As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. - Mark 13:1-8
"Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming 'I am he' and will deceive many." When we perceive that the world is unstable, we instinctively look for someone that can offer us stability. Jesus' disciples pointed at the temple as a sign of stability. "What massive stones! What magnificent buildings" they exclaimed. But Jesus told them that it was all going away. It wasn't going to last.
Then he told them to watch who they trust. Wars. Rumors. Conflict. Earthquakes. Starvation. These things continue to happen. When they do happen, we look for the new "Messiah!"--someone who will save us. A continual churn of crises leads to a continual cycle of people promising to protect us from the pain. This is how it is, so we shouldn't look to the problems to reveal the solution. The problems just shows how broken we are and how broken the world is. There is no solution within the system. We have to look beyond the world system. We should look to God. Anyone who promises different is selling something.
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