Last week, we began to work through Mark 13 by framing the chapter around the questions that the disciples ask of Jesus. The whole chapter centers around an interaction between Jesus and his disciples. As they leave the temple for the last time before his crucifixion, the disciples marvel at the building. They ask Jesus to join with them in their admiration, but instead, Jesus offers a judgment – “Not one stone will be left standing upon another.” This bothers the disciples, and so when they get back to the Mount of Olives, four of them get up the courage to ask him two questions: “When will this happen and what will be the signs leading up to it?” We saw last week that Jesus gives them five signs – false-Christs, conflicts, calamities, persecution, and the expansion of the Gospel into all the world. You could imagine, as the disciples heard of these terrible signs of judgment, a sense of injustice might have welled up inside of them. Jesus was not speaking of some distant land or an event far out in the future. He was pronouncing judgment on their kinsmen, their families, their friends, their culture. So, they might have been tempted to think that God was unjust to do this. We certainly struggle with this same temptation in our day. There are many who question or outright deny that God would judge anyone or send anyone to Hell. The reality is, justice is always personal for the one who stands condemned. In our text this morning, Jesus expounds on the signs leading to the destruction of the temple, and this drills in on the justice of God. Let’s read Mark 13:14-23 together. From this text, see three points: God’s justice is right, ruthless, and redemptive.
First, from verse 14, we see that God’s justice is right. Jesus gives his disciples a precise sign leading up to the destruction of the temple. He says, “When you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not be.” Now, there is a bit of debate as to what this abomination of desolation is. The Dispensationalists say that this abomination is an event that will happen at the end of time when the Jews rebuild the temple, and then the Antichrist defiles it by establishing idol worship in the sanctuary. This debate is spurred on by the fact that there have been “abominations of desolation” in the past. Daniel 9:26-27 says that there will be an abomination of desolation. Daniel 12:11 also references an abomination that makes desolate. These abominations have happened numerous times in history. Leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, the Israelites themselves defiled the temple with idol worship. In 167 BC, Antiochus Epiphanes entered the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar. So, what abomination is Jesus referring to? Well, we don’t have to wonder about this, because in Matt. 23, he tells us. In Matt. 23, Jesus pronounces seven woes on Israel leading up to Matthew’s version of this same prophecy of the destruction of the temple. He condemns them for shutting up the kingdom by making access to God impossible for the lowly, for leading people astray, for being blind guides, for neglecting the weightier things of the law, for being clean on the inside but impure on the outside, for being full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, and for killing the prophets. The final woe is key (v. 35): “On you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth.” Then, in verse 37, Jesus laments the coming judgment, “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.” Here is the abomination that led to the desolation of Jerusalem. God sent prophets from Abel to Zechariah, and the people of Israel killed them. And, in one final act of mercy, God sent his only Son. As John 1:11 says, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” Instead, they questioned him, accused him of having a demon, set traps for him, and ultimately crucified him.
What sort of judgment do such people deserve? They deserve ruthless justice. For that, consider my second point: God’s justice is ruthless, from verses 15-19. There is an interesting fact about God’s justice. On the one hand, the severity of God’s justice is well known and well-attested in Scripture. Psalm 2:9 says that the son will break the kings of the earth with a rod of iron and grind them to pieces. Psalm 110 says that he will shatter kings. Jesus speaks of Hell more than he speaks of heaven, and he describes it as unquenchable fire and a place of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Rom. 11:22 marvels at the “kindness and severity of God.” 2 Thes. 1 says that God will take vengeance on those who do not obey the Gospel. Heb. 10:31 says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Rev. 19 pictures Jesus as the victor who treads the winepress of the fury of God’s wrath. So, it is clear from Scripture that God is wrathful, judgmental, and vengeful towards those who rebel against him. And yet, for all of this, the ruthless of God’s justice is flatly denied today. We find this denial in both pop-culture and scholarship. In pop-culture, those who want to live by their own standards will often be heard saying, “God is love”, or “you can’t judge me… Jesus said ‘judge not.’” Even well-meaning Christians will argue that “God doesn’t send anyone to Hell. You send yourself there.” Pastors and theologians have found the justice of God too hard to stomach, especially when it comes to the doctrine of eternal torment in Hell and the substitutionary atonement of Christ. With Hell, scholars argue that God is too loving to send anyone to Hell. Clark Pinnock calls the doctrine of Hell, “an outrageous doctrine… a moral monstrosity.” Speaking of the idea that God would punish his own son for our sins, Steve Chalke says that it is “a form of cosmic child abuse.”
I think one of the main reasons that people struggle so with the ruthlessness of God’s justice is because we think too little of God and too much of ourselves. Or, we think too little of our sins and too little of God’s majesty. But consider the case of Robert Henry Best. Robert was an American journalist with controversial opinions. He was brave enough to broadcast those opinions and the speeches of some of his favorite philosophers, and for that he was arrested and convicted on twelve counts of treason and sentenced to life in prison. I’m sure, from Robert’s perspective, he would argue that this was a matter of free speech, that the woke media was censoring him for conservative views, and so on. But, there is another perspective that might shed light on the severity of sentence. Robert Best was a journalist in the 1940s, at the height of WWII, and he broadcasted Nazi propaganda on his radio show. Was the sentence severe? Sure. But the crime that Robert committed wasn’t just against one person, but the entire nation – against Americans past, present, and future. So, if we will punish those who are accomplices to rebellion in such a way, how much more worthy are we all of God’s judgment?
And, more specific to our text, how much more were the Jews of Jesus’ day worthy of God’s severe justice? They had denied the Son of God and planned to kill him. They were accomplices with the devil in their rebellion. So, Jesus warns that their judgment will be ruthless. He says that those who face it should hope that it does not come in winter. Women should hope not to be pregnant. And, he says that this tribulation will be unlike any that has come before it or will be since. The siege of Jerusalem was brutal beyond imagination. It lasted for five months, and because of the in-fighting among the Jewish factions, there was no food when the siege started. It became so severe that women even killed and cooked their own children and offered it to others. When the Roman army took the city, Josephus says that they ran out of room for all of the crosses on which they crucified the rebels. Historians estimate the death toll to be between 600,000 and 1.1 million, and there were 97,000 people who were enslaved as a result of it.
Finally, consider my last point: God’s justice is redemptive, from verses 20-23. Jesus offers some hope in the midst of his ruthless justice. He says, in verse 20, that the days of this judgment will be cut short for the sake of the elect whom he chose. Yes, God is ruthless in his wrath, and he will have his vengeance, but he also proves himself to be merciful, even in the midst of his judgment. God always has a remnant that is saved by grace. Though the whole world was rebelliously violent before the flood, God found favor with Noah and saved him and his family. Though in all the region of Sodom and Gomorrah, not ten righteous men could be found, God rescued the family of Lot even as fire and brimstone rained down. As the death angel descended over the land of Egypt, it passed by the homes with blood-spattered doors because God had given his people a way of escape from judgment. Even as the last king of Judah, Manassah, killed the prophets and set up idols in every corner of the temple, God preserved a remnant of exiles like Daniel and his friends – men who would not bow down to idols, even when facing fire and lions.
Recognize, though, that the mercy of God is not based on the worthiness of those who are saved. Noah was a sinner like the rest of mankind. We see that as soon as he gets off the boat and gets drunk. Lot, too, wanted to stay in Sodom even as the angels insisted that he leave. The Israelites escaped the death angel, not because they were better, but because they had been atoned for with a spotless lamb. Even Daniel acknowledges his sin and that of his people and begs God not to treat them as they deserve. No, the elect are not saved because they are pure or perfectly obedient. They are saved because, as Jesus says, they are chosen by God. God chooses to show mercy, just as he chooses when and how he will judge. He chose the twelve disciples and sustained them, even when they were dumb and stubborn and cowardly. And, God has chosen you, if you are in Christ. You are elect, a “called-out one”. This is not because you deserve it. It is because your sins have been washed away by the atoning blood of Christ and because you have been given the righteousness of Christ, that there is now no condemnation. The wrath of God is not upon you, and even in the midst of God’s judgment, he will show you mercy.
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