History (global) foretold (1)

Spare a thought today about mega buildings. At great cost these are being created all over the world. Deep down and without realising it, we greatly respect buildings because they demonstrate wealth, power and stability. 

Have you visited Rome’s Coliseum? France’s Versailles? The Winter Palace in St Petersburg? Are such buildings permanent? More to the point - the power which built them - was that permanent? Where are the Caesar’s, where Louis the fourteenth, where are the Romanovs?

In AD 30 Jerusalem, there was a magnificent new building – Herod’s Temple - paid for (it was ever so) by punitive taxes. See bold above. It’s the day immediately preceding the day when Jesus was taken and crucified there. Jesus is deeply sad because Jerusalem had decided to thwart the plans of the LORD God to gather them like a hen gathers her chicks under her wing.

He has carefully disclosed to the Jerusalem religious and political leaders that they are, in future, to experience the desolate consequences of their decision. This will be the case until they may give due honour to the one who they were rejecting and may welcome his return without reserve.

 

Against that awful background (made all the more awful for us who have seen the history of the Jews in the past 2000 years) Jesus’ disciples get very excited about the Temple buildings. “Just look at all this” they tell Jesus. It’s so easy, isn’t it to believe in the visible rather than the invisible.

Jesus says to them, “Truly, I say to you, there may not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Is that what you would expect from Jesus? Why would he forecast the demolition of this beautiful costly religious edifice? It was as unexpected as Twin Towers but, like Twin Towers it did actually take place - in AD 70 – exactly 40 years later. Putting it simply, the Jews themselves destroyed it – by rebelling against Rome and declaring independence. Rome then surrounded Jerusalem and destroyed the whole city and Temple.

Matthew, continuing the AD 30 account as an eye-witness, records that Jesus then went to the Mount of Olives which overlooked the Temple with a valley in between. The disciples asked Jesus for confidential information. “When will this be? What advance notice will there be about your coming again?”

 “See that no one leads you astray”, he said. “Because many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ (the Messiah, the God-anointed answer to your problems)’, and they will mislead many.”

The history of all the nations and peoples and ideologies of this world – to date – has been of individuals rising up with a claim to have the answer – to be the answer. Caesar Augustus? Louis the Sun King? Peter (Romanov) the Great who wanted a Russian Versailles? They’ve repeatedly built buildings to prove their power – but they’re gone…..

 

Jesus went on, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you’re not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” 

Isn’t this – in a nutshell - the world’s history for the past 2,000 years? 

But Jesus expected better things to take place even whilst buildings were falling and powers were failing.  He said, “All these are but the beginning of the pain of new birth.” After all, a new birth comes only through pain. 

Will the LORD God bring new birth out of all your pain?