It’s A Sign
Just a few days before he was crucified – Jesus of Nazareth visited the Temple in Jerusalem for one final time.
The Temple was a marvelous structure – but Jesus had not gone there to bask in that holy sanctuary – instead, he had gone for what He himself knew would be His final scathing indictment of the religious leaders of the Jewish people.
“Woe unto you, scribes! Pharisees! – Hypocrites!
As Jesus and his disciples departed – his shocked and bewildered disciples – perhaps in an effort to bring calm to this heated and emotional confrontation – pointed out the beauty of the Temple itself.
But their words fell hollow – and Jesus’ reply and the ensuing destruction of the Temple by the Romans just 40 years later ring down through the centuries – “there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
After they had departed to the Mount of Olives – perhaps to the Garden of Gethsemane – and some repose had come – the disciples – sensing the finality of the deep rift that had just taken place – asked Jesus,
“When shall these things be? – and what shall be the sign of they coming – and of the end of the world?”
And these were the signs,
Troublous times, false messiahs, famine, new devastating diseases, a fear storm, heart attacks, senseless brutality against the innocent, the Earth itself in the throes of death – quaking and shivering – violent eruptions and direful change – and an ever increasingly connected humanity – clamoring for relief – and embracing a final solution while heralding their final King – a ruler so dreadful that he would be worshipped as the King of the entire Earth – a man so overcome and consumed that the Ancient Texts record his name – the Son of Perdition – possessed by that Wicked One – and proclaimed as God in the flesh.