Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost: Gospel, Mark 13:1-13                   

Mark 13:1-13

Will Jesus and His gospel ever be welcomed by the world? No. I mentioned perhaps a week or so ago the quote from one of my dear old seminary professors: “Never forget how much the world hates Jesus Christ.” Today this is exemplified in our gospel for the week. Jesus shook the world of His disciples by letting them know the temporary nature of the building that had come to be seen as the center of their universe. The temple would one day be gone. It was simply unfathomable to them. Then Jesus expands upon the temple’s destruction to meet the queries they offered. An end was coming that would even eclipse the demise of the temple.

There is one thread that winds through the entire reading. Whether physical temple or Jesus Himself, both will be taken out of the way by the desires of sinful people. At least for a time. While the physical temple is gone and while Jesus will taste death for a season, all the world’s opposition will not and cannot thwart the plan of God to bring things to the conclusion according to His plan. Places of worship may be decimated. Jesus will be tortured and killed. And even following His glorious resurrection and until the world’s end, His followers will face what their Savior faced. Nothing will be able to stop the Master’s desired end. Let the opposition rage on. 

Jesus is King!