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FROM A READING FOR NOV. 18, 33RD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
'By a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.' - Hebrews 10:14

If our main source of Christian apocalyptic reading is the book of Revelation, we might not understand the message Mark is conveying in Sunday's Gospel (Mark 13:24-32). We're liable to read something into it which isn't there.

Though Revelation also describes the "last days," it does so in the context of a theology which contradicts all other theologies in the Christian Scriptures.

I once saw a Mary Englebreit t-shirt sporting a biblical message: "Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees." I was amazed when I saw it was from Revelation, a book not noted for its ecological teachings. I picked up a Bible and checked it out.

It actually was from Revelation 7, but it was only the first half of verse 3. The next word in the verse is "until." The author basically says, "Don't do anything to the land, sea, or trees until I give the command, then wipe them out!"

Now, that's the book of Revelation I know - and don't love.

Revelation vs. Gospel
Of course, when one reads Daniel (the only apocalyptic book in the Hebrew Scriptures) one also finds lots of God-caused destruction. But, as we hear in Sunday's first reading (Daniel 12:1-3), Yahweh doesn't get His hands dirty in such a project. It's left to Michael to "clean up" before Yahweh's people receive their final reward.

Yet because we're in the Christian, not Hebrew Scriptures, it's appropriate for Dominic Crossan to point out how the revenge and destruction message of Revelation is at odds with the message the Gospel Jesus proclaims. As a Scripture scholar and a Christian, Crossan can only speculate on the historical circumstances which enabled such a theology to be accepted into the canon of the Christian Scriptures.

Though chapter 13 contains Mark's apocalyptic "vision," his Jesus takes no revenge, nor destroys anything. His Jesus arrives after humans and nature have wreaked havoc on the earth. He plays no role in either.

Unlike Revelation, none of these calamities is looked upon as a punishment for evil people or a vengeful reward for the good folk. They're simply stuff that the faithful in those days expected to happen before Jesus' second coming.

Even many unbelievers thought the world's eventual end would be preceded by such natural catastrophes. Mark is simply saying, "When that end comes, expect Jesus' arrival."

A forgiving God
This rather peaceful picture of Jesus dovetails with the picture we find in our Hebrews (10:11-14,18) reading. He's always "perfecting" His followers, even into eternity. As the author states, Jesus' "thing" is forgiveness, not vengeance. The text doesn't even say that Jesus physically made His enemies His footstool. They could have gotten themselves into that ignoble position by their own actions, without Jesus' help.

But there's still one troubling aspect in Sunday's Gospel: "Amen, I say to you," Jesus proclaims, "this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place."

Obviously, we're still waiting for the Parousia. Until Luke writes (probably in the mid-80s), our Christian sacred authors seem to believe Jesus will return in their lifetime. Later followers of Jesus had to change the way they lived their faith once they began to understand His Parousia would be indefinitely delayed.

It makes one wonder what "faith-changes" still await us - changes not even our biblical writers could have anticipated.[[In-content Ad]]

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