Luke 21:5-19
November 16, 2025
I’ve been incredibly fortunate in
my few international travels to witness some of the great architectural wonders
of the world. I’ve seen the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, the Grand Mosque
in Cairo, Poseidon’s temple, and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. I’ve peered
down at King Tut’s tomb. I’ve stood at the Parthenon in Athens, and I have
walked in neighborhoods that are older than our country.
One of the things that I’ve learned
about many of these ancient wonders is that what we see as bleached rock and
stone would have boasted tremendous color and ornate designs in their heyday.
Time and weather and pollution all take their toll on monuments like the
Parthenon. Columns and arches would have displayed vivid colors and walls would
have conveyed rich artistic scenes. If it is astounding to witness these
ancient sites now, in our time, how much more dazzling would they have been to
witness in the years when they were first built.
Debie Thomas writes that according
to ancient historian Josephus, the temple in Jerusalem would have been an
incredible sight to see. It was built by Herod the Great, and its retaining
walls were said to have been built by stones that were 40 feet long. And
written testaments about the temple at that time report that Herod used so much
gold to gild the outside of the sacred structure that if someone looked at in
bright sunlight, they ran the risk of blinding themselves. This temple in
Jerusalem was an architectural, engineering, and religious feat.
I can understand, then, why the
disciples and other folks with Jesus, were gazing at it in wonder. I can
understand why they were admiring its great stones and its elaborate facade. As
Thomas also writes, when they were looking at the temple, they were not just
appreciating its beauty. They were also looking at what for them was the
epicenter of their world. The temple represented not only their faith, but the
entirety of their lives and the long history and sacred tradition their lives were
built upon. Their lives began with dedication in the temple. They would have
grown up traveling to the temple for religious holidays and festivals. Looking
at the temple, they saw the past, the present, and the future. They saw
tradition and they saw glory and they saw permanence and, most importantly,
they saw a manifestation of God.
But what did Jesus see? He saw
ruins. He saw destruction and devastation. It is necessary to remember that when
Luke wrote his gospel, when Luke wrote about Jesus offering this prophecy, the
Temple had already been destroyed. Everything that Jesus speaks of had already
come to pass. Every stone had been torn down. Not one stone remained on top of
stone, which would have been unimaginable to the people there with Jesus. What
they believed to be indestructible, imperishable, and sacrosanct proved
otherwise.
This passage fits the category of
apocalyptic. Jesus offers a vision, a prophecy of destruction and change that
is to come and a vision of the end times – apocalyptic. If you’re like me, when
I think of the word apocalypse I think of the Hollywood version. I think
of movies that depict everything, the entire world, falling apart. In those
versions of apocalypse, the world crumbles into complete and utter chaos. In
some versions, humanity transforms from the living to the living dead. Zombies walk
the earth seeking to make a zombie of anyone who is still fully human. I think
of nightmarish scenarios, and everything that we know coming to an end.
But
that’s Hollywood. In biblical terms, apocalypse does not mean what we
think it means in our culture. Apocalypse is better translated as unveiling.
An apocalypse reveals something – a truth, an understanding, the real nature of
something or someone. So to experience an apocalypse is to experience
revelation. As Thomas puts it, to experience an apocalypse is to see clearly,
to see what has been hidden.
This
is good and important to know, but I suspect that the disciples and the other
people listening to Jesus were not making that distinction as Jesus spoke.
Instead, I imagine the people listening to him must have been terrified and
shocked by his words. If the temple, this grand and glorious testament to God
was going to someday be nothing but stone upon stone, then they wanted to know
when it was going to happen. They wanted to know what lay ahead. They wanted
specifics. They wanted time and date. And if that wasn’t possible, then they
wanted Jesus to tell them the signs to watch for. Please Jesus, at least give
us a clue.
Jesus
never gives them the answer they’re looking for. He mentions what seem to be
signs: wars, natural disasters, false prophets. But he refuses to give them a
countdown. There is no timetable or calendar they can turn to. He just tells
them,
“Beware
that you are not lead astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’
and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.”
Then Jesus tells those who follow
him that they will be persecuted for doing just that. Because they follow him,
they will be brought before royalty and heads of state. When that happens that
will be their chance to testify, to witness to God’s creative and redemptive
work through the Son. Jesus tells them,
“So,
make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you
the words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or
contradict.”
If
I were one of the ones gathered around Jesus, listening to this, I would have
wanted many, many more details. So, let me get this straight, Jesus. The
temple, this amazing edifice that houses God and all God’s glory will be torn
down. False prophets will come, and natural disasters and wars will continue to
happen. And we’ll be persecuted for following you. And not only will we be
persecuted, but we’ll be offered chances to testify to you and to your kingdom,
but we should not prepare our words ahead of time because when that time does
come we will be given the words and the wisdom that we need in that moment. So,
in that moment we will know what to say, but not before. Don’t worry about
coming up with well-turned phrases, just go with what you understand and know
in that moment. For a manuscript person like me, that does not bode well. And
finally, what you’re telling us Jesus is that we need plenty of endurance. Is
that what you’re saying, Jesus? That we need to endure? This is like the worst
recruitment strategy ever.
Jesus
is not only telling the disciples and anyone else who would follow him
that he is not giving them specific signs to watch for or dates and times when
all these events will take place, he is also telling them not to worry about
all that he has just told them. Don’t worry, just endure.
But
where does our endurance come from? Whatever storehouses of strength we carry
within us, to endure what Jesus is proclaiming takes more than what we can do
ourselves. Our faithful endurance is built on trust in God and on our hope that
the future is in God’s good hands. Believe it or not, this passage with its
apocalyptic message is really about hope – hope in God, hope in the kingdom of
God Jesus has been proclaiming. It is not a worldly hope or an overt hope. It
is hope not in things seen but unseen. The temple, on which I suspect many placed
their hope, would be torn down. Something that they considered permanent and
indestructible would be destroyed. But God is not contained in the temple or in
any building or structure. God will not be put in a box, even in the most
beautiful box one could imagine. The apocalypse that Jesus is referring to is
not destruction for destruction’s sake. It is the unveiling, the revealing, of
God and God’s kingdom, of the world as it was created to be. This may all sound
terrifying, but in truth we are given overwhelming reason to hope.
When
I first began to read this passage along with our verses from the prophet Isaiah,
I started to think that we were reading them out of order. The Luke passage
should have been read first, with the Isaiah passage following. I say that
because I think that the Isaiah passage offers us a glimpse of what the
apocalyptic unveiling in Luke points to. It offers us a glimpse of the world as
God created it to be. It is the new thing God is doing. If our eyes are opened
through apocalyptic unveiling, we may be able to perceive it. It is the world toward
which we endure. It is the world that we hope for. It is the world that we are
working and struggling and praying and pleading to come into its fullness.
And
what is this world? Is it one where we find fortune and fame? Or is it one
where we lead long lives, full lives, abundant lives – abundant not with stuff
but with love and righteousness and justice and gladness and loveliness and
joy. It is the world where even the creatures of nature are no longer predator
or prey but comfortable companions. It is the world where we are so aligned
with God’s purposes that we understand the mind of God as much as God
understands us, and we recognize, finally, the life abundant that Jesus
promises in John’s gospel. This is the world we hope for. This is the world we
endure for.
It
is a world where babies are not born only to die, where living less than a
century is considered abnormal, where we all enjoy the fruits of our labor,
where children are not born to suffer terror but grow up in love and light. It
is a world where wolves and lambs eat together, and where the idea of predator
and prey no longer makes sense.
This
is the good news. This is what we hope for and this is where our endurance will
take us. But none of this is easy. Sometimes everything we know must crumble
for something new to be built. Sometimes are we misled by others and must find
our way back to God. Sometimes it seems that the whole world is falling down,
and we cannot yet see how it is being made new. But it is. It is, and so we
trust and so we hope and so we endure because God is faithful, because God is
creating, because God is making all things news. Thanks be to God.
Let
all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”
Amen.
.
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