20. O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM! OR, DISCOURSE ON THE LAST THINGS
Matt. 21-25; Mark 11-13; Luke 19:29-48; 20; 21.
The few days intervening between the anointing
and the Passover were spent by Jesus in daily visits to Jerusalem in company
with His disciples, returning to Bethany in the evening. During that time He
spoke much in public and in private, on themes congenial to His feelings and
situation: the sin of the Jewish nation, and specially of its religious
leaders; the doom of Jerusalem, and the end of the world. The record of His
sayings during these last days fills five chapters of Matthew's Gospel--a proof
of the deep impressions which they made on the mind of the twelve.
Prominent among these utterances, which together
form the dying testimony of the "Prophet of Nazareth," stands the great
philippic delivered by Him against the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem. This
terrible discourse had been preceded by various encounters between the speaker
and His inverate foes, which were as the preliminary skirmishes that form the
prelude to a great engagement. In these petty fights Jesus had been uniformly
victorious, and had overwhelmed His opponents with confusion. They had asked
Him concerning His authority for taking upon Him the office of a reformer, in
clearing the temple precincts of traders; and he had silenced them by asking in
reply their opinion of John's mission, and by speaking in their hearing the
parables of the Two Sons, the Vinedressers, and the Rejected Stone,[20.1]
wherein their hypocrisy, unrighteousness, and ultimate damnation were vividly
depicted. They had tried to catch Him in a trap by an insnaring question
concerning the tribute paid to the Roman government; and he had extricated
Himself with ease, by simply asking for a penny, and pointing to the emperor's
head on it, demanding of His assailants, "Whose is this image and
superscription?" and on receiving the reply, "Cesar's," giving His judgment in
these terms: "Render therefore unto Cesar the things which are Cesar's, and
unto God the things that are God's."[20.2] Twice foiled, the Pharisees (with
their friends the Herodians) gave place to their usual foes, but present
allies, the Sadducees, who attempted to puzzle Jesus on the subject of the
resurrection, only to be ignominiously discomfited;[20.3] whereupon the
pharisaic brigade returned to the charge, and through the mouth of a lawyer not
yet wholly perverted inquired, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" To
this question Jesus gave a direct and serious reply, summing up the whole law
in love to God and love to man, to the entire contentment of His interrogator.
Then, impatient of further trifling, He blew a trumpet-peal, the signal of a
grand offensive attack, by propounding the question, "What think ye of Christ,
whose son is He?" and taking occasion from the reply to quote the opening verse
of David's martial psalm, asking them to reconcile it with their answer.[20.4]
In appearance fighting the Pharisees with their own weapons, and framing a mere
theological puzzle, He was in reality reminding them who He was, and intimating
to them the predicted doom of those who set themselves against the Lord's
anointed.
Thereupon David's Son and David's Lord proceeded
to fulfil the prophetic figure, and to make a footstool of the men who sat in
Moses' seat, by delivering that discourse in which, to change the figure, the
Pharisee is placed in a moral pillory, a mockery and a byword to all after
ages; and a sentence is pronounced on the pharisaic character inexorably
severe, yet justified by fact, and approved by the conscience of all true
Christians.[20.5] This anti-pharisaic speech may be regarded as the final,
decisive, comprehensive, dying testimony of Jesus against the most deadly and
damning form of evil prevailing in His age, or that can prevail in any
age--religious hypocrisy; and as such it forms a necessary part of the
Righteous One's witness-bearing in behalf of the truth, to which His disciples
are expected to say Amen with no faltering voice. For the spirit of moral
resentment is as essential in Christian ethics as the spirit of mercy; nor can
any one who regards the anti-pharisaic polemic of the Gospel history as a
scandal to be ashamed of, or a blemish to be apologized for, or at least as a
thing which, however necessary at the time, propriety now requires us to treat
with neglect,--a practice too common in the religious world,--be cleared of the
suspicion of having more sympathy at heart with the men by whom the Lord was
crucified than with the Lord Himself. Blessed is he who is not ashamed of
Christ's sternest words; who, far from stumbling at those bold prophetic
utterances, has rather found in them an aid to faith at the crisis of his
religious history, as evincing an identity between the moral sentiments of the
Founder of the faith and his own, and helping him to see that what he may have
mistaken for, and what claimed to be, Christianity, was not that at all, but
only a modern reproduction of a religious system which the Lord Jesus Christ
could not endure, or be on civil terms with. Yea, and blessed is the church
which sympathizes with, and practically gives effect to, Christ's warning words
in the opening of this discourse against clerical ambition, the source of the
spiritual tyrannies and hypocrisies denounced. Every church needs to be on its
guard against this evil spirit. The government of the Jewish church,
theoretically theocratic, degenerated at last into Rabbinism; and it is quite
possible for a church which has for its motto, "One is your Master, even
Christ," to fall into a state of abject subjection to the power of ambitious
ecclesiastics.
Without for a moment admitting that there is any
thing in these invectives against hypocrisy to be apologized for, we must
nevertheless advert to the view taken of them by some recent critics of the
sceptical school. These speeches, then, we are told, are the rash, unqualified
utterances of a young man, whose spirit was unmellowed by years and experience
of the world; whose temperament was poetic, therefore irritable, impatient, and
unpractical; and whose temper was that of a Jew, morose, and prone to
bitterness in controversy. At this time, we are further to understand, provoked
by persevering opposition, He had lost self-possession, and had abandoned
Himself to the violence of anger, His bad humor having reached such a pitch as
to make Him guilty of actions seemingly absurd, such as that of cursing the
fig-tree. He had, in fact, become reckless of consequences, or even seemed to
court such as were disastrous; and, weary of conflict, sought by violent
language to precipitate a crisis, and provoke His enemies to put Him to
death.[20.6
These are blasphemies against the Son of man as
unfounded as they are injurious. The last days of Jesus were certainly full of
intense excitement, but to a candid mind no traces of passion are discernible
in His conduct. All His recorded utterances during those days are in a high
key, suited to one whose soul was animated by the most sublime feelings. Every
sentence is eloquent, every word tells; but all throughout is natural, and
appropriate to the situation. Even when the terrible attack on the religious
leaders of Israel begins, we listen awestruck, but not shocked. We feel that
the speaker has a right to use such language, that what He says is true, and
that all is said with commanding authority and dignity, such as became the
Messianic King. When the speaker has come to an end, we breathe freely,
sensible that a delicate though necessary task has been performed with not less
wisdom than fidelity. Deep and undisguised abhorrence is expressed in every
sentence, such as it would be difficult for any ordinary man, yea, even for an
extraordinary one, to cherish without some admixture of that wrath which
worketh not the righteousness of God. But in the antipathies of a Divine Being
the weakness of passion finds no place: His abhorrence may be deep, but it is
also ever calm; and we challenge unbelievers to point out a single feature in
this discourse inconsistent with the hypothesis that the speaker is divine.
Nay, leaving out of view Christ's divinity, and criticizing His words with a
freedom unfettered by reverence, we can see no traces in them of a man carried
headlong by a tempest of anger. We find, after strictest search, no loose
expressions, no passionate exaggerations, but rather a style remarkable for
artistic precision and accuracy. The pictures of the ostentatious,
place-hunting, title-loving rabbi; of the hypocrite, who makes long prayers and
devours widows' houses; of the zealot, who puts himself to infinite trouble to
make converts, only to make his converts worse rather than better men; of the
Jesuitical scribe, who teaches that the gold of the temple is a more sacred,
binding thing to swear by than the temple itself; of the Pharisee, whose
conscience is strict or lax as suits his convenience; of the whited sepulchres,
fair without, full within of dead men's bones; of the men whose piety manifests
itself in murdering living prophets and garnishing the sepulchres of dead
ones,--are moral daguerreotypes which will stand the minutest inspection of
criticism, drawn by no irritated, defeated man, feeling sorely and resenting
keenly the malice of his adversaries, but by one who has gained so complete a
victory, that He can make sport of His foes, and at all events runs no risk of
losing self-control.
The aim of the discourse, equally with its style,
is a sufficient defense against the charge of bitter personality. The direct
object of the speaker was not to expose the blind guides of Israel, but to save
from delusion the people whom they were misguiding to their ruin. The audience
consisted of the disciples and the multitude who heard Him gladly. It is most
probable that many of the blind guides were present; and it would make no
difference to Jesus whether they were or not, for He had not two ways of
speaking concerning men--one before their faces, another behind their backs. It
is told of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, and the determined opponent
of Philip of Macedon, that he completely broke down in that king's presence on
the occasion of his first appearance before him as an ambassador from his
native city. But a greater than Demosthenes is here, whose sincerity and
courage are as marvelous as His wisdom and eloquence, and who can say all He
thinks of the religious heads of the people in their own hearing. Still, in the
present instance, the parties formally addressed were not the heads of the
people, but the people themselves; and it is worthy of notice how carefully
discriminating the speaker was in the counsel which He gave them. He told them
that what He objected to was not so much the teaching of their guides, as their
lives: they might follow all their precepts with comparative impunity, but it
would be fatal to follow their example. How many reformers in similar
circumstances would have joined doctrine and practice together in one
indiscriminate denunciation! Such moderation is not the attribute of a man in a
rage.
But the best clew of all to the spirit of the
speaker is the manner in which His discourse ends: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!"
Strange ending for one filled with angry passion! O Jesus, Jesus! how Thou
rises above the petty thoughts and feelings of ordinary men! Who shall fathom
the depths of Thy heart? What mighty waves of righteousness, truth, pity, and
sorrow roll through Thy bosom!
Having uttered that piercing cry of grief, Jesus
left the temple, never, so far as we know, to return. His last words to the
people of Jerusalem were: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I
say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He
that cometh in the Name of the Lord." On the way from the city to Bethany, by
the Mount of Olives, the rejected Saviour again alluded to its coming doom. The
light-hearted disciples had drawn His attention to the strength and beauty of
the temple buildings, then in full view. In too sad and solemn a mood for
admiring mere architecture, He replied in the spirit of a prophet: "See ye not
all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone
upon another, that shall not be thrown down."[20.7]
Arrived at Mount Olivet, the company sat down to
take a leisurely view of the majestic pile of which they had been speaking. How
different the thoughts and feelings suggested by the same object to the minds
of the spectators! The twelve look with merely outward eye; their Master looks
with the inward eye of prophecy. They see nothing before them but the goodly
stones; He sees the profanation in the interior, greedy traders within the
sacred precincts, religion so vitiated by ostentation, as to make a poor widow
casting her two mites into the treasury, in pious simplicity, a rare and
pleasing exception. The disciples think of the present only; Jesus looks
forward to an approaching doom, fearful to contemplate, and doubtless backward
too, over the long and checkered history through which the once venerable, now
polluted, house of God had passed. The disciples are elated with pride as they
gaze on this national structure, the glory of their country, and are happy as
thoughtless men are wont to be; the heart of Jesus is heavy with the sadness of
wisdom and prescience, and of love that would have saved, but can now do
nothing but weep, and proclaim the awful words of doom.
Yet, with all their thoughtlessness, the twelve
could not quite forget those dark forebodings of their Master. The weird words
haunted their minds, and made them curious to know more. Therefore they came to
Jesus, or some of them--Mark mentions Peter, James, John, and Andrew[20.8--and
asked two questions: when Jerusalem should be destroyed; and what should be the
signs of His coming, and of the end of the world. The two events referred to in
the questions--the end of Jerusalem, and the end of the world--were assumed by
the questioners to be contemporaneous. It was a natural and by no means a
singular mistake. Local and partial judgments are wont to be thus mixed up with
the universal one in men's imaginations; and hence almost every great calamity
which inspires awe leads to anticipations of the last day. Thus Luther, when
his mind was clouded by the dark shadow of present tribulation, would remark:
"The world cannot stand long, perhaps a hundred years at the outside. At the
last will be great alterations and commotions, and already there are great
commotions among men. Never had the men of law so much occupation as now. There
are vehement dissensions in our families, and discord in the church."[20.9] In
apostolic times Christians expected the immediate coming of Christ with such
confidence and ardor, that some even neglected their secular business, just as
towards the close of the tenth century people allowed churches to fall into
disrepair because the end of the world was deemed close at hand.
In reality, the judgment of Jerusalem and that of
the world at large were to be separated by a long interval. Therefore Jesus
treated the two things as distinct in His prophetic discourse, and gave
separate answers to the two questions which the disciples had combined into
one, that respecting the end of the world being disposed of first.[20.10]
The answer He gave to this question was general
and negative. He did not fix a time, but said in effect: "The end will not be
till such and such things have taken place," specifying six antecedents of the
end in succession, the first being the appearance of false Christs.[20.11] Of
these He assured His disciples there would be many, deceiving many; and most
truly, for several quack Messiahs did appear even before the destruction of
Jerusalem, availing themselves of, and imposing on, the general desire for
deliverance, even as quack doctors do in reference to bodily ailments, and
succeeding in deceiving many, as unhappily in such times is only too easy. But
among the number of their dupes were found none of those who had been
previously instructed by the true Christ to regard the appearance of
pseudo-Christs merely as one of the signs of an evil time. The deceivers of
others were for them a preservative against delusion.
The second antecedent is, "wars and rumors of
wars." Nation must rise against nation: there must be times of upheaving and
dissolution; declines and falls of empires, and risings of new kingdoms on the
ruins of the old. This second sign would be accompanied by a third, in the
shape of commotions in the physical world, emblematic of those in the
political. Famines, earthquakes, pestilences, etc., would occur in divers
places.[20.12]
Yet these things, however dreadful, would be but
the beginning of sorrows; nor would the end come till those signs had repeated
themselves again and again. No one could tell from the occurrence of such
phenomena that the end would be now; he could only infer that it was not
yet.[20.13]
Next in order come persecutions, with all the
moral and social phenomena of persecuting times.[20.14] Christians must undergo
a discipline of hatred among the nations because of the Name they bear, and as
the reputed authors of all the disasters which befall the people among whom
they live. Times must come when, if the Tiber inundate Rome, if the Nile
overflow not his fields, if drought, earthquake, famine, or plague visit the
earth, the cry of the populace will forthwith be, "The Christians to the
lions!"
Along with persecutions, as a fifth antecedent of
the end, would come a sifting of the church.[20.15] Many would break down or
turn traitors; there would spring up manifold animosities, schisms, and
heresies, each named from its own false prophet. The prevalence of these evils
in the church would give rise to much spiritual declension. "Because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."[20.16]
The last thing that must happen ere the end come
is the evangelization of the world;[20.17] which being achieved, the end would
at length arrive. From this sign we may guess that the world will last a long
while yet; for, according to the law of historical probability, it will be long
ere the gospel shall have been preached to all men for a witness. Ardent
Christians or enthusiastic students of prophecy who think otherwise must
remember that sending a few missionaries to a heathen country does not satisfy
the prescribed condition. The gospel has not been preached to a nation for a
witness, that is, so as to form a basis of moral judgment, till it has been
preached to the whole people as in Christendom. This has never yet been done
for all the nations, and at the present rate of progress it is not likely to be
accomplished for centuries to come.
Having rapidly sketched an outline of the events
that must precede the end of the world, Jesus addressed Himself to the more
special question which related to the destruction of Jerusalem. He could now
speak on that subject with more freedom, after He had guarded against the
notion that the destruction of the holy city was a sign of His own immediate
final coming. "When, then," He began,--the introductory formula signifying, to
answer now your first question,--"ye shall see the abomination of desolation
spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place, then let them which be
in Judea flee into the mountains;" the abomination of desolation being the
Roman army with its eagles--abominable to the Jew, desolating to the land. When
the eagles appeared, all might flee for their life; resistance would be vain,
obstinacy and bravery utterly unavailing. The calamity would be so sudden that
there would be no time to save any thing. It would be as when a house is on
fire; people would be glad to escape with their life.[20.18] It would be a
fearful time of tribulation, unparalleled before or after.[20.19] Woe to poor
nursing mothers in those horrible days, and to such as were with child! What
barbarities and inhumanities awaited them! The calamities that were coming
would spare nobody, not even Christians. They would find safety only in flight,
and they would have cause to be thankful that they escaped at all. But their
flight, though unavoidable, might be more or less grievous according to
circumstances; and they should pray for what might appear small mercies, even
for such alleviations as that they might not have to flee to the mountains in
winter, when it is cold and comfortless, or on the Sabbath, the day of rest and
peace.[20.20]
After giving this brief but graphic sketch of the
awful days approaching, intolerable by mortal men were they not shortened "for
the elect's sake," Jesus repeated His warning word against deception, as if in
fear that His disciples, distracted by such calamities, might think "surely now
is the end." He told them that violence would be followed by apostasy and
falsehood, as great a trial in one way as the destruction of Jerusalem in
another. False teachers should arise, who would be so plausible as almost to
deceive the very elect. The devil would appear as an angel of light; in the
desert as a monk, in the shrine as an object of superstitious worship. But
whatever men might pretend, the Christ would not be there; nor would His
appearance take place then, nor at any fixed calculable time, but suddenly,
unexpectedly, like the lightning flash in the heavens. When moral corruption
had attained its full development, then would the judgment come.[20.21]
In the following part of the discourse, the end
of the world seems to be brought into immediate proximity to the destruction of
the holy city.[20.22] If a long stretch of ages was to intervene, the
perspective of the prophetic picture seems at fault. The far-distant mountains
of the eternal world, visible beyond and above the near hills of time in the
foreground, want the dim-blue haze, which helps the eye to realize how far off
they are. This defect in Matthew's narrative, which we have been taking for our
text, is supplied by Luke, who interprets the tribulation (qlivyi") so as to
include the subsequent long-lasting dispersion of Israel among the
nations.[20.23] The phrase he employs to denote this period is significant, as
implying the idea of lengthened duration. It is "the times of the Gentiles"
(kairoiV ejqnw'n). The expression means, the time when the Gentiles should have
their opportunity of enjoying divine grace, corresponding to the time of
gracious visitation enjoyed by the Jews referred to by Jesus in His lament over
Jerusalem.[20.24] There is no reason to suppose Luke coined these phrases; they
bear the stamp of genuineness upon them. But if we assume, as we are entitled
to do, that not Luke the Pauline universalist, but Jesus Himself, spoke of a
time of merciful visitation of the Gentiles, then it follows that in His
eschatological discourse He gave clear intimation of a lengthened period during
which His gospel was to be preached in the world; even as He did on other
occasions, as in the parable of the wicked husbandman, in which He declared
that the vineyard should be taken from its present occupants, and given to
others who would bring forth fruit.[20.25] For it is incredible that Jesus
should speak of a time of the Gentiles analogous to the time of merciful
visitation enjoyed by the Jews, and imagine that the time of the Gentiles was
to last only some thirty years. The Jewish kairos lasted thousands of years: it
would be only mocking the poor Gentiles to dignify the period of a single
generation with the name of a season of gracious visitation.
The parable of the fig-tree, employed by Jesus to
indicate the sure connection between the signs foregoing and the grand event
that was to follow, seems at first to exclude the idea of a protracted
duration, but on second thoughts we shall find it does not. The point of the
parable lies in the comparison of the signs of the times to the first buds of
the fig-tree. This comparison implies that the last judgment is not the thing
which is at the doors. The last day is the harvest season, but from the first
buds of early summer to the harvest there is a long interval. The parable
further suggests the right way of understanding the statement: "This generation
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Christ did not mean that
the generation then living was to witness the end, but that in that generation
all the things which form the incipient stage in the development would appear.
It was the age of beginnings, of shoots and blossoms, not of fruit and
ingathering. In that generation fell the beginnings of Christianity and the new
world it was to create, and also the end of the Jewish world, of which the
symbol was a fig-tree covered with leaves, but without any blossom or fruit,
like that Jesus Himself had cursed, by way of an acted prophecy of Israel's
coming doom. The buds of most things in the church's history appeared in that
age: of gospel preaching, of antiChristian tendencies, of persecutions,
heresies, schisms, and apostasies. All these, however, had to grow to their
legitimate issues before the end came. How long the development would take, no
man could tell, not even the Son of Man.[20.26] It was a state secret of the
Almighty, into which no one should wish to pry.
This statement, that the time of the end is known
alone to God, excludes the idea that it can be calculated, or that data are
given in Scripture for that purpose. If such data be given, then the secret is
virtually disclosed. We therefore regard the calculations of students of
prophecy respecting the times and seasons as random guesses unworthy of serious
attention. The death-day of the world needs to be hid for the purposes of
providence as much as the dying-day of individuals. And we have no doubt that
God has kept His secret; though some fancy they can cast the world's horoscope
from prophetic numbers, as astrologers were wont to determine the course of
individual lives from the positions of the stars.
Though the prophetic discourse of Jesus revealed
nothing as to times, it was not therefore valueless. It taught effectively two
lessons,--one specially for the benefit of the twelve, and the other for all
Christians and all ages. The lesson for the twelve was, that they might dismiss
from their minds all fond hopes of a restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Not
reconstruction, but dissolution and dispersion, was Israel's melancholy
doom.
The general lesson for all in this discourse is:
"Watch, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." The call to
watchfulness is based on our ignorance of the time of the end, and on the fact
that, however long delayed the end may be, it will come suddenly at last, as a
thief in the night. The importance of watching and waiting, Jesus illustrated
by two parables, the Absent Goodman and the Wise and Foolish Virgins.[20.27]
Both parables depict the diverse conduct of the professed servants of God
during the period of delay. The effect on some, we are taught, is to make them
negligent, they being eye-servants and fitful workers, who need oversight and
the stimulus of extraordinary events. Others, again, are steady, equal,
habitually faithful, working as well when the master is absent as when they are
under his eye. The treatment of both on the master's return corresponds to
their respective behavior,--one class being rewarded, the other punished. Such
is the substance of the parable of the Absent Goodman. Luke gives an important
appendix, which depicts the conduct of persons in authority in the house of the
absent Lord.[20.28] While the common servants are for the most part negligent,
the upper servants play the tyrant over their fellows. This is exactly what
church dignitaries did in after ages; and the fact that Jesus contemplated such
a state of things, requiring from the nature of the case the lapse of centuries
to bring it about, is another proof that in this discourse His prophetic eye
swept over a vast tract of time. Another remark is suggested by the great
reward promised to such as should not abuse their authority: "He will make him
ruler over all that he hath." The greatness of the reward indicates an
expectation that fidelity will be rare among the stewards of the house. Indeed,
the Head of the church seems to have apprehended the prevalence of a negligent
spirit among all His servants, high and low; for He speaks of the lord of the
household as so gratified with the conduct of the faithful, that he girds
himself to serve them while they sit at meat.[20.29] Has not the apprehension
been too well justified by events?
The parable of the Ten Virgins, familiar to all,
and full of instruction, teaches us this peculiar lesson, that watching does
not imply sleepless anxiety and constant thought concerning the future, but
quiet, steady attention to present duty. While the bridegroom tarried, all the
virgins, wise and foolish alike, slumbered and slept, the wise differing from
their sisters in having all things in readiness against a sudden call. This is
a sober and reasonable representation of the duty of waiting by one who
understands what is possible; for, in a certain sense, sleep of the mind in
reference to eternity is as necessary as physical sleep is to the body.
Constant thought about the great realities of the future would only result in
weakness, distraction, and madness, or in disorder, idleness, and restlessness;
as in Thessalonica, where the conduct of many who watched in the wrong sense
made it needful that Paul should give them the wholesome counsel to be quiet,
and work, and eat bread earned by the labor of their own hands.[20.30
The great prophetic discourse worthily ended with
a solemn representation of the final judgment of the world, when all mankind
shall be assembled to be judged either by the historical gospel preached to
them for a witness, or by its great ethical principle, the law of charity
written on their hearts; and when those who have loved Christ and served Him in
person, or in His representatives,--the poor, the destitute, the
suffering,--shall be welcomed to the realms of the blessed, and those who have
acted contrariwise shall be sent away to keep company with the devil and his
angels.