NOTES for Mat 24:3-35

It makes already almost two thousand years that people read these words and understand that it is about them. The increase of iniquities appear differently in different time: either it is the persecutions of Christians by the heathens, or it is the use of the state mechanisms of violence to guarantee the ideological integrity of the citizens, or it is war, racism, criminalization of the society, or it is the introduction of the psychology of consumption, or it is the political terrorism … But in every case the most terrible are not the cruelty of the rapists, but the quenching love of Christians. Jesus says: «Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul". To lose love means to kill the soul. “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved". About what endurance is it? Does it mean looking with indifference to the evil that surrounds us? Of course not! To endure is to preserve love in any circumstances, to resist the bad outward, not allowing it to capture us from within. Such Divine forbearance, such endurance are the gift of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.

It makes already almost two thousand years that people read these words and understand that it is about them. The increase of iniquities appear differently in different time: either it is the persecutions of Christians by the heathens, or it is the use of the state mechanisms of violence to guarantee the ideological integrity of the citizens, or it is war, racism, criminalization of the society, or it is the introduction of the psychology of consumption, or it is the political terrorism … But in every case the most terrible are not the cruelty of the rapists, but the quenching love of Christians. Jesus says: «Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul". To lose love means to kill the soul. “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved". About what endurance is it? Does it mean looking with indifference to the evil that surrounds us? Of course not! To endure is to preserve love in any circumstances, to resist the bad outward, not allowing it to capture us from within. Such Divine forbearance, such endurance are the gift of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.

The end will not come before the message of the Kingdom has been proclaimed throughout the whole world. Herein lies the incomparable greatness of the New Testament proclamation, the greatness of the universality of the principle of love and freedom that it announces. Yet we often remain confined within the blinders of Old Testament spirituality and divide the world into Christians and non-Christians, sinners and righteous people. To a certain extent this is so. But in the face of trials, we are all alike merely hearers and witnesses of the Good News of Salvation.

The abomination of desolation in the holy place means apostasy from God, disregard for Him and for what proceeds from Him. And a day may come when the measure of sin and lawlessness exceeds everything imaginable and places the world on the edge of the abyss. Then those who keep faithfulness will have to turn away from the new Sodom, like Lot's family, and cease all participation in its affairs.

One very much wants to "decode" these words, fit them to some era, and calm down: now we know at what moment to begin behaving in the indicated way. But it is impossible to say when the last day will come. Many times over the past centuries events approached that appeared to correspond to what had been predicted, but then the end was postponed again.

The Lord did not give us a schedule of coming events, but He did reveal some important signs of those days. He mentioned a tribulation greater than any before or after it. This brief but capacious mention lets us see that those days will be shortened, and this testifies that the Lord does not want to allow the destruction of the world, even if people do everything they can to destroy it.

And so He warns us to be cautious about rumors of His appearance in the midst of disasters and cataclysms. But how can one distinguish the many false messiahs and false prophets from the True One, if, as He Himself testifies, they will perform great signs and wonders that will make the strongest impression even on the faithful? It is not worth doing so, but one could name a whole series of present-day false prophets who have declared themselves "Christ in the second coming" and managed to make an extremely strong impression on those who trusted them. And all this happens in countries that were once Christian.

The true Son of Man, however, revealed to us here as well a sign of His Second Coming, and it is surprisingly simple, though it does not fit our way of perceiving things: the fact that it is He will be visible to the whole world. And if the first time He appeared in the world unrecognized, then at His second coming no one will have any doubt that this is indeed Christ.

It would seem that today's text is all about fear: fear of being caught in bad occupations at the coming of the Lord and of suffering terrible punishment for that at the Last Judgment. Whole layers of the culture of both Western and Eastern Christianity were built on such an attitude toward these words. But let us think about whether we understand this fear correctly. Let us recall the words from the beginning of the Gospel according to Luke. "And the angel said to them: Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy." The Lord calls us not to fear, but to joy. Still, how then should we understand today's text?

We are all very different. We all have different spiritual, intellectual, and moral levels. At the same time, the word of God is addressed to everyone, and therefore it must be multidimensional, reflecting all the complexity of the structure of human society. The main thing is to be able to read what the Lord is saying personally to you; this is what prayer consists in. For self-confident people, a measure of fear is useful. But there are people whom fear can crush; they are given hope. The Lord knows their sensitivity and gives them the image of the fig tree, by whose leaves we can judge the approach of summer. And then people who seemed weak suddenly gain the strength to rise above any fear, because they begin to understand: "He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus" (2 Cor 4:13-18).

It is another matter that, to the extent that the history of the Church has been filled with imperfection and sin, human fear was pleasing to its unrighteous servants, because it produced servility, simply subjecting people to their power. But all this is passing. We must always be able to separate what is passing from what is true.

In Russian, the word “apocalypse” is associated with something terrible, with an immense global catastrophe, a worldwide cataclysm. Indeed, the apocalyptic scenes depicted in the Bible make a powerful impression on our minds. But we must not surrender ourselves entirely to these impressions, remembering the measure of optimism contained in them. It is no accident that, in the passage considered today, the Lord compares the End Times with summer, the most favorable season, using the example of the fig tree putting forth its leaves. Yet it will still be a trial. Theophan the Recluse writes: “One must conduct oneself as a student awaiting an examination does: whatever he may be doing, the examination never leaves his mind; such remembrance does not permit him to waste a single minute, and he uses all his time to prepare for the examination.”

The Lord compares the last times of world history with what it was like "in the days of Noah." This is an important, though very sad, statement: in the days of Noah evil multiplied, but no one except Noah gave it any significance. The point is that human nature damaged by sin is not simply able, but even inclined, not to notice the circumstances of the age if doing so exposes us. A person can recognize cause-and-effect connections; he can judge the deep meaning of history by what he observes in the world. But we do not want this, because then we would have to draw conclusions and change our life. And that is why the coming of the Son of Man proves so unexpected, and why His judgments seem strange to us. From a practical point of view, what matters for us is that the Lord calls the disciples to be ready for the last day. This volitional effort is always characteristic of faith, and where it is made, our life goes beyond the limits of restricted human perception. Christ's preaching about the last days thus gives His disciples the possibility not only of waiting with bated breath for the end that will arrive like a thief in the night, but already now, without waiting for the appointed times, of entering that life which will come after the inevitable end.

Speaking about His return and about the last times, Jesus specifically warns His disciples and followers against being carried away by false prophets and false messiahs. But where could such fascination come from among those who, as it would seem, had already settled the question of the Messiah?

The answer to that question may be found in the traditional ideas of that time about both the Messiah and the Kingdom. In those days, among the Jewish people, it was widely believed that the Temple in which Jesus preached would become the messianic Temple. The ideas about the Kingdom themselves still remained close to pre-exilic ones: in the popular religious consciousness, the Kingdom was perceived as an earthly state, though one ruled by the Messiah who would head it. And the apostles, it must be said, were not free from such ideas either; even on the day of the Ascension they were still sure that now, at last, their Teacher would finally begin building the messianic state whose appearance they had awaited so long.

Yet it was precisely the first, in part, and the second, mainly, generation of Christians who would witness the very tragic events Jesus is now speaking about. The messianic uprising of A.D. 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple became not only a national but also a religious catastrophe for the people. For the Jews it meant that they had not waited long enough for the Messiah after all, and for Christians it meant that He had not returned before the end of time, as He had promised. In such a situation confusion and wavering would be entirely natural. Self-appointed "messiahs" and "teachers" or "prophets" who wanted to "correct" or "supplement" the Gospel would have appeared. Indeed, if the Temple had already been destroyed and the Kingdom had still not come, did this not mean that something had been missed? Maybe the Founder of the Church had left something unsaid or unfinished?

Such doubts could become, and in their time did become, fertile ground for all kinds of theories and concepts that use Christian language but in substance have nothing in common with Christianity. Of course, the chief answer, as usually happens in the Church, was the new revelation received from Jesus about the era that had begun, about the spiritual meaning of the events taking place during that era, and about its completion; it found its embodiment in the Book of Revelation. But Jesus, as we can see, considers it necessary to warn His disciples and followers in advance. After all, the things at stake are too serious: the Kingdom and salvation.

Those who reflect on the times of the Second Coming and the Last Judgment for some reason pay more attention to the cataclysms accompanying those critical times than to Jesus' very clear words that at that expected moment normal everyday life will continue: neither customary labors, nor weddings, nor even the taking of food will stop. The main upheavals will occur not in the earth's crust or in the atmosphere, but in people's lives, in their souls. The choice the Lord offers us is made already now, and it is made quietly and unnoticed by most of those around us. Completely similar people make the choice, but they make it differently. Until a certain time they are side by side, but the hour of parting will come, when each will go along the path he has chosen for himself.

It is interesting that here Jesus again mentions the fig tree, offering it to the disciples as an example of one that can sense the changes of the times. These words once more make us remember another fig tree, the one that gave no fruit. We are called to be constantly ready to bear fruit and place it in the Lord's hands.

Today's passage is the second part of Jesus' account of the end of time, given in the Gospel according to Matthew. Here we find an explanation for the apparent misunderstanding that had already perplexed representatives of the first Christian generation: history had ended, yet Jesus, contrary to the promise He had given, still was not returning. Here He says directly that everything He told the disciples about would happen during their lifetime (v. 34; by "generation" here, according to the meaning of the Greek word, "generation" is meant).

On the other hand, He tells the disciples nothing definite about the timing of His return; more than that, He says these times are known only to the Heavenly Father (v. 36). In that case it becomes clear that the events marking the end of earthly history and the Savior's return could be separated by some time, whose duration could not be determined precisely at that moment. Jesus, in fact, did not promise the disciples that He would return in glory during their lifetime; He only promised them that they would witness the end of that history whose final stage they had reached. After that, all that remains is to wait for the Teacher's return and, as far as possible, not to relax spiritually (vv. 37-51).

It is no accident that Jesus compares His return with the situation described in the biblical parable of the flood: in Noah's days no one seriously believed that catastrophe was possible, and only Noah himself took the danger hanging over humanity seriously. Evidently, Jesus' return can be expected above all when most people are not thinking about that return at all, having sunk into everyday affairs and forgotten Christ, and perhaps spiritual life altogether.

But why do the times remain unknown? In speaking of the times, Jesus refers to the fact that they are known only to the Father. Meanwhile, everything known to the Father is known to Him as well. In that case, one can only suppose that on the day when Jesus told His disciples about the last times, the times were not yet known even to the Father. This would be entirely possible if He had not yet determined the time at that moment. Of course, for God time is not a self-sufficient reality as it is for us, but all His decisions, if they have to do with our world, still fit within the framework of our familiar concepts of past and future. And from our point of view, His decision about the day of Jesus' return was then still a matter of the future. It was still too early to speak about it.

God has no predetermined plan for everyone in which each human step would be known in advance; if that were the case, the day of the Savior's return would also have been known and predetermined from the creation of the world. But God leaves each person his freedom. And He carries out His plans in accord with the free choice of specific people. Here nothing can be predicted in advance, at least for us, people living in a world where past and future remain absolute realities. That is why the day of the Savior's return cannot be predicted in advance. To a certain extent, it depends on the choice made by each of us.

Whatever the end described in this Gospel “apocalypse” may be, and whenever it may come, we are unlikely to learn anything about it in advance that would help us prepare for it better. As a model of proper conduct, Jesus offers His disciples the story of a steward in his master's house. This man simply did his work properly, and his master could return home at any time and find everything in good order. Thus, this is not a set of “survival instructions” for the end of the world, whenever that may come. It is a model by which Christ's disciples can “live and work” right now. This is the whole force of the Gospel's words about readiness for Jesus' coming: “Do not sleep; do not grow complacent! Live even now in the reality of the Kingdom that is drawing near!”

For two thousand years now we have been awaiting His coming. And at almost every point in history, many have been convinced that the time was near. We do not know—and cannot know—"when this will be": today or a thousand years from now. The ominous signs have been and remain evident: false prophets, wars, famine, idolatry, and love growing cold. It seems that throughout all this time the world has been living in the "last days." And, as always, people can be divided, roughly speaking, into three groups: those who do not believe that the end of the world is connected with the coming of Jesus, those who believe and are afraid, and those who believe and wait. The main themes in Christ's prophetic discourses are the severity and anguish of the final trials and the joy of the encounter. If this encounter promises nothing joyful, but only darkness and gnashing of teeth, then the Second Coming becomes a nightmare—subconscious for unbelievers and conscious for believers. This is how most people regard it. But those who thirst to see His Face read these verses of the Gospel not with terror, but with hope.

Over the centuries these lines have been understood in different ways. At first they were seen as a prophecy of the imminent end and the coming of Jesus, which would occur before the generation of witnesses to His life had passed away. Then, as bewilderment over an unfulfilled promise. Then, as obscure words about catastrophes. Then, as something like memento mori, a reminder that no one knows his hour. Now, for some, this is a guide to action in the event of the second coming; for others, material for calculating the "signs of the times" and the deadlines that are supposed to be fulfilled at any moment; for still others, a riddle no one knows how to approach.

One way or another, they reflect the disciples' faith that the story of Jesus did not end with His death. More than that, it did not end with His Resurrection. It will not end at all, as long as this world stands... and after its end.

Commentators sometimes call today's passage the "little Apocalypse." This name is clearly connected with the fact that Jesus' account here of the end times recalls some descriptions of the "great Apocalypse," the Book of Revelation of John. And still, the differences between them are no fewer than the similarities. The chief difference is that Jesus tells His disciples about events that will occur during the lifetime of the first generation of Christians. The only exception is the conclusion of the account, which describes Christ's return in glory, verses 29-31. Jesus, as we see, connects it with the events of 70 AD, when, as a result of the anti-Roman uprising raised by the Zealots, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans after a long siege, and Jews were forbidden to settle in Judea, verse 15. By the "abomination of desolation" spoken of in the Book of Daniel, Jesus clearly means the desecration and destruction of the Temple by Roman soldiers when they took the city.

However, as the eyewitness to these events, the historian Flavius Josephus, reports, Christians and Pharisees left the city before the siege began, and the Christians, as we see, were in this case following a direct instruction from their Teacher, verses 16-20. Those who remained in the city, judging by the testimony of the same Flavius Josephus, really did suffer the terrible disasters about which Jesus had warned His disciples, verse 21. The uprising was preceded by a period of feverishly intense messianic expectations, when claimants to messiahship appeared literally every day. It is no accident that Jesus found it necessary to warn the disciples against being carried away by such false messiahs, verses 23-25. But the good news of the true Messiah had been heard throughout the Roman Empire even before 70 AD, verse 14.

Here a natural question arises: if Jesus' account concerns events that took place in the first decades of Christian history, how should we understand His words about the end of history, which was to come after those events? Jesus' account was so well known to the first generation of Christians that those who survived the catastrophe of 70 AD were in complete bewilderment: everything predicted by the Teacher had come true, and still He was not returning. Meanwhile Jesus Himself said nothing about dates: He only pointed to the events of 70 AD as the end of earthly history. Everything further evidently unfolds as part of some other process, no longer defined by this history.

Another history begins: the history of the Kingdom entering the world. It is a history in which each of us will have to take part in one way or another. And exactly what that participation will be depends only on us.

The disciples see in the buildings of the Jerusalem Temple a sign of God's firmly established rule in this world. The Temple was built forever; even when destroyed, it was rebuilt and became still more majestic. The solidity of stone buildings symbolizes the unshakable foundations of life and the steady course of history.

But the Lord says that the destiny of the world is more complex than human ideas about it. The human freedom to choose good and evil means that salvation can be attained only as a personal choice requiring endurance. He says that for the name of Christ the disciples will have to endure rejection and suffering. This twofold destiny of the world - terrible disasters and the mystery of hearts turning to God - is an important revelation about human freedom.

No less important for us are Christ's words that the triumph of evil has a limited, temporary character, that the end of the world is coming, and that it will come when the possibility of choosing Christ as shepherd has been offered to everyone.

Jesus' words about natural disasters, epidemics, wars, and social cataclysms as labor pains in which the Kingdom is born have often been interpreted as an indication that all this will happen in the last times, becoming their characteristic feature. It is no accident that every great war or major epidemic, not to mention upheavals and revolutions, became a reason for rumors to appear in near-church circles that the last times were near.

Meanwhile, Jesus Himself says directly that the day of His return in glory and of the triumph of the Kingdom cannot be calculated, and the reason is not that this date is hidden, but that it has not yet been determined: after all, the history of the Kingdom is a divine-human process, and when it will be revealed in fullness depends not only on God but also on people. As for everything listed, Jesus calls it the "beginning" of the birth pains of the Kingdom not in the sense in which we most often understand the word "beginning" today, but in the sense of their source or primary cause.

The point here is not some special "infernal" quality of particular events, although if we speak of wars and social cataclysms, characteristic features of fallen human nature sometimes show themselves here as vividly as possible. The point is that every such event becomes for all humanity, or for some part of it, a critical situation, sometimes a liminal one, and at times simply one beyond all limits spiritually as well as socially. And such a situation can always become the last one, whether we are speaking of an individual person, a people, or all humanity as a whole.

After all, Christian history, the history of the advancing Kingdom, is on the one hand the history of Christian righteousness (or, as it is sometimes called, Christian holiness), and on the other hand the history of the ever-expanding evil in which the world lies. And every cataclysm, especially a social one, is a spiritual crisis connected with this confrontation. And it will hardly be surprising if one of them turns out to be the last. But expecting each crisis to be the last is also not worth doing.