The Coming of the End

November 19, 2006
All Saints Anglican Church, Barboursville, WV
Mark 13:14-23, Daniel 12: 1-13


Some months ago, I remember loaning a novel to a female friend of mine. I was surprised when she immediately turned to the back of the book and began reading the last page. “What are you doing?!” I exclaimed. “I’m reading the ending so I can tell if I want to read the rest of the book,” she calmly explained.

In an odd sort of way, this story relates to our readings today, and to the coming of Christ - the exception being that while the end of our story with Jesus is pretty clear – namely eternal fellowship and bliss with God in a resurrected body on a new Earth - the path to getting there is doggedly confusing. Indeed, when reading the parts of the story that describe the signs of the end – Daniel, the words of Jesus, Revelation etc. – no less a Saint than Augustine said, in his Summa Theologica: “…it is not easy to know what these signs may be: for the signs of which we read…refer not only to Christ’s coming in judgment, but also to the time of the sack of Jerusalem, and to the coming of Christ in ceaselessly visiting His Church.” (Volume III, Supplemental Question 73).

Our readings today show God to be the author of Literature, layering meaning upon meaning, showing us glimpses of future events in symbolic or representative actions – giving us a sort of puzzle to work out concerning the end of all things.

Specifically, Jesus was asked in the beginning of Mark 13 about his prophecy that the Temple would be destroyed. The disciples wanted to know when these things would come about. Jesus launches into a description of the travails and persecutions his followers could expect: earthquakes, wars, famine, civil strife – and all these things would be just the beginning of the troubles. He encourages them to persevere, but in verse 14, he says something that no doubt puzzled them.

“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be … then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains”. Knowing their own history, the disciples would likely have remembered the reference to Daniel’s prophetic use of the term abomination of desolation and to its eventual fulfillment recorded in the book of I Maccabees – how the wicked ruler Antiochus Epiphanes had, in 168 BC, erected an altar to Zeus in the Jewish temple, thus profaning it.

But the disciples did not know that Jesus was referring to an event that would happen within their lifetimes – the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman general Titus. The historian Josephus, in his “Wars of the Jews”, tells us that the city was completely obliterated, and that afterward it appeared ‘never to have been inhabited”. Jesus was warning of this catastrophe, and his warning must have been heeded later, because when the Romans came, the entire Christian community fled en masse, crossing the Jordan river and going up into the mountains to the city of Pella, where they were preserved without loss. (The 144,000 from Revelation?).

But there is more to Jesus’ statements in Mark 13 and the parallel chapter Matthew 24, than just a warning for the Christians to flee the destruction of Jerusalem. No, he repeatedly says things like, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mk 13:24, 25). This is the part of the Nicene Creed we refer to when we say He will come again in Glory to judge the living and the dead…”

So I’m sure the disciples must have been completely bumfuzzled by this kind of language, and even today we struggle with it.

The Greek word for ‘coming’ is “Parousia”, and the Greek word, ‘Eschaton’ means ‘the end’.

At the Eschaton, the end of all things, Jesus will have his Parousia, and will come again to gather up his saints from the four winds and begin to judge the earth. Associated with this, we are told that there will be a great Tribulation such as the world has never seen.

The Theological viewpoint reflected by the popular book series, “Left Behind”, is called Pre-Tribulation, Pre-Millenial Rapture. Its basic understanding of the future is that things will continue to get very bad in the world until Christians are suddenly raptured out of the world and the Antichrist appears. Daniel’s term abomination of desolation is widely acknowledged to refer to this same Antichrist. And his cryptic phrase ‘a time, times and a half’ is understood as meaning that there will be a period of apparent peace for the first three and one half years of Antichrist’s reign. After this there will be three and a half years of outright terrible Tribulation. All told, this period will last seven years and is known as the Great Tribulation.

At the end of the seven years, comes the battle of Armageddon in which the enemies of God are defeated, Satan is locked up for 1,000 years while Christ rules with His faithful believers during the “Millenial” Kingdom on earth. After this, Satan is released from prison and defeated in battle again. The earth is destroyed by fire and the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven and all the dead are resurrected, either to blessedness or to eternal damnation. …This is the kind of scope we’re talking about when we say the “coming’ or ‘Parousia’ of Christ.

Now to be sure, there are differing versions of what will happen in the end. Some believe that there is no “Rapture” at all, and that believers will not be caught up in the air with Christ. There are also those who advocate for a Mid-Tribulation, or a Post-tribulation rapture.

Regarding the Millennium, or Thousand Year reign, there are those who don’t believe there will be a Millennium at all, that the events of AD 70 were the culmination of the Judgment Jesus spoke of and that we are now living in a figurative ‘millennial’ period and that the reign of Christ refers to the idea that He reigns ‘wherever loving hearts enthrone him” until the final culmination of all things at the very end.

My own view is that there will indeed be a 1,000 year period of time during which Christ reigns on earth. I hope that Believers will be Raptured before the Tribulation, but based on the history of the world, especially the 20th century, I’m not so sure. It wouldn’t surprise me if believers did indeed go through that Tribulation. They sure didn’t escape the Holocaust.

But if I focused on all of this too much, I think I would find myself distracted and terrified. I think there is another way to live, and that this other way has much to do with another sense of the word “parousia”. For you see, Parousia also means ‘Presence’. And it is precisely the Presence of Christ that we celebrate every time with take Communion.

Although the events of the future may hold terrors for us, we need not fear, for Christ tells us that He is with us always, even to the end of the age. We have his indwelling Parousia (presence) in the form of the Holy Spirit. But we also have the Parousia of Christ in the Bread and Wine of Communion. We feed on this Presence and it strengthens us and fills us with hope. It also leads us to Heaven itself, for in the Eucharist, we “Lift up our hearts” to Heaven, and Heaven comes down to us in a family reunion that foreshadows the great Marriage feast of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem.

Therefore, we don’t need to be overly concerned with the minute events of the future. Rather, our focus can be on the here and now. After all, Jesus tells us that not even He himself knows when His return is scheduled. It’s strictly a need-to-know business.

Having said that, however, there is an important caveat: we must be like good Boy Scouts, practicing Watchfulness in order to “Be Prepared”. We are to live this day without regard for tomorrow, yet realize that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. Our deeds here on earth really matter and our future depends upon them. If we acknowledge Him before men, he will acknowledge us. If we deny Him before men, He will deny us. It is because of this awesome knowledge that you and I have launched out into the deep and have separated ourselves from a form of religion that claims to be Christian, but which long ago morphed into something else.

Because we know that Christ will come again, we do acts of kindness and compassion, we fight against injustice and oppression, drug abuse and murder, and we unite to do all the good we can for as long as we can, knowing that we are doing our deeds as unto Christ Himself.

So brothers and sisters, Love God and Love your neighbor. Don’t get too caught up in thinking about the end times, but do realize that it’s very possible we will go through some very, very rough things before Christ comes again. Be ready for Him to come, but in the meantime, enjoy indwelling presence via the Holy Spirit, and His weekly coming in the Eucharist. Feed on Him in your Hearts with faith with Thanksgiving and be Glad. Amen.