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Daniel 12:1-13, Hebrews 10:31-39, Mark 13:14-23
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Our readings today present a particular challenge for the contemporary
Christian to understand and make meaningful. The most striking
piece for me is the wording from Hebrews that goes against everything
else we hear in scripture: It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God.
How many times in both Hebrew and
Christian scriptures do we hear, fear not
when confronted
with God or one of God's messengers. Now the author of Hebrews
turns it around on us.
On the other hand, it is totally in line with the other readings, giving warning and caution to impending judgment. It is a fearful thing to fall into God's hands and to be aware of what is happening around you. It is a fearful thing to see the scope of sin and despair and suffering in the world. The author of this letter reminds his audience then and his audience today that having faith in God will not exempt you from suffering and from persecution. In that sense, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God since now you know that such persecution may very well come to you.
In scripture, this type of warning of impending judgment and doom
has a particular style and character. It is apocalyptic
literature. Apocalyptic comes from a Greek word meaning to
uncover
or to reveal.
This literature claims to impart
a revelation given to the author. Daniel is the foremost type of
this literature in the Hebrew Scriptures. For Christians, the
Revelation of John, the last book of the Bible, is a heady example
of apocalyptic writing. But, also the thirteenth chapter of Mark's
Gospel, a part of which we heard today, is often called the little
apocalypse.
This type of literature uses symbols and numbers and sometimes
obscure imagery to convey the revelation
to the reader.
These were probably well understood when originally written, but
now are veiled for us. As one writer noted: Many modern readers
of the Bible misinterpret the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament
and Revelation in the New Testament, using the symbols in them to
predict in particular ways the course of events in our own future.
Such was not the intent of the apocalyptists, and no warrant for
such use can be found in the scriptures. The apocalyptists were
speaking in their own way to their own times, not trying to unveil
the future of the twentieth or twenty-first centuries. This is not
to say that the literature they produced cannot speak to us. The
message of apocalyptic can speak to every era.
These types of Biblical literature come from a people who are dispossessed, being persecuted, and have little if any power on their own to change their circumstances. It is a way of making sense of the current turmoil in their lives by seeing the hand of God at work which will eventually bring to justice the misdeeds of the present day.
In the time of Jesus and the authors of the New Testament, that power was Rome, and Jews and Christians alike lived in a land occupied by Roman legions. This piece of Mark's Gospel plays a key role in helping make sense of what seems to be unthinkable: why does not God protect and save those who believe Jesus to be the Son of God, the Christ?
This is done in a couple of ways. First, all that is happening is known to God. God knows of the suffering of his people. God knows of the persecutions and the turmoil of their lives. Because God knows, then there is a sense that God will be with them during these difficulties. God is not only warning them, but preparing them for the times of persecution as part of a broader view of God's purposes for the earth. Their suffering will not be in vain, for God's purposes will sanctify and redeem it in the final day. In the end, God, not Rome, will reign.
The other thing this little apocalypse
does is dampen the
anticipation that Jesus will return within the next little while.
The earlier writings of the New Testament looked to the imminent
return of Jesus in glory to restore all things in himself. As the
church grew and the persecutions grew and Jesus did not return, the
church needed to make sense of this difficulty. Mark is clear in
telling the church that there will be false Messiahs and false
prophets and not to go to them or heed them. So do not be led
astray, do not be fooled. God is aware of our current troubles,
God will redeem all things in God's time, and we are not to look
to easy answers, quick fixes, or false prophets to help us.
We still need to hear these words of warning and promise. We still
need to be reminded that God will be with us in times of prosperity
and times of trouble. We still need to hear the words of promise
that he will be with us even to the end of the age.
Prophecy
as we understand it in scripture is not seeing into the future.
Rather prophecy is insight. These writings give us insights that
transcend time and culture in that they point us to a living God
who calls us to the reality of God's presence in our life, and in
our world, and not to be led astray by false prophets such as ultra
nationalism, money, power and politics, or anything else with the
false promise of easy answers.