On the Second Coming.

(Mat. 24:1-51; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 21:5-38).

After leaving the temple, the Lord and His disciples headed for the Mount of Olives. Along the road, He predicted the destruction of the temple, which occurred in the year 70, when Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and converted into ruins. Then shortly after, Emperor Trajan obliterated the last traces of the city. Notwithstanding the Roman commander Titus’ wish to save the temple as a marvel in workmanship, he couldn’t stay God’s decree: a flaming torch thrown accidentally by a Roman soldier, caused a fire that razed it to the ground. A magnificent vista of the Jerusalem temple opened up from the top of Mount of Olives, and the disciples continued individually the conversation on their future, which they started with the Lord. Christ’s disciples assumed that Jerusalem would stand till the end of time, and consequently posed two questions to Him as one: “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” The Lord apparently responds in like manner — in keeping with their viewpoint — by not separating the two events. In prophetic visions, distant and imminent events are sometimes illustrated as though in a one perspective, as though the two blend into one, especially if the imminent event serves as a representation for the distant occurrence.

Here undoubtedly, the destruction of Jerusalem with its attendant horrors appear as representations of those horrors that will occur with the end of the world, before Christ’s Second Coming. At the same time, the Lord gives a clear understanding that His Second Coming will not occur for a long time after the destruction of Jerusalem.

The Lord presents the appearance of false prophets as the first sign of the coming of God’s judgment day. Joseph Flavius, the historian, bears witness that before the fall of Jerusalem, there was an appearance of many false messiahs-deceivers.

The second symptom will be wars, local as well as distant (“And you will hear of wars”). But even these wars and natural calamities will be only the beginning of the coming agonizing horrors, which by their gravity are compared by the Lord to childbirth pains.

The Lord presents the third sign as the savage persecution of His disciples and their followers. This is narrated in the Acts and about which history attests to this e.g. Nero’s murderous persecutions and others. The very word “Christian” was truly hated by the heathen, which resulted in the emergence of countless martyrs for Christ. “Then many will be offended,” i.e. they will depart from their faith in Christ and will begin to betray — hand over their brothers to torture and death — in order to save themselves. Many false prophets will appear. During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, these false prophets promised help from heaven. “He who endures to the end shall be saved,” — those who endure all these calamities without betraying Christ, and that haven’t succumbed to the false prophet, will earn eternal salvation.

The fourth sign will be the spread of the Gospel throughout the whole world. The New Testament will be preached “as a witness to all the nations,” i.e. the Lord will not come before the Gospel had been preached. This preaching will then become the accusing witness at judgment day against those who after hearing it, did not believe. “Then the end will come.” In its imminent meaning, it is the destruction of Jerusalem, although all these signs will be foreshadowing the coming of the end of the world and the Final Judgment Day. These signs are common to both of these events. Thus: 1) Judgment of Jerusalem arrived as a consequence of its iniquities and impoverishment of love within its walls (“love of many will grow cold” for “lawlessness will abound”); likewise, the end of the world will arrive as a result of its increase in iniquities and the diminution of love among the people — who would have forgotten that they are brothers in Christ; 2) Jerusalem fell only after the Lord did everything to save it: it resounded with evangelical sermons: likewise, the end of the world will come only after all its peoples are resonating to the Gospel’s teachings, so that on judgment Day — like the Jews — they will stand indefensible.

The Lord then continues to enumerate particular signs that relate specifically to the destruction of Jerusalem.

“Abomination of desolation,” about which Prophet Daniel spoke in 9:27, — this was the Roman soldiers, entering into the half-ruined temple with banners bearing images of the emperor and eagles — idols — that were revered by them as divine. “Flee to the mountains,” where there were many caves and shelter to hide from the Romans. “ Let him who is on the housetop not go down..” The rooftops were flat and were used to take a walk or just to be alone: during this calamity, those found on the rooftops should immediately flee and not waste time in going into the house to retrieve belongings. Likewise those working in the fields — they should flee to the mountains without returning home to retrieve their clothing, as they normally toiled without their outer garments.

The historian Eusebius testifies, that upon hearing of the Romans entering townships on the outskirts of Jordan, the Christians in Jerusalem indeed fled Jerusalem and thereby avoided the horrors that befell the besieged city. The Lord urges them to pray so that these calamities do not occur when you cannot flee very far e.g. Sabbath — according to the interpretations of the Scribes, one cannot travel more than 1200 yards on such a day. “For then there will be great tribulation…” i.e. such calamities that everybody would have perished if there were no “chosen” among the Jews (those who believed in Christ). It is for their sake that the days “will be shortened.”

Historian Joseph Flavius witnesses that indeed, “all the calamities that had befallen on the different peoples of the world, are insignificant compared to those that had been inflicted on the Jewish people.” During the siege of Jerusalem and its outlying areas, more than a million Jews perished within those boundaries. Many perished from starvation, which was so great that one mother killed and ate her own infant. A vast number of Jews were crucified, thereby fulfilling their own curse when they demanded from Pilate, the crucifixion of Christ: “His blood be on us and on our children” (Mat. 27:25). All these disasters were fulfillments of prophecies uttered by Moses (Deut. 28:49-57). Titus originally wanted to force the Jews to surrender the city by starving them. However, affairs of the Empire demanded his speedy return to Rome, so he decided to take Jerusalem by storm, thereby shortening the period of suffering for the besieged.

The Lord then proceeds anew with a dialogue on His Second Coming. “False christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs…” — this means false miracles, which will sometimes mislead even the righteous. According to Ap. Paul (2 Thes. 2:9-10) and Revelations (chp. 13), these signs will be performed by antichrist and his servants. The Son of God’s appearance will be like a flash of lightning i.e. undeniably evident to everyone. In contrast to the false messiah (who will be hiding in the wilderness or in hidden quarters), the true Messiah, in commencing His judgment over the world, will make it evident and frightening everywhere where there are spiritually dead sinners — just like eagles gather where there is a corpse.

“After the tribulation…” calamity that had befallen Jerusalem, will end and people will become indifferent, which is mentioned further on (Mat. 24:37-39). Saint Luke adds that: “Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,” — a great length of time must elapse from the destruction of Jerusalem to Christ’s Second Coming, during which period (according to Ap. Paul), a full measure of heathens will enter Christ’s Church, which will become the new spiritual Israel (Rom. 11:25).

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light” — these words are not as definitive as those of Luke’s verse 24 (about Jerusalem being trampled by heathens for a lengthy period), on the significance of the period between the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world. However, they do impart the understanding that before the end of the world, the days that ensue will be completely different, which through their frightening event, will surpass every imagination. The Greek text of this particular verse, gives basis to the following paraphrasing: “Do not think that immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem, My Coming and the end of the world will follow. No, it will be otherwise. For that to happen, there will be a commencement of different days. Then the sun will darken and the moon will not give its light etc..” Saint Matthew applies the word “abbeya” (then). However, in the Holy Scripture, it doesn’t normally mean “immediately, straight away, following that,” but simply: “unexpectedly, suddenly” which is translated in the Russian text. Bishop Michael states that sometimes under this word “abbeya,” many centuries may be hidden.

“Powers of the heavens will be shaken,” i.e. the whole structure of earth will be shaken. Saint Luke points out in chp. 21:25-26, the characteristic features of those frightening times: there will be despondency and confusion among the peoples of the world: the seas will roar with agitation, people will begin to waste away from fear and anticipation of the arrival of imminent calamities to the universe. “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven” — Saint Chrysostom consider that it will be the sign of the Cross, which will appear ahead of the coming of Christ the Savior Himself, just as an earthly king is preceded by his royal heraldic banners. It will be this emblem, which will force the unbelieving Jews and heathens into a much belated but fruitless surge of penitence, involuntarily exclaiming: “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!” And in seeing how they have been deluded in living previously in the darkness of disbelief, all the unbelievers “will mourn.” “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

Upon the sounding of a mysterious trumpet, all the dead shall resurrect and be gathered by the Angels from all the corners of the world. Moses used to convene gatherings of Jews by having silver trumpets sounded: this form of convening became standard practice and was used by the Jews thereafter (Lev. 25:9; Num. 10:2; Jud. 3:27). This is why the Savior uses this descriptive form — familiar to all the Jews — to denote that through God’s decree, the Angels “will gather together His elect from the four winds,” i.e. from all the ends of the earth. The Angels will gather the “elect” for eternal glory, as well as “all the workers of iniquity” for eternal suffering.

“Now learn this parable from the fig tree…” Just as the advance of Summer was judged by the branches of the fig tree, so is it necessary to judge the coming of the end of the world by the signs of the times — which the Lord had previously enumerated. “This generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” — the word “this” is contrasted “ to “that,” which is covered further in verse 36. Indeed, the destruction of Jerusalem took place during the Lord’s contemporary generation. However, this expression can be related to the end of the world: then, as Saint Chrysostom reasons, the words “this generation” can be taken as “This is the generation of them that seek him” (Psalm 24:6), the generation that having believed in Christ, will endure till the end, despite all the horrors. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” — this confirms the irrevocability of the stated prophesies. Having witnessed the precise fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy on the destruction of Jerusalem, there can be no doubt that the prophecies on the His Second Coming, will also be fulfilled with equal accuracy. “But of that day and hour no one knows,” and according to Saint Mark, not even the Son — as a human, not as God.

According to Saint Luke, just as before the Great Flood during Noah’s times, people will be living quite unconcerned, and the day of Christ’s Second Coming will arrive unexpectedly like a net, snaring all living matter on earth (Luke 17:26-27 and 21:34:35). This comparison of the last days with those of Noah’s times is found in Saint Matthew. “Then two men will be in the field…” — these words show how swift and decisive the separation will occur between the righteous and the unrighteous, even though at the moment of Christ’s Second Coming they were very close to one another, were involved in the same activity, and even if they slept in the same bed (Luke 17:34).

“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” — this naturally gives rise to the essentiality for constant vigilance: the Lord desires that we do not slumber spiritually, not be indifferent, but be attentive to the signs of the times and always be ready to meet Him by leading virtuous lives. Because of its unexpectedness and suddenness, the Lord’s coming is often likened to the appearance of a thief. The ensuing parable about a faithful overseer or servant and a negligent one, is aimed at further instilling the necessity to maintain constant spiritual vigilance. This parable has an especially close bearing to the clergy and civil leaders, who consequently must be fearful of being negligent in the discharge of their responsibilities, remembering that they will have to give an account of their actions.