When Foundations Shake: Facing Uncertainty with Faith

We're almost finished with this cycle of the Christian Year. Advent is just around the corner, but we're not quite done yet. Today's reading from Mark 13 reminds us that when everything changes, God is still at work. Thank you for joining me here each week. You can also catch my podcast on this passage at God's Time, now available anywhere you get your podcasts. Thanks!

When Foundations Shake: Navigating Uncertainty with Faith

In this season of the year, our lessons turn to themes of endings and beginnings -- of what falls and what endures. Today's gospel reading speaks powerfully to times of profound change and uncertainty.

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Mark 13:1-8 NIV

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

² “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.”

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

⁵ Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶ Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.

⁷ When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁸ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.

These are the beginning of birth pains.” – Mark 13:1-8 NIV

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Mark has set this scene during the last week of Jesus’ life. He and the disciples are in Jerusalem. Just before this, they have been inside the Temple where religious leaders confronted Jesus repeatedly. Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes – all took turns at discrediting him. Their attempts failed.

Now Jesus and the disciples are leaving the Temple compound, which is a massive structure. The Temple, unlike any other structure, dominates both the landscape and the imagination of the nation of Israel.

Think of famous landmarks around the world -- Notre Dame Cathedral, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Statue of Liberty, the ruins of Rome. Imagine the sense of pride and identity these landmarks instill in their countries. The Temple meant all that and more to the Jewish people.

The Temple’s location on Mount Moriah added to its impact. There Abraham had been willing to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God. In addition, the Temple symbolized God’s divine presence in the midst of his people.

So when his disciples marvel at the Temple's unshakeable grandeur, Jesus’ reply shocks and disorients them.

If you remember our nation’s horror on 9-11 at the loss of life, the destruction of great high rises, and the assault on our sovereignty, you begin to get some idea of the disciples’ feelings when they heard Jesus say the Temple would be destroyed.

But Jesus’s intention was not to create panic in the disciples. Instead, Jesus positions the Temple’s destruction as one among many catastrophes to come.

The disciples will need the calmness that only courage brings as they deal with the changes to come. We need the same spiritual resilience when our cultural or spiritual icons fail.

When Giants Fall

And fail they have.  One example occurred on Sunday, September 14, 2008. That morning Lehman Brothers employees began streaming into the bank's gleaming headquarters on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan where the glass-and-steel skyscraper stood as a symbol of financial might.

But on that day, employees weren't conducting business as usual. They were preparing for the end of their company, their careers, and life as they knew it.

The subprime mortgage crisis was rapidly unfolding and Lehman Brothers was caught up in it. Richard Fuld, Lehman's CEO for 14 years, had worked through the weekend trying to save the 158-year-old institution. After all, Lehman had survived the Great Depression, two World Wars, and countless market crashes. As Fuld had told shareholders earlier that April, "The worst is behind us."

By that Sunday evening, the unthinkable happened. Lehman Brothers – with over $600 billion in assets and 25,000 employees worldwide – announced it would declare bankruptcy the next day. It was the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history.

News cameras captured employees carrying boxes of belongings from their failed company’s headquarters.

As their loss began to sink in, these employees must have thought –

"How could this happen to an institution that survived the Great Depression?"

"Where do we go from here?"

The collapse sent shockwaves through the global financial system. As Financial Times writer Gillian Tett noted, the collapse of Lehman Brothers marked "the moment when the financial world changed forever." But more than that, it shattered economists' common wisdom that some institutions were too big to fail. They were wrong.

The Temple That Could Not Fall

The disciples were just as wrong when they thought that the Temple’s outsized prominence guaranteed its everlasting survival.

"Look, Teacher!” they said, “What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!"

The disciples weren't just admiring the architecture. The temple was the center of Jewish religious, political, and economic life. Its massive stones – some over 100 tons – proclaimed stability itself.

In the Hebrew Bible, prophets had spoken of the day when the nations would stream to the Temple on God’s Holy Mountain. There the world would gather to recognize and worship the One True God. Surely the Temple, God's dwelling place, would stand forever.

When Security Crumbles

Jesus' response to the disciples’ admiration of the Temple must have shocked them:

"Not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down," Jesus said.

But notice what Jesus does next. He does not launch into a detailed timeline of the end of the world.

Instead, he offers three crucial insights about how they, and we, should live when what they thought was permanent fails.

First, Jesus warned them about false security. The massive stones of the Temple seemed ancient and indestructible, just as Lehman's gleaming headquarters seemed permanent.

However, Jesus reminded them that no earthly institution – no matter how grand, how ancient, or how essential – would endure forever.

Whether it takes a second or a century, everything comes to an end eventually. Institutions, civilizations, governments, and cultures are not immortal, and cannot provide ultimate security. Forever is a trait that belongs exclusively to the Kingdom of God. Our security comes from God alone, and our trust must be in God alone.

Keeping Watch

Second, Jesus tells them to be careful whom they follow.

"Watch out that no one deceives you."

Times of upheaval often produce false messiahs and there had already been many in Israel. From charismatic prophets to ambitious politicians, different voices recruited followers with grand promises and simple solutions.

Jesus warned that in times of crisis, knowing whom to follow is crucial.

⁶ Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.

To make matters worse, these false messiahs will claim authority from God for their ideas, plans, and beliefs. Jesus warns against listening to the wrong voices. Rather than trusting too quickly,  Jesus warns us to be watchful and wary. Not all voices speak with the truth of God’s voice.

Finally, when Jesus warns of wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines, he isn't giving us a checklist for predicting the end.

Rather, Jesus is teaching us how to keep it together when our world is falling apart.

"Do not be alarmed," he tells his disciples. These things will happen, but they're not the end of the story.

But why shouldn’t we be alarmed? For the disciples, the impending destruction of the Temple was alarming. For Israel, the loss of the Temple was devastating. Why shouldn’t we be on edge?

Birth Pangs of a New Day

The reason Jesus tells the disciples, “Don’t be alarmed,” is because destruction and death aren’t the final words here. Instead, Jesus offers a new perspective on problems. These upheavals, he says, are not the end. Rather they herald a new beginning.

Jesus describes the distress of the coming chaos, not as “death throes,” but as “birth pains.” Both can cause desperate discomfort, but only one leads to new life, new hope, and new possibilities.

Of course, I believe Jesus uses the idea of “birth” intentionally.

He could have referred to the coming upheaval as a difficult time, or a season of distress and crisis. Instead, he compares it to the pains of labor – excruciating and exhausting, but ultimately worth it, as any new mother knows.

In other words, what appears to be the end might, instead, be the beginning of something new. Something better. Something hopeful.

This is a profound reframing of the crisis. This disaster is not a final destruction, but a promise of life to come.

The Temple would fall, just as Jesus predicted. In 70 AD, Roman legions dismantled Jerusalem's great Temple, stone by stone. Its immovable foundations were shaken, and the Temple was plundered. Its sacred vessels were carried away to Rome as spoils of war. The Emperor Domitian memorialized Roman victory by erecting the Arch of Titus for all the world to see.

Yet, just as Jesus had promised, from this devastating loss emerged new expressions of faith that would transform the world.

In a sweeping displacement, Rome expelled Jews from Jerusalem and Judea, dispersing them throughout the Empire.

But wherever they went, Jewish resilience developed vibrant new ways of preserving their faith and identity.

Without the Temple as their focus, Jews established new communities, gathering in synagogues to study the Torah. Rabbis developed rich traditions of biblical interpretation that would sustain their congregations through centuries of exile. The Torah, not a building, became their center of gravity.

Similarly, the early Christian church, already spreading beyond Jerusalem, found fresh energy as it was thrust further around the globe. Some disciples carried the gospel beyond the boundaries of the Empire, while others established communities throughout the Mediterranean world.

What seemed like the painful death of ancient ritual gave way to faith traditions that would thrive in new places among new people. Judaism would find renewed life in Torah study; while Christian communities would create new sacred rhythms as they gathered faithfully on the first day of each week.

Living with Hope

There is no doubt that the times we live in are times of upheaval – personal, institutional, and global. But Jesus' words offer both challenge and comfort.

• He challenges us to examine where we place our ultimate trust.
• He reminds us to consider carefully leaders and movements; and,
• He offers us hope that the end actually might be God's new beginning.

God’s people would come to understand this truth: God's presence is not confined to manmade institutions, no matter how magnificent.

The uncontainable God is on the move, bringing new life into being.

Would you pray with me?

Prayer

Faithful God, when the foundations shake and the familiar crumbles, help us place our trust in you alone. Grant us wisdom to discern your presence in times of change, and eyes to see the new life you bring forth. Amen.

Reflections for the Week Ahead

Monday: Where have I placed my sense of security? Reflect on Jesus's words about the fate of the temple's stones.

Tuesday: What "false messiahs" do I think others are following? And, might my “messiahs” be just as false?  How do I practice discernment in what I read, hear, and pass on today?

Wednesday: Read Isaiah 2:2 about the nations streaming to the mountain of God. This prophecy has not had a literal fulfillment. Do we need a physical Temple, or is the prophet saying something else more enduring?

Thursday: Notice what feels "permanent" in your life. How might God be calling you to hold these things more loosely?

Friday: Where do you see signs of new life emerging from apparent endings? Practice looking at disappointments through the lens of "birth pains" rather than destruction.

Saturday: Spend time in prayer for institutions, communities, and individuals experiencing upheaval, that they might see God's presence in times of change. Include yourself in these prayers.