How to read the future

As I often say, reading is hard. Reading the future is nigh on impossible. Matthew 24 is a part of Jesus’ teaching that proves the rule. I feel I should make a disclaimer about how eschatological passages tend to be more divisive or at least tend to admit of more interpretations but, honestly, this is not really the case. The passages in the Bible that deal with the end times are not fundamentally different than the rest of Scripture.

It’s easy to view end times passages or prophetic passages as in their own class and they can form their own distinct type of literature (e.g. Revelation) but the methods for reading them and the variety in their interpretation is more similar than dissimilar other kinds of biblical literature. Take the atonement for example. Common interpretations of the atonement include:

Penal substitution theory
Ransom theory
Moral influence theory
Christus Victor theory
Satisfaction theory

In Matthew 24, we generally just have to deal with the preterist (past) view, the partial preterist, and the futurist view. (NB: ‘futurist’ here means the final future, i.e. the Second Coming.) The real difficulties come when we try to synthesize our reading of Matthew 24 with other prophetic/last-times passages. However, I think this is the exactly wrong way to go about it. To be clear, it would be equally wrong to never synthesize our interpretations but inductive study must be the foundation of every synthesis.

In that light let’s backup just a bit to contextualize Matthew 24.

Moving towards judgement: the final woe

In Matthew 23 we find Jesus delivering the rhetorical coup-de-gras to the Pharisees and scribes. He has spent the last three chapters sparring with the increasingly angry Jewish leadership. Finally, he proclaims seven (yes, seven) woes against the Pharisees and scribes. These condemnations are the most severe and sustained in all of Matthew. And the Pharisees do not recover.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ” Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

The final woe to the scribes and Pharisees is a transitional one. It is markedly different in character than the first six. It is one of two woes that Jesus delivers with a command (the fifth is the other “First clean the inside of the cup”) and in it we see Jesus moving definitely from condemnation into pronouncing judgment. Jesus points out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in building memorials to honor men they would have killed. The practice of memorial burial places was common then too and we see reference to it in Peter’s sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:29, “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day”).

Sonship weaponized

Jesus appeals to the idea of sonship to prove his point and deliver a terrifying command. “Fill up then the measure of your fathers.” Notice all the references to sonship so far:

v. 9, “call no man father”
v. 15, “For you travel across sea nd land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”
v. 30-31, “you are sons of those who murdered the prophets”
v. 32, “you brood of vipers”

Note particularly, the second and the last references. Jesus condemns the Pharisees and scribes as children of hell and a brood of vipers. This recalls Jesus statements in John 8, “you are of your father the devil”. Jesus is not only not making friends here but actively making enemies. Remember that sonship is not just ontological—who you are—but also agential and qualitative—what you do and what you are like. So when Jesus makes these statements he is, in so many words, they are like Satan and are accomplishing the work of hell. It’s the direct inversion of Jesus’ model prayer: “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We see the Pharisees called a “brood of vipers” two other times in Matthew. First, in 3:7 John the Baptist gives us the inaugural condemnation of the Pharisees and Sadducees and it’s telling: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’”

Secondly, in 12:34 this time from Jesus, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? …I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you wil be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Finally, our present use with a question that echoes John the Baptist’s, “how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” Rhetorical question. Universally, this epithet precedes judgement.

Back to the future

We see an interesting shift in v. 34 marked by the “therefore”. Jesus has been pronouncing judgement on the Pharisees and scribes. Now he will prophesy about their persecution of his own followers. The statement is interesting not just for being predictive though. Jesus says, “I will send you prophets and wise men and scribes.” If we connect this back agential aspect of sonship we can reasonably ask then, “who else sends prophets wise men and scribes?” This is heightened more if we compare this to Luke’s version in 11:49 where it is “the Wisdom of God” pronouncing the intention to send servants.

The result of their persecution is that they will obey Jesus command and fill up the measure of their fathers such that all the blood of the righteous will come upon them. Jesus ends with an amen statement, “Truly, I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

This transitions us to the following sections and introduces us to one of our first interpretive difficulties: who is “this generation”? We won’t cover that right now but it is an important question as we move into chapter 24. Next week we’ll be responsible exegetes and look at the other uses of this phrase in Matthew to try and build an accurate picture of what this identification could mean.

Even so, merciful

The last verse of chapter 23 show that even still Jesus displays his compassion and typologically enacts the greatest judgement. First, note the compassion revealed in how he speaks:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem [this is the Aramaic transliteration rather than the Greek-version of the city’s name], the city [the one, singular] that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it [to her, singular]! How often would I have gathered your [singular] children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your [plural] house is left to you [plural] desolate. For I tell you [plural], you will not see me again, until you [plural] say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

So Jesus is simultaneously pronouncing his judgement and as we’ll see acting out his judgement and revealing his compassion to the nation as a whole and it’s people as a group. But in response they reveal their unwillingness to enter into the care of God. There’s a bit of irony here as well. Jesus prophesies that he will not be seen by them again until they say ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ which is precisely how he was ushered into Jerusalem. This starts us pointing in the direction of the last times because it is then that those who rejected him will acknowledge him. Textually, there is also a firm link in the words we see translated as “until” (cf. 26:29 “until that day”, 26:64 “from now on”).

The exit

In the beginning of chapter 24 we read that Jesus left the temple and was going away. Very much like he entered Jerusalem with three symbolic acts, his leaving is a symbolic act. It recalls Ezekiel’s vision of the presence of God leaving the temple and going out to the Mount of Olives (ch. 10-11) which is precisely Jesus’ own destination. Jesus own words in the preceding section mark the importance of this moment: “See, your house is left to you desolate.” “Desolate” here could just as well be translated uninhabited. Jesus is typologically fulfilling the Old Testament type and his own words, he as the presence of God is leaving the house of God, the temple. This more than anything else is the sign of God’s judgement. And it is this that occasions the disciples questions.