Not wanting to disappoint however, what I am doing instead is putting the full text of that message up on this blog for anyone who wants to review what I was talking about on Sunday. I don't generally like doing this as a pastor because when you say something from the pulpit that doesn't sound quite right you always have the (legitimate!) defense that you misspoke in the heat of the moment; but when you put something in writing that doesn't quite sit right there is obvious forethought and intent - so I know that by doing this I'm opening myself up to some potential criticism.
Another thing that you should know if you are reading this as someone who heard it live on Sunday is that what I say from the pulpit does not exactly comport to what is in my script. The more excited or passionate I am about a topic the more prone I am to going of script and talking through my points rather than my text; minimizing some points in my script and expounding on others as I feel led in the moment. This past Sunday I did a fair bit of that, so while the message will be the same in broad strokes, structure and application, you may remember it a bit differently than you read it.
Lastly - one final caveat. I don't write my sermons to be read - I write them to be preached. That means that you shouldn't have very high expectations of grammar, punctuation or proper sentence structure in what follows. I warn English majors everywhere to harden your resolve before reading this- I've gone through and fixed the most offensive errors but done little more. For what it's worth - here is the message:
The War on Christmas
The Gospel of Mark Volume 2
December 9, 2012
Merry Christmas, we are at war.
We are under attack. We are attacked every time someone puts up a holiday tree, every time a school holds a winter concert, every time someone dare wish you season’s greetings instead of Merry Christmas. We are at war, and in the spirit of our battle I want to provide you a with a good old fashioned war story as a part of our Advent celebrations this year – today our journey through the Gospel of Mark brings us to the ominous chapter 13. My apologies to anyone here this morning who suffers from Triskaidekaphobia – that is the irrational fear of the number 13 (yes that is a thing) because today’s text will probably do nothing to abate that fear.
Today we look at a passage of scripture often referred to throughout church history as the Little Apocalypse. If you’ve been following our series closely, you’ll notice that we skipped over the last part of chapter 12 to get here today – that’s because I have to lead worship next week and I lost the coin toss between Waylon and I as to who would have to preach this text – We’ll back track to cover the end of chapter 12 next week before moving into chapter 14 on the 23rd. Mark 13 is probably the most enigmatic passage of scripture in the gospels. It has consternated and terrified preachers for hundreds of years because of its strong end-times overtones. And you don’t have to have spent a long time in the church to understand that people are particularly sensitive about their end times theology and expectations, so preaching on a passage like this is virtually impossible to do without stepping on some toes. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will probably frustrate some of you here today because I’m going to poke holes in some ideas that you’ve long presumed about this text – that’s okay, I’m more concerned as a preacher with fidelity than popularity so I’m just going to preach what the Lord has revealed to me through study and prayer. But I’m going to need some help in that account, so I’d ask you as we begin to join me in prayer as we look together at the war on Christmas.
Let’s Pray.
What we have here today is a war story.
It is not a matter of any serious debate amongst Biblical scholars about WHEN the Gospel of Mark would have been written. It is generally agreed to have been written in the thick of the Jewish Roman war that stretched from AD66 to AD74. It seems to be a given, considering the text of chapter 13 especially that Mark was writing to a community that was watching these events unfold and was looking for a context into which they could process what they were seeing happen; which is why Mark gives us this unique and specific account of Jesus words dating some 35-40 years before these events to help them understand the times in which they were living.
From history we know with certainty that in the month of June of the year 66 there was a revolt led by the Jewish zealots that caught Rome off guard. The revolution – their own classical version of an Arab spring quickly spread from Jerusalem to the nearby provinces of Idumea, Perea, and Galilee and by November of that same year Rome’s response would be felt. Cestus Gallus, the Roman Legate of Syria led his forces into Jerusalem to put down the insurrection. He successfully occupied the northern part of the city and brought it back under Roman occupation and control, but when he tried to march on the Temple mount he was turned away by surprisingly effective resistance by Jewish guerrilla fighters who inflicted on his forces significant losses causing him to flee to the coast where he sent an emergency message to Rome. Against all odds, outnumbered and outmatched the Jewish freedom fighters had scored an improbable victory over Rome and the mood in the city was elation!
But just like we have seen in the fallout of the contemporary Arab Spring revolutions, a power vacuum is rarely filled without further hardship. The different groups within Jerusalem began to fight each other over who would control this new independent Palestine and as they teetered on the brink of their own civil war Rome returned with a vengeance.
Vespasian – who is remembered by history among the greatest of Rome’s generals, and who was soon to become emperor himself – was dispatched by Rome to bring the power of the Empire to bear on these rebels. He gathered legions from Egypt and Syria and with 6 thousand heavily armoured troops began his march down through Galilee into Jerusalem. This time the guerrillas were no match for the superior forces and strategy of Vespasian and in short order Rome had retaken Galilee, Perea and Western Judea. In June of 68 Vespasian was about to begin his final siege of Jerusalem when the unexpected occurred. The revolutionaries received another reprieve – this time from an unexpected source. Rome was in civil war. Nero was dead and there were no less than four candidates trying to succeed him as Emperor. Vespasian had been urgently recalled to Rome and the siege of Jerusalem was abandoned leaving it in the hands of the Zealot coalition.
For 18 glorious months Jerusalem was free from occupation while Rome sorted its stuff out. For 18 months the word on the lips of the Jewish resistance was that Yahweh had spared them not once but twice. God was fighting alongside his people just as he had in all the stories they had grown up reading about in the Scriptures. Rome was certainly coming back when the new Emperor was finally agreed upon and for 18 months the Jews were allowed to prepare for the final battle between the people of God and the evil empire – a Battle that they undoubtedly saw in eschatological hues. This was their moment, supporters travelled throughout the region calling all true Jews to the defense of Jerusalem. This surely would be the beginning of the messianic age, and the final restoration of David’s kingdom. When that final battle came though – Vespasian who had succeeded in his bid to become Rome’s new emperor sent his top general Titus to complete the siege of Jerusalem. It took Titus only five months and by the fall of AD70 – Jerusalem had fallen and the Temple itself had been burned to the ground.
Now that is history. An uncontested, highly verifiable history of events in the holy land in the latter half of the first century after Christ – knowing these things I would ask you to think again about our text today and consider what exactly it says.
Now to say flat out that there is only one way to see this story would be disingenuous. It would be disingenuous not because there are differing opinions among contemporary teachers about the context – for that is true of any passage in Scripture. I doubt you could find a single verse in the bible that is not contested by someone to some extent, and this holds all the more true about apocalyptic passages like this one – but I say that instead because there are three different ways that we can come at this text today, three different perspectives on these same events, three different vantage points at which we can, and I believe must, interact with this story.
The first is the vantage point of Jesus. Where in the story of Jesus and the Temple are we? We’ve been tracking along this Passion Week narrative for a couple months now, and Jesus has had a lot to say about the Temple, the temple authorities, Jewish cultic practices and the future of what I have called project Israel. What does this little apocalypse have to do with all of that and how does it connect to the stories surrounding it.
The second is the vantage point of Mark. We have to remember that all of the books of the Bible were written to very specific communities in specific cultures, in specific times, experiencing specific circumstances. Mark did not write his Gospel in a vacuum – rather he had a very specific reason for telling the story of Jesus the way he did and for including the details that he did and omitting the details that he omitted. We’ve talked at length before about the very intentional structure of the gospel as a biography of Jesus and if the scholarly consensus is right – this biography was written to a people in the middle of this Jewish-Roman conflict which is very important for how we read this story.
And the third vantage point is ours. None of the books of the Bible were written to us – we are simply too far removed from the events of the biblical times to be the intended audience for these documents – but we know that by the Holy Spirit’s involvement in the work of Inspiration – all Scripture is written FOR us. There is a message within this text for us today – and I am convinced that it is a message for this season as well (stick around to see how I manage to pull that one off!) But to understand this vantage point correctly we must first familiarize ourselves with the other two. So let’s start with Jesus and go from there.
The story from vantage point of Jesus
Jesus is pronouncing judgment on the temple once again. Where the Jews expected the Messiah to be the source of Yahweh’s divine intervention to preserve their way of worship – Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives prophesying its destruction.
1. The revolt is not the beginning of the Kingdom of God
Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come...At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
Mark 13:5-7, 21-23 (TNIV)
The end that Jesus is speaking of is the final destruction of the temple that he has been speaking about for the last few days. The functional destruction of the temple was about to take place with the crucifixion of Christ on Friday, but God had plans to allow Rome to finish the job before the end of the century. Jesus knew this, and knew that it needed to happen to fulfil God’s plan for his new work through the Church to grow past its Jewish antecedent.
We also know from historical accounts that with the end times implications of this type of war for the Jews, and the belief that Yahweh himself had twice interceded on their behalf in this conflict, that the third and decisive battle would be led by the Messiah himself. Even during the time of Jesus there was a real interest in the arrival of the Messiah – but that interest was in a very narrow interpretation of who the messiah was to be. As we talked about last week and have touched on before, the Jews were looking for a warrior king to re-establish the Davidic dynasty and lead the Jews out from under the oppression of the Roman Empire. Jesus was not prepared to be that type of messiah but it didn’t stop the Jews for looking for one who was. This coming conflict would provide fertile ground for many claims of messiahship – something that historians have also found plenty of evidence of.
The important message that Jesus is telling Peter, James, John and Andrew that day overlooking the Temple is not to begin to now – or later on – to doubt his words. The Temple is going to be destroyed. No last ditch heroics, the arrival of one with messianic claims, or seeming divine intervention on the Jews behalf will change that. Political revolution is NOT how the Kingdom will be inaugurated – don’t’ be led astray by the many who say it will be.
2. This revolt is the end of the world – for the Jews
One of the things that gets people all tied up in knots in this passage are the allusions to Daniel and Isaiah that Jesus sprinkles in his description of future events. People get all wound up thinking that this cannot possibly be just about the destruction of the temple; even though all the words surrounding these allusions have to do with a specific historical event that is extensively documented and verifiable, and even though the context of the teaching itself seems to clearly point to that end; they maintain that this is a prophecy of cosmic destruction and the end of the world; the sun being darkened, the moon not giving light and the stars falling from the sky and what not.
First of all you need to understand that apocalyptic literature as a genre is not meant to be read literally – just like we understand that parables as a genre in the bible, or poetry as a genre in the bible are meant to be read metaphorically, so apocalyptic literature functions the same way. They are pictures that are painted with words to describe the indescribable. The unfathomable and the terrifying. We have no trouble understanding that when Jesus talks about the good Samaritan that he is not referring to a literal person –but rather a character illustration; when Solomon says to his lover in the Song of Songs:
How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!
Your eyes are doves.
We know that he doesn’t literally mean that she is some grotesque creature with birds for eyes – he’s being poetic.
So we have to first of all let the genre dictate how we understand a given text – but that’s not to say that Jesus’ inclusion of these apocalyptic images are any less stark and shocking for the four disciples sitting at his feet while he gives this description. They are shocking because they are talking about the end of the world. They are talking about a comic unravelling of sorts – it just wasn’t the end of the world as we understand it.
We’ve talked about this before – particularly when we looked at Jesus clearing the temple, but for the Jews the destruction of the temple WAS the end of the world because of the special place the Temple occupied in their theology.
Remember that Sunday I gave you a really big and impressive (if not generally useless) word to describe the function of the temple for the Jews? It was the spatiotemporal location of God on Earth. That is to say it was where God existed in space and time.
Remember how I also told you that the Temple was the place where Heaven and Earth intersected; that in the holy of holies they overlapped and intertwined making the temple a place like no other on earth? And how every God fearing Jew saw the temple as an enduring sign of God’s covenant with his chosen people Israel. It was a monument in many ways to Israel’s special place in God’s plan for humanity?
For these reasons the Temple was the centre of the cosmos, the thing that held creation together – to see it destroyed was akin to witnessing the end of the world for the Jews of Jesus’ day. The apocalyptic language was more than appropriate for what they were hearing about and it holds true for Mark’s audience as well.
The story from the vantage point of Mark
Mark wanted his fledgling community to resist the call of patriotism to fight a doomed battle because
3. This war is not the fight that the Church should be fighting
Wars and rumors of wars are what Mark highlights in Jesus teaching. This correlates nicely with the way that news of military engagements circulated in the classical world. There were no telecommunications in those days so rumors of troop movements, battles, coming sieges and the like seemed to travel on the wind as one person told another and then travelled and spread the news. The rumors would have undoubtedly been swirling around the civil war in Rome and the question of when (not if) Rome would get its ducks in order and come back for the final battle with the Jews.
All the while Mark’s community, feeling a natural connection to the Jews even though we are fairly certain most of them were gentiles, and those who were Jewish would almost be under ethnic obligation to go back and fight for Jerusalem. But Mark highlights the words of Jesus that tell them to do the exact opposite.
“When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.
Mark 13:14-19 (TNIV)
Mark is warning his community (remember that THEY are the ones this passage is written to) that when they see the desecration of the Temple (the abomination that causes desolation is most commonly understood to be some sort of pagan profanity of the most holy place) that the time to flee is at hand. A persecution unlike anything they have yet experienced is about to be unleashed upon the remnant when Jerusalem finally falls, that when the empire’s energy is not devoted to crushing Jerusalem it will be redirected to crushing the Jews (and those associated with them like the church). Mark even interrupts Jesus words to throw in his own little editorial statement here – let the reader understand. He’s serious about what he’s saying and he wants his people to get the message through the veiled apocalyptic language of Jesus.
The story from the vantage point of the post-modern Church
So what is the lesson of this prophecy and its fulfilment for us today? What does it teach us about Christmas? Well on the surface there isn’t a lot that is seasonal here. Only Matthew and Luke give us insights into the nativity and although John doesn’t deal with the birth of Christ he at least waxes theologically about the incarnation at the beginning of his Gospel. Mark is the only Gospel without ANY reference to what we celebrate at Christmas – but what Mark does have to show us is the ethic of how to live within a hostile culture and maintain our identity as the people of God. And we feel the need for that type of teaching most pointedly at Christmastime.
We said it at the beginning – we are at war. And so I want to share with you the lessons that Mark has for wartime Christianity that we learned through our study of the text:
1. Political revolution is not how the Kingdom comes
Well we need to hear carefully what Jesus was saying, that the Kingdom is not won by political advances. You cannot, despite how many have tried throughout history, legislate authentic Christianity. We cannot lobby, petition, or protest the gospel into the hearts and minds of a post-Christian society.
If we have lost the culture, then we have lost the culture but let’s not lose the people as well in our battle to have the culture back.
2. The shift to a post-Christian society only seems like the end of the world
Just as the Jews saw the destruction of the Temple as the end of the world, the final battle upon which the fate of the cosmos was hanging in the balance – we are sometimes prone to seeing the celebration of this holiday, and the accompanying acknowledgement of cultural Christianity, as the last straw for Canadian (or western) society. But just like the destruction of the Temple was the end of an era of the work of God, but not the end of his working, the end of the Christian west is the end of an era of Christianity for sure, but it doesn’t need to be the end of the world. We have opportunities now to live out radically authentic Christianity without the fear of confusing with the dominant culture. When we celebrate Christmas we are making a statement now, not just doing what has always been done. When we say Merry Christmas to someone it says something about who we are in the context of a world that doesn’t really know what that means anymore. In many ways this new world that we are increasingly finding ourselves in gives us the opportunity to shed the baggage that was part and parcel with cultural Christianity and re-introduce our own culture to the Word made flesh, in a way that is more raw, and authentic than anything we could have ever done in a Christian culture. This is not the end of the world but the beginning of an exciting new opportunity for ministry. We all get to be missionaries, and we don’t even have to leave our street. And lastly,
3. We must make sure we are not drawn into the wrong wars
Just like Mark was imploring his community, we need to ensure that we do not get caught up in wars that are not ours to fight. We have a very specific and clear mandate about the way we are to engage society – and it’s called the Gospel.
You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
Mark 13:9-11 (TNIV)
This season of Advent – the run up to Christmas is about us witnessing to the world about the Word who was made flesh for us. It’s about going into a post-Christian society not with weapons of war, vainly attempting to create our own idea of what a Christian society is to look like, but instead with love and good news. When the Angels appeared to the shepherds on that first Christmas night, what was their message? Was it ‘be afraid because we’re here to take back what is ours?’ Was it, we’re here to tear down all your false understandings of what the Messiah is going to be and sternly correct you until you fall in line? No – it was “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
We have Good news this Christmas, so why are we scolding the world with stern faces for their lack of understanding of what Christmas is rather than joyfully seeing the opportunity to witness to them?
I’ll end with this. Last week I was hit a few times by emails from well meaning people passing around a YouTube video about the War on Christmas. It was a well produced propaganda song encouraging Christians not to shop anywhere this holiday season that eschewed the traditional “Merry Christmas” for a more generic “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” It was an attempt to start a protest movement against the secularisation of Christmas. I understand why it bothered them so much that people were missing the true meaning of the holiday. I understand that their desire is to have Christ proclaimed from every store front this holiday season. I know where their hearts are – but isn’t there something very, very wrong about their approach?
Where is the good news? Where is the Church’s witness to the world when we sound the call to arms rather than the call to evangelism? How does our militant mentality reflect the heart of the Gospel? I actually got angry when I saw this video repeatedly hitting my inbox. I got angry because we are once again giving the world a reason to tune us out. We are once again giving the world a reason to write us off. We are once again gearing up to fight a war that we have no right participating in. We are NOT at war, we are messengers of peace. We are not called to deliver ultimatums; we are bearers of the good news. When I see a store that says season’s greetings or someone putting up a holiday tree or am privileged to attend a winter concert at my child’s school – I know I’m somewhere that needs some of the good news, and the world has been kind enough to light up a big sign telling me so.
Brothers and sisters don’t buy into the lie of the War on Christmas; don’t believe that it’s the end of the world. Don’t get caught up in a war that you have no business being a part of when your calling is to be messengers of peace. The world has changed, and I hate to be the guy who has to say it, but just like second temple Judaism, it’s gone for good. Let’s not waste this Christmas by lamenting over what was lost and instead embrace the new opportunities that God has given us to be missionaries to our world. Merry Christmas to all and Do not be afraid. We bring the world good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
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