Flames licked the ancient beams, crackling as ash and embers soared upward into the cool spring air. A pillar of glowing smoke rose high, swelling and turning the evening sun to blood. Paris watched in shock and grief as one of its iconic historical landmarks—the Notre-Dame cathedral—burned on April 15th, 2019, the beginning of Holy Week.
In a New York Times opinion article discussing the emotional aftermath of the fire, Christopher Caldwell writes, "Objects and traditions bound up with religious belief lend a feeling of sense and stability. For believers they are a reinforcement. For nonbelievers they are a substitute. Notre-Dame is perhaps the greatest such object in Europe. It is a consoling relic...and this is so for believers and nonbelievers alike.” Caldwell touches on a profound truth, one that Jesus Himself pointed out to His disciples during the very first Holy Week over 2,000 years ago.
Parisians found sense, stability, and a sacred substitute in the religious relic of Notre-Dame; the Jews found such consolations and more in the temple. It was the epicenter of all their traditions, the object of their piety and devotion. The temple was pivotal to Jewish religious life to such an extent that to live without it was the equivalent of being cut off from a valid existence.
Christ’s disciples were not immune to such misplaced reverence. One can hear the awe in their voices as they remarked about the temple and its adornments: “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” (Mark 13:1, Luke 21:5). But Jesus’ response is sobering. “Do you see all these things?” He asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2).
What follows in Scripture is Christ’s prophetical teaching about the signs of the end of the age. Jesus looks beyond the singular event of the temple’s destruction and instructs His church about the degradation of the world, the deception of false deliverance, and the duty of living prepared.
The Degradation of the World
Tragedies like Notre-Dame and the destruction of the temple remind us that this world is perishing. They jar us awake, out of our dream-like sense of security and into the stark reality that even those things that define us can be taken away. Lost. Destroyed. Irrevocably marred. We glibly recite the old adage, “Nothing lasts forever,” but when it actually comes to bear on our lives we are, more often than not, blindsided.
Like the disciples, we want to know when these things will happen (Matthew 24:3). We don’t like being caught off-guard! But rather than telling us when, Jesus simply says, “Be prepared.” He does not satisfy our curiosities, but engages our caution. Preparation, not prognostication, serves us better in tending to our souls.
Christ predicted the increasing chaos and decay of the world, not so we would be able to pinpoint His return (Matthew 24:36), but to teach us not to become overly enamored with its pomp and splendor. He knew that seeing through worldly glory to its inevitable end would help mortify us to things which are not, and awaken us to things that are. “For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Foresight, therefore, is not intended for our ease, but for our fortification. It is given so that we might turn our eyes away from worthless things to that which will never pass away: Christ and His Word (Matthew 24:35, Psalm 119:37)!
The Deception of False Deliverance
When public tragedies are great and trials threatening, the tendency of many is to catch at anything that looks like deliverance. As sorrows and tribulations increase throughout the world, Satan stands poised to exploit our distress and despair. He offers up false Christs and false prophets who promise relief; he deceives with signs and wonders; he uses the increase of wickedness to prey upon our faith and unity (Matthew 24:11–12, 24). Times of great trouble prove to be times of great temptation, especially for those whose hope is set on earthly deliverance.
Again Christ tells us ahead of time, not so we can create a checklist of catastrophes that must occur before He comes, but so we might know that circumstantial deliverance is never a guarantee. “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Trouble is a promise, but so is preservation: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
Christ graciously gives His followers this encouragement: It is not possible for God’s elect to be deceived (v.24). Though the delusion be strong (2 Thessalonians 2:11), we are kept by the power of God, for the purposes of God. It is not our knowledge, our gifts, our learning or status, nor even our profession that secures us! The grace of God alone is our protection.
Jesus calls believers “God’s elect” to give us a sure footing when all else is failing: God's sovereign choice. “And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:30). It was God's choice from the beginning, and God’s choice will stand! He promises us a better deliverance than the world could ever offer, and He generously equips us with the truth of Scripture to guard against the myriad of false deliverers that shall inevitably arise out of a world in turmoil.
The Duty of Living Prepared
At the close of the Olivet Discourse, Jesus uses several parables to illustrate what the believer's life should look like in light of the information He has just given us. He says we should be like wise and faithful servants who are found doing their Master's will when He returns (Matthew 24:45–46). We should be using the "talents" He has given us for the gain of His kingdom (Matthew 25:19–21). And we should be purified by grace and prepared for His return at any moment. Christ's followers ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit, holding out the light of truth, "trimmed" of anything that dampens our flame, and alert to the coming of our heavenly Bridegroom (Matthew 25:1–13)!
In each of these parables, Christ makes sure to mention that He will be a long time in coming, and that His return will be sudden and unexpected. This is meant to keep us on our spiritual toes! He warns us: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away" (Matthew 24:37-39).
The reality that Christ could return at any moment is designed to safeguard us from the dangers of security and sensuality. "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you like a trap" (Luke 21:34). When we are secure, we become sensual because we are taken up with things seen and present. And when we are sensual we become secure—eager in our earthly pursuits and entangled in the pleasures of the world because we have forgotten to consider the eternal reality of which we are ever on the brink.
Living prepared means always being ready and willing to attend upon Christ. We are servants carrying out our Master’s business, virgins escorting the Bridegroom—where Christ is at work, there should we also be! Living prepared means being ready to give an account to Him of what we’ve done with what He’s given us. Have we made use of our time, our money, our talents, energy and resources for the Lord? Or have we squandered it in selfish pursuits? To hear Christ say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” should be the aim of every believer, in every area of life.
And finally, living prepared means being ready to receive our final sentence from the Lord on the Day of Judgment. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31–32). Today is the day of salvation! It is our chiefest concern in this life to know and seek the Lord while He may be found, for a day is coming when our eternal state shall be unalterably fixed.
If we put off this great work to the last, we will likely find the time for it has run out. Like the foolish virgins, we shall miss the Bridegroom (Matthew 25:10). Like the wicked servants, our hypocrisy will be exposed and we shall be caught unawares and unprepared (Matthew 24:50, 25:30). Let us then turn our eyes away from worthless things—consoling relics, religious substitutes, worldly pleasures and endeavors—and fix them expectantly on Jesus Christ! It is the believer’s peculiar and exceptional duty to keep watch (Matthew 25:13). To attend to our souls with the utmost diligence. To be awake. Alert. And to be ready, every hour of every day, for our Savior’s glorious and inevitable return!
My Lord, awaken my soul unto readiness! Open my eyes to see life through the lens of Your promised and imminent return. Let everything I do be grounded in the reality of the unseen, the eternal. Help me live with an awareness that Your kingdom is at hand in all areas of my life. Keep me from overvaluing what is temporary in this world; turn my eyes away from worthless things and fix them steadfastly on You! Revive me with Your Word that I might not grow careless, but remain diligent in the matters of my soul. Preserve me, O Lord, by Your great grace! Amen.
Reflection Questions
- What in this world draws your spiritual gaze away from eternal things the most? What are some practical ways you can safeguard your heart against those things?
- Where do you tend to look for deliverance apart from Christ? How does it comfort you to know you are preserved from deception by God’s grace through God’s truth, not your abilities?
- Watchfulness does not mean the believer never rests, but it does mean we ought to be careful about where we are seeking our rest. Read Matthew 11:28–30. Where does Jesus tell us we will find rest?
- If Christ were to return this very moment, how prepared would you be to meet Him? What are some simple things you can do throughout your day to increase your expectancy and live prepared?