9
"- Commentary .__
The end times: Luke corrects Mark
GOspel commentary for
F[r;SY, November 27, 1994,
unday of Advent, Cycle
C, Luke21:23.36.
fSu. The gospel reading for the first
y of Advent is always taken
esus last sermon called "the
eschatological disc
==oL .... ourse. The word
real'°"'°l°glcal" is derived from the
m,::L'_nguage and means no
'. -an some words about the
last things, the end of time. The
Same theme was struck in the
gospel two Sundays ago. Then the
gospel was taken from Jesus' ser-
mon inMark
in Luke. • Today it is taken from Jesus' sermon
Luke had to deal with
even a -:-" . a problem, perhaps
Gosnel ]is o lalth. We may assume that the
aboui , vlarK originated in Rome. Mark wrote
ROe a e Year 70 A.D. The Christian Church at
..,_ :=u alreaay evolved into one of the most im-
e,Lant Christian communities for various rea-
son. Rome was the center of th R m
andafi_ e o an Empire
1 .... erce persecution of Chris ians had taken
¢ nere. Among the victims of tthat persecution
ere Peter and Paul
doctune, . • Therefore any Chnstmn
io " coming from that Church took on major
tmT. 'Lance, even more so because the Gospel of
;?arl seemed to be the final word before the end of
ti¢.
Mark see
"- theft; .... ms to have worked under the convic-
tegetler the persecution of the Church at Rome,
ternlle m,_le" With the destruction of Jerusalem and the
the inlne]V A.D., could only bee herald or sign of
di Ju not' ,ae return of Jesus As we know Jesus
return.
Before many years elapsed people
Were Scoffing abo, utlthe Christian conviction of the
By FATHER
DON DILGER
COLUMNIST
immediate return of Jesus. No
doubt, many pious Christians
were scandalized and shaken by
the lack of fulfillment of what
they had heard from the Gospel of
Mark.
With great care Luke tackles
what seems to have been a crisis
of faith. While Mark had con-
nected the fall of Jerusalem and
the end of the temple with the de-
struction of the universe at the
end of time, Luke carefully sepa-
rates what had happened 15 to 20
years earlier in Jerusalem from
what was expected to happen at
the end of time. Where Mark writes that the time
had even been shortened, Luke omits the phrase.
Mark ends Jesus' sermon with a final word:
"WATCH!" Instead of following Mark's leads
Luke takes the opportunity to add a little sermon
to take care not to indulge in a wild life and
drinking, nor to be too concerned with the cares of
this life. A typical Lucan approach!
Nevertheless, Luke does not give up on the
idea of the ultimate return of Jesus. It's going to
be a long time and may come suddenly "like a
snare...upon all who dwell on the face of the
earth." He "urges his readers to watch at all times,
and to pray (a typical Lucan touch) for the
strength to escape what will take place at the
end, and for the strength "to stand before the Son
of man." The "Son of man" is the title of a sym-
bolic person in the Book of Daniel written about
165 B.C. In that book the Son of man symbolizes
the victorious kingdom of the Jews which ulti-
mately replaces that of all their former perse-
cutors. Two hundred years later Christian theol-
ogy applied to Jesus all that was said of that
symbolic Son of man in the Book of Daniel, that he
was given "dominion and glory and kingdom that all
peoples, nations and languages should serve him in
an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed.
Like Mark, Luke depends heavily on Old Testa-
ment ideas and vocabulary to write Jesus' last ser-
mon or discourse. Undoubtedly the discourse con-
tains genuine sayings of Jesus but they are
interwoven with statements by Christian prophets
and with a description of events of the last third of
the first century, for example, the destruction of
Jerusalem and the great Jewish temple. For lan-
gnage to describe the end of time Luke turns to a
wide assortment of Old Testament authors, espe-
cially the prophets. The prophets often imagined a
"day of the Lord," when Yahweh would decisively in-
tervene in human affairs to give ultimate victory to
his chosen people. The words of the ancient prophets
about "the day of the Lord" are redirected by Luke to
describe "the day of the Son of man," that is the re-
turn of Jesus as final and victorious judge.
What can we learn from this highly imaginative
and creative story? It is a reminder of our total vul-
nerability to humanly engineered or natural cata-
strophe. In our comfortable lives we may not be as
aware of our vulnerability as are people in Bosnia,
Haiti, or those caught in recent natural disasters in
Italy. Awareness of our own helplessness comes
more from the sudden loss of a friend or relative,
people about whom we care deeply. In our shock we
realize that it could have been ourselves rather than
another. And so with Luke we pray that we "have
strength to escape all these things." But if we don't
escape, then we pray with Luke "to have the
strength to stand before the Son of man.
Readings: Jeremiah 33:14.16; I Thess 3:12-4:2.
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