Mark 13:28-37
Please listen with me to a reading from the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark, beginning at the 28th verse:
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
So far our text.
These words come from a longer discourse, in which Jesus is speaking about the signs that will precede his second coming, and about what will and will not happen when this world comes to an end. One of the things he says is that
“this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
The term in the original Greek that is translated as “generation” is “genea.” It means a body or category of people who have been generated together, or who come from a common genetic or genealogical source. It does not necessarily mean people who are of the same age, or who are alive at the same time in history.
Jesus is not necessarily saying, therefore, that he will visibly return to the earth within the lifetime of the people who were then on the earth. The phrase “this generation” could also mean – and in the context does seem to mean – “this human family”: that is, the total body of Adam’s descendants.
In other words, the human race will not be destroyed before the end of the world occurs. At least some human beings will still be here at the end – even if there have been nuclear conflagrations, meteor strikes, worldwide epidemics, a global flood induced by climate change, or any of the other doomsday disasters that have been imagined by Hollywood script writers.
At a human level, there is some comfort in this promise. The stories we often hear about the willingness of parents to sacrifice themselves in times of extreme danger, so that their children will survive, are an indication of the inner desire that we all have, for the human family to which we belong to be perpetuated.
If our descendants, or those who come after us in the larger human family, live on, then a part of us also lives on in them. That’s the instinct for the survival of the species that inhabits people, even if at a subconscious level.
But there is more comfort in the words of Jesus than that. He also says:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
The world in which we live is an ever-changing world. Many of the things of this world that we used to value, no longer exist. The ethical certainties that we used to be able to take for granted as a society, have been largely replaced in more recent decades by moral chaos.
Among the convictions that have been jettisoned by many in our time, is a belief that God is real, and a confidence that the Christian faith is true. As a history and genealogy buff, I often interact with people who – at a certain level – are very interested in knowing about their forebears, and about the times in which they lived; but who could not care less about the religious faith that animated and guided their ancestors.
Through the secular brainwashing to which students are often subjected in many schools and colleges, and through the influence of the general cultural environment of skepticism and relativism in which we all now live, there has been a massive loss of faith in our day.
There is a common assumption – as rampant as it is false – that science, and modern knowledge, have discredited the Bible. Jesus? Who was that? Did he really exist? He is probably just a made-up character.
And if he is not made up, then he was just an ordinary man who seems to have gotten himself in trouble with the authorities – and whose wife Mary Magdalene and daughter Sarah then fled from Palestine to ancient France.
Yes, people who think they are too smart to believe the firsthand eyewitness reports of the apostles, regarding who Jesus was and what he did, are willing to believe the fictional storyline of the DaVinci Code.
Yet in the midst of all the changes that are taking place in this world – intellectual, social, political, and moral changes – people do generally perceive that the world itself, and the cosmos of which our world is a part – will remain. Those who have given up faith in God, still do believe in the laws of physics that govern the planet, the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe.
That all seems so definite and so objective, even as the spiritual worldview of earlier centuries is now dismissed as irrelevant and silly. The cosmos is the one ultimate, unmovable reality.
The late Carl Sagan was the popular prophet of this new semi-religious certitude. And the scientists of our time, as a class, are perceived to be its priests.
Modern men, who cannot abide the dogmatism of Christianity, can so often be heard to declare that a certain matter is now a settled and unquestionable fact, because “science” has spoken, and has settled it. In such a context, among people who are caught up in this kind of thinking, what Jesus says today would be downright bizarre:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
The cosmos – all that exists in the created order – will pass away. Someday, it will all be utterly transformed: purged by fire, renewed by its creator, and elevated to a new form of existence.
But the words of Jesus will not pass away. The words of Jesus will never pass away.
Jesus teaches elsewhere that the Holy Scriptures are divinely-inspired, and are of unquestionable authority among both men and angels. He also teaches elsewhere that his holy church – the communion of saints – is eternal, and that Satan’s machinations will never prevail against it.
But the precise point that Jesus is making in today’s text is different from those points. He is talking about his words – the words he spoke personally. He is talking about his specific predictions, his specific warnings, and his specific promises – spoken to his disciples and others, and infallibly recorded in the Four Gospels.
The Christian religion did not create the words of Jesus – as Bart Ehrman and other unbelieving scholars claim. Rather, the words of Jesus created the Christian religion.
After his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus told his disciples to make disciples of all nations: by baptizing them, and by teaching them to observe all that he had commanded. They – we – were to pass on, to all newly baptized Christians, the words that Jesus had spoken. And Jesus promised, in conjunction with the fulfillment of this mission:
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Through the teaching of his commandments – of his words – he will be present with his church. Unlike any merely human words, there is something mystically powerful about the words of Jesus.
Whenever those divine words are spoken again, he is speaking them again. On another occasion, Jesus said to his disciples: “The one who hears you, hears me.”
The Lord’s promise of his abiding presence with his disciples is not made to them in the future tense, which is what we might have expected. He does not say, “I will be with you always.” He says, “I am with you always.”
Whenever the words of Jesus are spoken – his words which shall never pass away – Jesus is right there, making those words to be a personal address to those who are, in that moment, hearing them. The words of Jesus are never locked in the past.
They are always in the present. His words cannot ever be silenced, and buried on the ash-heap of history. They are always alive – supernaturally alive – because the resurrected Lord who speaks them is alive.
Jesus’ words are active and powerful, creating the faith that they call for. Therefore, no one – not the most ardent of communist propagandists; not the most clueless of university professors – will ever accurately be able to say, “Yeah, some people used to believe those words.”
Even as there will always be people on earth while the earth exists, so too will there always be people on earth who believe in Jesus – and who believe Jesus when he speaks his words to them.
His words reach out and grab people: penetrating to the heart, and filling the mind. They kill and they make alive. They drive the conscience to repentance, and they draw the conscience to faith.
They regenerate and save. They bring light in the midst of deep darkness. They vanquish evil and justify the ungodly. They make all things new. They sustain and preserve the people of God, for this life and for the life to come.
Nothing of this world is permanent. It will all, someday, pass away. But the words of Jesus will not pass away.
And, if you cling to those words, and find your identity and your hope in those words, you, too, will not pass away. When heaven and earth do pass away, you will remain, as a member of God’s family and as a citizen of God’s kingdom.
You will never perish, even as the words of Jesus – words which have encountered you and challenged you; healed you and re-created you – will never perish.
And Jesus is speaking those words to you. He didn’t just speak them in the past: so that the most you can do is sentimentally remember them, but not experience their power here and now. He is speaking them now. He is speaking them to you now.
By his words, Jesus is warning you about your sins, and about the harm your sins can and will cause: to you, and to your relationships with him and with other people. And he drives you to repentance. As we hear him in the Gospels, Jesus said, and Jesus says here and now:
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
And by his words, Jesus is mystically coming to you with his pardon and peace, and he is inviting you to come to him in faith. As we hear him again in the Gospels, Jesus said, and Jesus says here and now:
“Son, your sins are forgiven.” “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
The church of Jesus Christ lives in his words, and by his words. And at the center of the church’s life are some very specific words of Jesus: words that fill the church with Christ and his forgiveness; words that protect the church against demonic threats and attacks; words that sacramentally unite the church to its Bridegroom and Head.
These special words of Jesus do not merely echo in the church. Whenever they are spoken, Jesus is right there speaking them afresh.
Through his ministers, he is speaking them. To his people, whom he loves, he is speaking them. Until he comes again in glory, he will speak them.
He says: “Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you.” “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.”
Do you want to experience something, and ponder something, that will never pass away or change? If so, then do not think about this earth. Do not think about anything that comes from this earth, or about the heavens that surround this earth.
Think about these words of Jesus. Listen to these words of Jesus whenever you have an opportunity to hear them.
Believe these words of Jesus. And as you believe, receive him and everything that he brings to you, in and through his words – his certain and unchanging words.
We will soon begin a new church year, and therefore we will soon begin again our annual liturgical discipline of following a familiar cycle of lessons, prayers, and hymns. These various texts will, over the course of a year, expose us to the whole counsel of God, as revealed in Holy Scripture.
Especially in the carefully-chosen readings from the Gospels that we will hear on each Sunday, the words of Jesus will sound forth. Jesus will be speaking to us from those sacred pages.
We will not just be reminded of what he said in the past – two-thousand years ago. We will hear him. And what his words do and accomplish, they will do and accomplish among us.
Do you sometimes have doubts about your faith? Do the secular voices that surround you sometimes wear you down, and cause you to wonder if what you believe as a Christian can really all be true?
Are you sometimes tempted to think – as so many people today do think – that the only things that are real and permanent, are the things of this cosmos – things you can see and touch? If this describes you at all – in whole or in part – then there is a solution, and a remedy, to that problem.
Come to church! Come on every Sunday of the church year, and listen attentively to the appointed Gospels for every Sunday of the church year.
And if you are sometimes not able to come in person, then come virtually. Every week, videos of the service are available online.
You can set aside whatever else you might do – for an hour or so – and you can watch and listen to that video. You can listen to the words of Jesus that are spoken through that video.
In whatever way you hear his words, allow his words to take hold of your mind and heart, as your mind and heart take hold of his words.
Find your life in those words. Find your hope and your destiny in those words. Find your forgiveness before God, and your eternal peace with God, in those words. Jesus said – or rather, Jesus says:
“Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Amen.