November 16, 2003
By Jack Price

You and I enter life in the middle of the story.  Who we are physically, emotionally, and spiritual is greatly affected by our parents.  Our appearance, race, and even cholesterol level comes to us from our family of origin.  We are affected by their experiences and attitudes.  In turn, we affect the lives of others more than we know.

Mark, chapter 13 - the subject is Jewish apocalyptic expectation.  Jesus entered history in the middle of this conversation.  Interest in matters apocalyptic developed as a result of the Babylonian exile.  When Solomon's temple was destroyed in 587-6BCE, there was a dramatic shift in the orientation of Judaism.  Without a temple, the sacrificial system ceased to function.  Judaism became more about teaching.  Synagogues came into existence as "house churches" and the role of rabbis and Pharisees came to the fore.  Even after the temple was rebuilt, a dual-reality existed, temple and synagogue, for 500 years, through the life of Jesus.  The year 70CE, around the time of Mark's writing, the temple was destroyed and has not ever been rebuilt.  The course of Judaism since that time has been oriented around synagogue.  Many believe another chapter in this story was written in 1948 with the establishment of the state of Israel, belief wrapped in Christian Apocalyptic thinking.

What is apocalyptic literature?  According to noted Baptist theologian Fred Craddock, it is an "unveiling, a revealing, a vision [that] grants its recipient a glimpse beyond what is going on to what is really going on."  It dramatic language both reveals and conceals.  Apocalyptic literature is filled with symbolic numbers and images about what God is doing and will do.  Painted on a cosmic canvas, this language bursts the bounds of ordinary speech and is usually embraced by persons in dire straits, who look to heaven for vindication."

The apocalyptic language of Mark 13 borrows from the numerous Old Testament apocalyptic references - from Ezekiel, deutero & trito Isaiah, Daniel, and others.  These passages deal with punishment of Israel's enemies and the vindication of the chosen people.  Hope centers around a new "David," a messiah or Christ.   In Jesus' world, Roman domination gave fresh fuel to the fires of Jewish apocalyptic expectation.

Mark 13 is both an ending and a beginning.  It is the symbolic end of the temple, following many statements and conversations with condemning the temple culture.   Jesus then walks out of the temple, never to return.  His leaving symbolizes God's Spirit leaving Temple.  It is the beginning of Mark's apocalyptic vision, that involves all of chapter 13.  Jesus leaves temple and sits facing it in posture of judgment.  He has criticized the temple and its leaders for systemic exploitation and oppression of the poor.  Jesus' message is, "Hope does not lie in the temple structure or its restoration or in defending it.  Hope lies in letting go of oppressive and lifeless systems so that new life can emerge."  

Disciples again ask Jesus a question.  Typically, theirs are not always the best questions, but they know something big is about to happen.  Their question reveals their understanding, that they see only in terms of their own apocalyptic expectation, through the prism of the temple.  Jesus' response reflects Jewish apocalyptic expectation.  The whole of chapter 13 is filled with references from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel.  The "birth pangs" image comes from Isaiah 13:8 and its judgment against Babylon -- "Pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor."  This apocalyptic voice is echoed in Paul's letter to the Romans (8 :22) "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now."

Construction of Solomon's Temple was a watershed event in Jewish history.  Originally, it gave home to a wandering people's wilderness faith.  In opulent splendor it symbolized David's love for God and the centrality of Yahweh to Israel.  Gradually, allegiance to the temple was substituted for genuine faith.  Finally loyalty to the temple was equated to loyalty to Yahweh and service to the temple cult meant service to God. 

Jesus walked out of the temple and pointed to true faith - to justice, mercy, and love.  There was a clear message for Mark's readers in the apocalyptic language of chapter 13:  "Don't miss significant of Jesus.  All our history is wrapped up here.  All our future is contained here."  He warned them and challenges us not to get stuck living in the past or living for future.  Life's meaning is with you in the present.  The early Christians expected Jesus' return soon.  Paul's early letters make this clear.  But his later writings show a shift of thinking.  Mark's Gospel speaks to this change in expectation.

            The question of Mark's church was on the lips of Jesus' disciples - "When?  How will we know?  What are the signs?"  Jesus refers to the generally held belief in "messianic woes" to precede end of time - convulsions in the natural world, violence in the social world.  "But," he says, "these are not the end or signs of the end, but only the beginning of the birth pangs."  Jesus predicts false messiahs and warns about the danger of being drawn to charismatic leaders and "success" stories."  There will be wars and rumors of wars, but don't be alarmed.  Wars, natural disasters, and pestilence as signs of the end are really only the beginning of the birth pangs. 

The message from Jesus, in Mark's gospel, is NOT YET!  The signs don't really mean anything in terms of predicting of expecting the end.  Charlatans today make millions of dollars from people's fears.  Many within the Christian Church talk a lot about the last days.  It was a topic of great interest for the post-exilic Jewish community and a "hot topic" among Jews in Jesus' day.  In Mark's generation, the destruction of the Temple fueled speculation.  Today, there continues to be a lot of energy around this issue as the wildly popular Left Behind book series testifies.  Anxiety created by talk of the Apocalypse keeps some people coming to church and keeps some churches thriving - at least in terms of money and membership.

When are the last days?  We are in them.  We have been in them.  We will be in them until life as we know it ends.  Recently, some scientist have estimated our sun has about five billion years of life remaining.  Space travel may lead us to resettle our planet elsewhere by then, if we survive our own planetary conflicts!  What about Jesus' second coming?  As far as I am concerned, Jesus is already here.  God new creation is not one to be set up in this world of time and space.  It is a spiritual reality already beginning to be born.  Our vision is limited to what we know, to this physical dimension of being.  C. S. Lewis called this temporal existence the Shadowlands.  He said that what is to come is the real world, the land of God's eternity.  It is so much greater that what we now know is only a shadow of what will be.

What does it tell us to know these are the beginning of the birth pangs?  It tells us there is a long way to go, but we are on the way.  The phrase "beginning of birth pangs" contains a certain inevitability.  There is suffering to come, but our "present suffering cannot be compared with what is to come."  We live in the tension between present realties - wars, disasters, injustice - and future expectation -- new creation, intimacy with God, perfect justice.

            What is the living Word for us concerning apocalyptic expectation?  Ask yourself, "How would you live differently if you knew the end of your life now?"  There is a powerful spiritual exercise in which you engage your "old" self,  at the end of your life, in conversation with your present self as a way of clarifying values and priorities.  The Gospel proclaims the ultimate meaning and end of life, inviting us to let go of "Temple" vision and trust Jesus' vision.  The Gospel can transform our images of pain and loss.  Pain can alert us to dangerous situations - sometimes harm to be avoided and sometimes change to be embraced.  Loss can move us to newness of life.  They have the capacity to get us off dead center and open us to change.

Jesus is our apocalyptic symbol, teaching us that life is about loving God and the creation.  Life is love lived in the tension of present "reality" and ultimate truth.  The cross was the piece of his journey over which Jesus had control.  It was his challenge, his goal, and his life's mission to be faithful to the end.   At the end, Jesus said, "It is accomplished."

For each of us, there is a cross - not necessarily a cruel and painful death to endure, but a challenge, a goal, and a life mission to which to be faithful.  Engaging in spiritual journey means to discover our calling and to accomplish it by being faithful to it.  John Howard Griffin was a social activist, a photographer, and a novelist.  His most famous book was Black, Like Me, his own account of being a white man posing as a black man in the South during the early days of the Civil Rights struggle. 

Griffin was  appointed to be the official biographer for Thomas Merton, but died in 1980, before finishing this work.  He died from complications resulting from his work writing Black Like Me.  John Griffin was my cousin.  I was a fan of his long before I knew he was a relative.  He is part of the story of my family before I ever entered it.  Along with the others, both outstanding and not so outstanding members of my family, he reminds me to look beyond symbols of power, like the Temple in  Jerusalem for meaning.  He challenges me to bank on the deep and lasting truths of divine justice and mercy.  He encourages me, even now, not to be deceived by that which does not last - however grand, impressive, and beloved.  He reminds me that Truth lies beyond the Temple vision.

If religious faith has any meaning, from an apocalyptic perspective, it lies with a transcendent God who is present with us now, with an awesome mystery who is "knowable" in relationship.  It lies in the challenge to be present with God even as God is present with us, and challenges us to stop living in the past of guilt and the future of worry.  It offers us an invitation to be present rather than cut-off in a world of "should's and could's and expectations.  John Howard Griffin wrote -

      Before you can be yourself, you have to take the time to become yourself, to face yourself in your fundamental reality, and to peel away the [layers] of mediocre or false values imposed by society, ambition and self-interest.  Only then, as the overflow of such contemplation could you find your truth and your reality.

This is truth beyond the Temple vision.  Jesus invites us to discover the apocalyptic truth found at the core of your life and mine.  This is our identity, our present and future calling, to be faithful in discovering that truth and in allowing it to become the operative truth for our lives.  And this is more than a truth to be embraced.  It is the living Spirit of Jesus.  "Christ Spirit, Eternal God, in this moment, shine the light of truth in our world and in our lives.  In this moment, Maranatha -- "Come, Lord Jesus.  Amen."