Matthew 24:1-31

Matthew 24:1-2     The Temple will be Destroyed

(Mk 13:1-2; Lk 21:5-6)
 
1 Jesus left the temple,
and on the way out his disciples came up to him
and drew his attention to the temple’s structure.  
2 In response, Jesus said, “Do you not see all of this?  
I assure you, not one stone here will be left on another,
that will not be destroyed.”

Jesus had been addressing the disciples and the crowds (including presumably a group of Pharisees) in the temple.  At this stage, Jesus came out of the temple and went away.  He would not return there again.  The temple would become redundant.  Indeed, with Jesus’ death, the veil would be torn in two, from top to bottom [27:51].  The Temple's sanctuary had been regarded, up until then, as the sacred place where God was present on earth (and could be visited only once each year and by no one other than the High Priest), would be thrown open to all, and, from then onwards,  God would be encountered in the crucified (and risen) body of Jesus himself.  Forty years after the death of Jesus the temple would be destroyed.

By including Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, immediately before his leaving the temple, Matthew may have wished to connect the temple’s eventual destruction with Jerusalem’s failure to accept him and his offer of the Kingdom.

Jesus’ Discourse on the Future – The Final Coming of the Kingdom  

In the discourse that would follow, Matthew relied heavily on Mark’ Gospel, making only minimal amendments, mainly of a literary nature.

Matthew 24:3-8     Signs of the End of the Age

(Mk 13:3-8; Lk 21:7-11)
 
3 When he was sitting down on the Mount of Olives,
his disciples approached him privately, and said,
“Tell us.  When will all these things happen?
And what will be the sign of your coming?
and of the completion of this age?”

Again, the mountain location served to draw attention to what would follow, and give added importance to it.  As Jesus had sat to deliver his Sermon on the Mount [5:1], so again he sat to deliver the address that would follow.  Sitting was the position formally adopted by teachers.

Assuming that Jesus’ coming would usher in the completion of this age, the disciples asked two questions:

Jesus’ final commission to the eleven disciples, indeed the final words of the whole narrative [28.20], would assert that, in fact, Jesus would remain present to his community until the completion of the age, rather than come to usher it in.  The Son of Man would take up his Kingdom at the time of his death and resurrection.

In his answer, Jesus did not distinguish the two questions.

4 Answering them, Jesus said,
“Beware that no one lead you astray.  
5 For many will come, claiming in my name, ‘I am the Christ’;
and they will deceive a number of people.  
6 You will hear about wars and rumours of wars.  
Be on your guard and do not be frightened.  
They will happen inevitably.  
But it is not yet the end.  
7 ‘Nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom’.  
There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  
8 All these things are only the beginnings of the birth process.

Effectively, Jesus declared the following:

In fact, all three occurrences were not uncommon.  As signs, they were not helpful.  Whenever they happened, they could be understood as sufferings that would eventually lead to new life: the beginning of the birth process.  Sufferings were not humanity’s destiny forever; they would be transformed.

The scene drawn by Matthew succinctly summed up the experience of the Jewish nation immediately preceding Rome’s destruction of the city and its Temple.  During the time of the revolt, various Jewish military leaders had claimed, indeed, to be the Messiah.

Matthew 24:9-14     Persecutions Foretold

(Mk 13:9-13; Lk 21:12-19)
 
9 “They will hand you over to persecution and kill you;
you will be hated by all the nations
on account of my name.  
10 Many will be drawn into conflict,
and will betray and hate each other.  
11 A lot of sham prophets will rise up
and will deceive large numbers.
12 Due to the abundance of lawlessness,
love will grow cold in many people.  
13 But the person who perseveres to the end will be saved.

Disciples would not escape suffering.  Matthew could speak from experience of real persecutions, both by Jews and Romans, of mutual betrayal within the Christian community, and of the prevalence of sham prophets.  He had seen love grow cold, and he continued to warn against the possibility.

14 This good news of the Kingdom
will be preached throughout the whole world
in witness to all the nations.  
Then the end will come.”

To conclude his Gospel narrative, Matthew would spell out Jesus’ command to go and to make disciples of all nations [28.19].  Only with the successful implementation of that mission would the end come.  Their missionary outreach would profoundly affect the outcome of history, and would not be curtailed by the persecution they could expect.

Matthew 24:15-28     The Abomination of Desolation

(Mk 13:14-23; Lk 17:23-24, 37; 21:20-24)
 
15 “When you see the ‘abomination of desolation’,
spoken about by the prophet Daniel,
standing ‘in the holy place’ [may the reader understand],
16 then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,
17 those on the roof deck must not come down
to get things from the house,
18 those at work in the fields
must not go back to get their cloaks.  
19 Grief awaits those who are pregnant or breast-feeding in those days.  
20 Pray that you do have to escape in winter
or on the Sabbath.  
21 It will be a time of great ‘distress
the like of which has never happened
from the beginning of the world until now’.  
22 If that time were not shortened,
no living thing would be saved.  
But for the sake of those chosen,
the time will be shortened.

The discourse focussed on the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple.  The Book of Daniel had contained reference to a statue of the pagan Emperor, Antiochus Epiphanes, erected in the Jerusalem temple two centuries before the time of Jesus, and had called it an abomination of desolation [9:27].  Jesus’ discourse referred to signs of the presence of Roman forces in and around the Temple, during the lead up to the eventual revolt and destruction of the city (in the year 70AD).

The response of the early Christian community in Jerusalem had been to try to escape from the city.  Following the clear directions of Jesus, Christians would not take up arms against the occupying Romans, despite the strong pressure brought to bear on them by Jewish Zealots.  The imagery served to highlight the urgency of the response.  The reference to the Sabbath was Matthew’s own addition to the material from Mark.

Certainly those who remained in the city during the final days of the Roman siege suffered intensely.  Jesus believed that the non-violent stance of Christians would serve to lessen the catastrophe.

23 At that time, if someone says to you,
‘Look, here is the Christ’ or ‘There is the Christ’,
do not believe them.  
24 For false Christs and false prophets will rise up,
and they will give great ‘signs and omens’
so as to deceive even the elect, if at all possible.  
25 Take notice, I have told you beforehand.  
26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is out in the desert’,
do not go out there;
‘Look, he is out in the back room’, do not believe them.

The fate of Jerusalem and the Temple would have no relationship to the coming of Jesus or to the end of the age.  Jesus’ coming would not be secret:

27 For the coming of the Son of Man
will be like a strike of lightning
that arises in the east and flashes right across to the west.  
28 Where the carcass lies, there the eagles gather.

Just as lightning lights the whole sky and is clearly visible to everyone, or as vultures circling high in the sky indicate to all the presence of a carcass nearby, so, too, Jesus’ eventual coming would need no special signs – it would be obvious to all.

Matthew 24:29-31     The Coming of the Son of Man

(Mk 13:24-27; Lk 21:25-28)
 
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days,
‘the sun will be darkened,
the moon will not shed its light,
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly powers will topple'.

With the quotation from Isaiah [13:10], the discourse changed gear, and moved into apocalyptic language.  (Apocalyptic literature, after describing historical reality in cryptic images, then “pulls aside the veil” [the literal meaning of “apocalypse”] to give insight into its spiritual meaning.)  

The reference to heavenly powers presumed the ancient cosmology, which believed that angels (good or bad) controlled the otherwise unexplainable phenomena of the natural world.  Effectively, Isaiah was predicting that something of critical importance was about to happen, as the heavenly powers gave way before the coming of the Son of Man.

30 Then they will see the sign of the Son of Man in the sky.  
Then ‘all the tribes of the earth will lament’,
and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’
with power and great glory. 

The references came from Daniel [7:13] and the prophet Zechariah.  Zechariah had written:

And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication 
on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, 
they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child...
 
On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
to cleanse them from sin and impurity [Zechariah 12:10; 13:1].

In his account of Jesus’ trial before the High Priest, Matthew would show Jesus using the prophecy from Daniel referring to the coming of the Son of Man.  He interpreted Jesus’ death as the moment when the Son of Man would come on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Likewise, Matthew saw Zechariah’s prediction referring to Jesus’ death, which he interpreted as a source of conversion and redemption, if not at the time it happened, perhaps before the end of the age.

31 Then he will send out his messengers ‘with great trumpet sound’,
and ‘they will gather together’ the chosen ones
‘from the four winds, from one horizon of the sky to the other’.

The angels would answer to the powerful Son of Man.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, trumpets called to arms, and announced military victory, the anointing of kings, judgment and the ingathering of God’s people.  Here the trumpet call would serve to gather the elect – not simply Jews but Gentiles, too.

Next >> Matthew 24:32-51