of natural disasters and conflicts between kingdoms, of wars and famine. The Lord speaks of the things that frighten us in every age and make us die of terror and the expectation of calamity. But that is not what matters! “Watch yourselves,” the Lord says to the disciples in Mark’s account. “All this will take place, but the end is not yet,” Matthew conveys His words. “When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near,” Luke records. The preaching of the Gospel is what matters most. It is this that determines the time for the end of history: the time when every person will receive the opportunity to turn to God. Through all the upheavals of tragic history, the Lord calls His disciples to think first of all about God and His Kingdom.

This is important because for centuries people have looked in the events of their own time for signs of the approaching end of the world. But such signs can easily be found at any time. And at every time, Christ’s disciples need faith and faithfulness in order to fulfill His commandment of love. According to the evangelists, this alone gives meaning and purpose to the painful history of humankind.

For pagans, the destruction of a temple was a real tragedy, because they thought that the god perished along with it. This is the essence of idolatry. The destruction of the Temple built by Solomon, on the contrary, becomes an event of immense spiritual significance. Yet the paradox is that its outward appearance differed little from that of certain pagan sanctuaries. As excavations have shown, in its architecture Solomon's Temple was a ‘typical Phoenician temple’ (G. Wright) (quoted in A. Men, Introduction to the Old Testament (RU)). That is precisely why, when the disciples draw their Teacher's attention to the Temple's outward appearance, Christ does not share their enthusiasm but prophesies its destruction.

But perhaps the most important thing to recall as we reflect on today's reading is Christ's conversation with the Samaritan woman, and the words Jesus spoke to her: ‘But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth’ (Jn 4:23–24). This enables the Temple, broken into fragments scattered throughout the world—fragments taking the form of churches of different denominations—to trace itself back spiritually to the one Temple that was once destroyed, just as had been foretold.

Buildings are collapsing again; once more, as in every age, wars break out and rumours of wars spread. Well, even now this is not the end, but still only the beginning of birth pangs. Yet, as in past centuries, we who know neither the day nor the hour are advised to beware of spiritual counterfeits coming from those who put on a pious mask. After all, those who bring death in our own day are also convinced that they serve God... Perhaps it is no coincidence that Christ's warning about impostors who will come in His name stands alongside His words about the need not to confuse the Second Coming with the cataclysms of earthly history. For even today we constantly encounter false teachers who claim a special spirituality, and many of them preach that the end of the world is near.
In any event, we must watch ourselves and be ready to answer for the character of our faith and deeds.

As a rule, every new war gives rise among Christians to rumours and talk of the ‘last days’, of the approaching end, and of everything else that today's Christians associate with such events. And today's passage would seem to give these speculations ample grounds, although Jesus' prophecy refers directly to the events of AD 70, when, shortly before the anti-Roman revolt that began that year, Palestine was indeed full of rumours about the imminent end of history, about the Messiah and the coming messianic war, and about the imminent triumph of the Kingdom. All kinds of ‘messiahs’ were also springing up like mushrooms after rain in those days, so Jesus' warnings were by no means unnecessary.

But He does not speak of wars and alarming rumours as the first of the calamities preceding His return—in the Russian Synodal translation these calamities are called ‘pains’. He calls them the very source of those troubles: the corresponding Greek word means ‘beginning’ in precisely this sense. And the source of all humanity's troubles, it seems, has always been the same: mutual aggression that gives rise to wars, aggressive religiosity that feeds them, and the human tendency towards credulity that makes people believe the ‘messiahs’ and ‘prophets’ who promote such religiosity.

It would not be surprising if some new paroxysm of this madness became humanity's final historical cataclysm, after which Jesus would indeed return to intervene personally in events. But there is no point in speculating here about times and dates: even Jesus Himself did not attempt to determine them in advance.

The word that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to the disciples on the Mount of Olives is very difficult to fulfill. The Lord speaks about the end times, about catastrophes and horrors: nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom... All this presents real dangers for us, and it is completely natural that we think and speak about such events. In essence, instinctively, in every catastrophe we see symptoms of the approaching end. In conveying this same conversation of the Lord with the disciples, the evangelist Luke gives us a strikingly exact formulation: "people will faint from fear and expectation of what is coming" (Luke 21:26).

And at the same time the Lord commands the disciples: "...watch yourselves..." This does not mean that we should not pay attention to what is happening in the world around us. On the contrary, the Lord tells the disciples: "pray," so that for the sake of the prayer of the elect this time of catastrophes may be shortened. But, as the evangelist Mark conveys this thought in the passage read today, we can observe the final battle in ourselves, in our own life and in our own heart. The Lord speaks of persecutions and division between those who accept Him and those who do not. One can say that this is precisely the essence of what happens at the end times, while, strictly speaking, a catastrophic character belongs to every age.

But the most important thing is that the Lord tells us about the other side of the matter: "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." Amid all the chaos of the approaching end, Christ's disciples must therefore carry out this task, because it is the chief thing that must be done for the salvation of the world.

Calling His disciples not to think about what they will have to say when testimony before persecutors is required of them, Jesus at the same time reminds them that only the one who remains faithful to the end amid universal madness will be saved. One would think that this is exactly where everything should be carefully weighed and considered before saying anything: before such an audience, testimony must be especially vivid, and at the same time especially measured, so that everything said would sound flawless both in content and, preferably, in form. Jesus, on the contrary, calls them not to think anything through in advance. Of course, this call can be explained by the fact that it is practically impossible to think through all possible situations in advance and work out in advance some models of behavior for one case or another: there are usually too many situations, especially in troubled times, for such planning to become possible. But the point is probably also something else. Who, and when, can afford not to prepare for a responsible speech? Probably only the one who is sure that someone else will prepare his speech for him, and someone who can be trusted unconditionally. And the Savior, as we can see, offers His disciples exactly that option. But for this, their whole life must be part of the Kingdom that He brought into the world and in which one can live one life with Him. Then one can pass through all the twists and turns of a troubled time while remaining a faithful witness of the Kingdom whose life one lives.

Jesus' words about ‘the abomination of desolation in the holy place’ recall the Book of Daniel, which is hardly surprising: it mentions events somewhat similar to those that occurred when the Romans devastated the Temple. Admittedly, the events in the Book of Daniel took place roughly a century and a half before Christ came, and the Temple was not destroyed then; however, it was desecrated by pagans—not Romans, but Syrians. Jesus, on the other hand, clearly has in mind the catastrophe of AD 70, when Jerusalem was completely destroyed and even the Temple was reduced to its foundations. The Saviour tells His disciples to leave the city, if possible before the siege begins, warning that they will have to do so quickly—and God grant that it should not be in winter or on the Sabbath.

At the same time, He clearly says that everything He has foretold will happen within the lifetime of the generation to which the apostles, among others, belonged (‘this generation will not pass away’). Here everything clearly points to the events of AD 70 as the end of history. The end, because Jesus goes on to mention those very last times which He calls ‘those days’, the time of His return in glory. Jesus does not say exactly how much time will elapse between this catastrophe and His Second Coming, but He mentions nothing else significant enough to deserve attention apart from His return and the triumph of the Kingdom.

Remembering these words of their Teacher, Christians, especially those of the first centuries, expected Him to return any day. After the catastrophe of AD 70, their expectations initially grew stronger, but then a measure of disappointment set in: everything the Saviour had foretold had happened, yet He Himself still did not return. Yet He had not promised to return immediately after the fall of Jerusalem; He had only said that this would happen no earlier than the destruction of the Temple. History proper does indeed end with the events of AD 70; after that, something new begins, a kind of metahistorical process which is to culminate in Christ's return and the revelation of the Kingdom to the world in all its fullness.

Like the many generations before us in the era we habitually call Christian, we live in the age of the advancing Kingdom, whose spiritual and historical dynamics are determined by the very process of its coming. That is why Jesus mentions nothing after AD 70 worthy of attention apart from His return and the triumph of the Kingdom: everything else is either determined by the dynamics of the advancing Kingdom or is of no significance. Such is the meaning of history passing into metahistory to which Jesus points.

In His conversation with the disciples about the end of the world, the Lord, as the biblical prophets sent by Him did, speaks at the same time about nearby concrete events and about the still distant end of history. In this case, clearly, the Lord uses the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD as an image of the end of the world. Yet His words can in many ways also be applied to other eras. In the passage we read today, it is important that the Lord says to the disciples: "Pray..." He also adds that for the sake of His elect God shortens the last days. It follows from this that it is within our power, through prayer and faithfulness to God, to lessen the weight of the sufferings of the last time. Together with the preaching of the Gospel, this becomes the most important task of the Church, giving a truly cosmic meaning to its existence.

Christ warned us in advance about the calamities that precede His return. About calamities that we ourselves provoke by our deeds. On learning of the reckoning, one can drop one's hands in despair, but it is better to gather oneself inwardly and turn to the One who saves.

The Lord has already shortened those days for the sake of the elect. Ten righteous people were not found in Sodom, but in a world that has surpassed Sodom, Christ has called many pure souls who, unnoticed by those around them, prevent the final catastrophe from taking place.

The forces of evil understand this too, and in the days of tribulation, "such as has not been from the beginning of creation," they will once again try to neutralize the healing leaven. They will try the old method: sending false christs and false prophets who perform lying signs and wonders. Well, there are already many such people in our time. And though we do not know the day and hour of the final battle, the One who warned us beforehand has called us to be ready every day. As the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed; may we not drop the weapon of faith and faithfulness to Christ, nor cast it aside to gather dust.

Lord, grant us discernment of spirits! Amen.

Today I want to draw attention to the words: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." "Heaven and earth" is a biblical expression meaning the whole universe, the whole cosmos created by God. The Bible begins with these very words, as we all remember well. But do we understand correctly what Heaven is, what earth is, where we are, and where God is? The worst thing is if we think at the level of Soviet propaganda leaflets: that we are on earth and God is in heaven. It is known that after Gagarin's flight, articles appeared in the Soviet press saying that now it had been proven that there was no God in heaven. This is a warning against very crude errors. But there is also a more subtle mistake. It is to think that God is in Heaven, with Heaven capitalized, understanding Heaven as some world beyond the earthly one, inhabited by angels and the souls of the dead, over whom God reigns. Perhaps this mistake comes from a wrong understanding of the words "Our Father, who art in Heaven..." or "O Heavenly King..." This mistake will become clear when we recall the already mentioned lines of Gen. 1:1. The Lord created Heaven too, and there was a time when there was no Heaven, but God was. This does not mean that God is not in Heaven, but when we say that He is there, we greatly limit Him, placing Him on the same level as creatures, while He is the Creator. This is exactly what the lines of today's reading, which we wanted to offer you today for reflection, should remind us of. "Heaven and earth will pass away." Heaven, like earth, is not eternal. The end of time does not at all mean that people will be selected on earth and taken up to Heaven, as though they were being saved from the sinking ship of a passing world onto the firm shore of eternity. No, the end of time will mean the complete reordering of creation, which even Heaven will not avoid. This is what today's reading reminds us of.

In speaking of the events preceding His return, Jesus says they will take place within the lifetime of His own generation: “this generation will not pass away.” Yet we are still awaiting His return. How can we reconcile these two things? Commentators have repeatedly pointed out that everything Jesus said in the conversation recorded here by the evangelist, sometimes called the “Little Apocalypse,” did indeed come to pass within the lifetime of the generation that witnessed the Savior's death on the cross and resurrection. Some members of that generation saw not only the Church's first flowering, but also the anti-Roman revolt led by the Zealots and its consequence: the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. Everything came true except one event: the Savior's return. Why, then, does He Himself speak of His return immediately after the events of the “Little Apocalypse”? Perhaps we are dealing here with a different logic, that of another history. Indeed, are all the events we consider great equally significant for spiritual history? If not, perhaps the end of Jerusalem and the Temple really did mark the culmination of humanity's spiritual history, after which only the history of the Kingdom matters. If so, everything falls into place: after the end of earthly history, the next significant event will be precisely the Savior's return. All the rest of history is merely the background to the Kingdom entering the world.

We read Christ's prophetic words about the future of the world and the days before His Second Coming in power and glory. Everything that will happen will be terrible, and... all of it is already found in our world: earthquakes and wars, famine and epidemics. But what is the Lord's patience of which the apostle speaks? It consists in His waiting for every person and giving everyone opportunities to meet Him. He has given us the promise of which the apostle speaks: “According to His promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” Our world can become these new heavens and this new earth if Christ's proclamation is heard by everyone; if Christ's works and people's love for Him become the foundation of human life; if through repentance and the fear of God each person acquires faith, hope, and love. Prayer for the world and for everything that happens in it, prayer to Christ for the salvation of human souls amid distress and misfortune, must resound every day in the heart of every Christian, just as it resounds every day in the Church.

As He concludes His account of the end of time, Jesus calls His disciples to 'keep watch.' Not to fall asleep, spiritually or inwardly. To be ready for Him to return on any day. This is understandable: the day of His return is not fixed and cannot be fixed precisely, but everything that must happen before the end of time will take place during the lifetime of the apostles, or at least of their generation. Thus the apostolic generation itself will already stand at the threshold that separates history from metahistory, the fallen world from the Kingdom entering it.

That entry, however, may take not just more than a day, but quite possibly more than a century. Christians living through those centuries exist on that very boundary separating the Kingdom from the fallen world. This situation at the boundary leaves no room for spiritual complacency and sleep, provided, of course, that a person is aware of it. Without such awareness, falling spiritually asleep is very easy: all it takes is to lose sight of the Kingdom and its King, which is not difficult if one turns one's gaze toward the fallen world and stares at it without looking away. A person then easily becomes immersed in this world, which eventually becomes the only reality for that person, while words about Christ and the Kingdom become mere words. In that state, the day of the Savior's return will come as a complete surprise. It will be different for those who have not become spiritually complacent: for them, too, it will of course be a surprise, but an expected surprise.

It is impossible to calculate that day: the Father determines when it will come, and He does so in accordance with the course of the process. That is why no one but the Father knows when it will come. Even the Messiah cannot deprive a person of freedom, and the timing here depends to a very great extent on people's choices—people who differ in every possible way. Every 'yes' or 'no' to God alters that timing. That is why nothing here can be calculated in advance, if, of course, the goal is to save everyone who can be saved. This is precisely the goal the Savior sets Himself as He fulfills His Father's will.

It is said clearly enough that no one can know either the day or the hour, yet advice is given to watch for signs that speak of coming events. But how can we avoid confusing true symptoms with apparent ones? Over the last twenty centuries, how many natural and historical cataclysms have already occurred, how many signs have seemed to coincide with those foretold, and yet the end of time has still not come? And does not the fig tree put out leaves every summer?

Yes, every summer, and at the same time it does not know which summer will be the decisive one. But year after year it continues to put out leaves so that by autumn fruit may ripen. Without being troubled by times and dates, we are called to keep watch, so that by the coming of the Master of the house we may have fruit prepared.

Why does Jesus not answer such a burning question about times and dates? Does God really deliberately hide such an important fact from people? Indeed, if only we knew the exact date of the coming triumph of the Kingdom... Still, it is not so simple to say unambiguously what any of us would do in that case. One cannot even be sure that everyone would take such a revelation seriously. And yet, as is well known, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, and each person decides for himself how to respond to a warning. In any case, for those who take spiritual life seriously, the situation would become noticeably simpler: they would not have to remain in a state of continuous spiritual, and perhaps not only spiritual, tension, expecting every day the main event of their life. Besides, Jesus Himself says that even He does not know the time of His own return. Why is this so? Maybe the point is not that something is being hidden from us, but that the time has not been fixed? After all, the history of the Kingdom is, above all, the history of those who live in it and bear witness to it, the history of Christian righteousness, which is determined not only by God's will but also by the choice of those people whom God calls. And then it inevitably turns out that the time of the Messiah's return and the triumph of the Kingdom depends not only on God, but also on us.