Luke 21:5-19; Jesus as Interpretive Party Pooper

"When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” 7 They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8 And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. 9 “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Introduction

This passage speaks of deep and difficult realities in language that we don't often use in 2007. It covers subjects that normally don't cross our radar screen. That is, most of us live in a "non-apocalyptic" mind set. Though we have in the back of our minds the notion that the world might come to an end and our current way of life will be displaced, we don't live as if this is the case, nor do we really pray for it to happen. Oh, at times we lift up a prayer hoping for the end of all things, but such a prayer often betrays more of our frustration with things than of an objective or well-founded expectation that "the end" is "near."

The passage for the morning allows either a discussion of these elusive "end times" or something that is much closer to my heart--as well as to the meaning of the passage--and that is the problem of interpretation or discernment in a confusing world. Jesus will speak about a coming persecution and destruction of the Temple, to be sure, but the broader context of his words is how to interpret various things in our world. Let that subject, then, be our guide--how do we, how do you, interpret the world in which we live?

In this passage, including the preceding four verses, Jesus interprets three different things: (a) the meaning of an act; (b) the meaning of a structure; and (c) the meaning of coming events. Let's speak briefly about each.

I. Interpreting the Widow's Gift (21:1-4)

Jesus has just emerged from a series of confrontations with religious leaders in ch. 20. He has acquitted himself well as a Biblical interpreter; he has also probably fueled the leaders' determination to "get him." He simply won't play by their "rules;" Jesus sees himself in a larger historical context--as one of the prophets who must perish in Jerusalem (13:33); as someone destined to fulfill the divine will in the holy city. This consciousness of his larger historical purpose gives him a freedom in interpreting things around him. He easily can put an alternative "twist" on things because his mind and conceptualization of the world isn't beholden to the interpretations of the religious leaders. He knows the Scripture and argues skillfully from it (ch. 20); but he also seems to speak with a freedom borne from achieving clarity of message and clarity of mission.

When we, too, achieve these kinds of clarities in life, life flows much better for us, too. When you know what you stand for and what your message is in this life, you not only begin to cherish your life and live it more fully, but you discover a new utility in life that you never knew you had. So, in this passage, Jesus gives three different "takes" on three common experiences or questions in life.

The first has to do with giving a contribution in the Temple. We know this story well but, since it isn't officially a part of the reading for today, I won't go into it at length. Suffice it to say that Jesus "reads" her paltry contribution as "more" than all the rich people combined. She will never have a wing at the art museum named after her; she never will even receive a "thank you note" she can use for tax purposes. But Jesus knows and honors her. Jesus honors those who give "all" they have (cf. v. 4). He sees not the amount but the connection of the thing given to the person giving. It is an expression of her heart.

II. The Meaning of the Temple (21:5-8)

Jesus moves from interpreting the woman's action to interpreting the beautiful building around him. He shows hermeneutical litheness by being able to move from action to structure and say what it all "means." Here is what we know of the Temple:

"The Jerusalem temple admired by those with Jesus was the project of Herod the Great, who in 20/19 BCE began a reconstruction of the temple that essentially doubled its size and otherwise reflected his own aggrandizing character. Pilgrims pouring into the city from the rustic environs of Palestine and the wider diaspora couldn't not help but be impressed, even overwhelmed, by its sheer size and magnificence, by the brilliance of the gold plates that covered its facade, and by the white marble that adorned its upper reaches. What is more, its splendor as an architectural feat would have been for the faithful more than matched by the awe it inspired as the abode of God and socio-religio-politico center of the Jewish universe," Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke, 733.

In other words, the restored temple was the pride and joy of the community, a unifiying force and an attractive object. Having just been built about 50 years previously, it probably looked as if it was built to stand until the end of the world. When he heard people remarking about its beauty, Jesus decided to share his "take" on the temple. It really was a negative interpretation, one that no doubt tended to alienate his hearers and draw attention to himself. In fact we know that he was right--within a generation the temple would be destroyed. Many scholars take this as an indication that the passage was written after the fact and placed in Jesus' mouth; I think Jesus could have seen forces at work in his time that would lead to the temple's destruction.

But just as the external signs of people's contributions to the temple fund made no impression on him, so the external beauty and magnificence of the temple seems not to affect his view of what will happen. He knows that life, events, structures are evanescent. Is the key to Jesus' ability to "read" the future of the temple to be found in an unshareable divinity which he has--or to a spiritual/political perception he possesses that is also available to us? No one knows, but I tend to think of Jesus as a person who, because he saw the world differently from his contemporaries, was able also to "see" things in that world before others did, and often many years before they happened.

It brings up the question of whether there are people in our own midst, or whether we ourselves, have this interpretive capacity--the ability to "see" how things will unfold in a number of areas.

III. Interpreting Future Events (21:9-19)

The most significant thing about Jesus' words in these verses is the division between people which it assumes. There will be divisions between nations as wars break out and divisions within families and groups that you naturally would think would share a common interest. As Jesus says:

"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death..." (v. 16).

Jesus had foreshadowed some of this when he spoke his chilling "over the top" words in 14:26:

"Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple."

Now Jesus tells us that there is a good reason for "hating" those people supposedly intimately connecte dwith us--they are planning to betray us. Is this paranoia run amok? Doesn't this unnecessarily incense (verb!) things? Well, this is one of the "problems" with apocalyptic language--it tends to bring all things to a sort of head, to divide the world into "us" and "them," to speak with white-hot language about the coming of disaster. Maybe it is true, even though we work for the opposite every day.

Conclusion

We can't fully separate the interpretive from the apocalyptic message of the passage. I am much more comfortable with Jesus as interpreter--and with our need to develop that interpretive capacity. But I have also lived long enough to know the chanciness of things, and that the supposed pillars of our existence can rest on shaky foundations. Take a lesson from Jesus and try to wade into the interpretive arena yourself-- look at the acts of people (the widow), the structures around you (the temple) and the events of our world--and try to make sense of them. That is the encouragement of this passage.

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