It is possible to take select passages from the Bible and form a picture of God in which he is an infinitely superior Being who is beyond the reach of humankind, yet very demanding. This view is consistent with the notion that we were on his bad side from the day of our birth and must always fight the negative momentum of our moral flaws. So, even when trying our hardest to please him, we are still breaking rules we never knew existed.

In the heart and mind of Jesus, God was “the Father”–not only his Father, but “our Father.” The God whom Jesus represented was the one Person we could count on to care for us, watch over us, and in his mercy treat us with compassion, kindness, and understanding.

Jesus did not think is was necessary for him to know the day of his return–it was enough that the Father knows. In fact, there are many things that are known to “the Father alone.” God knows what breaks our hearts, gets to us, makes us feel like giving up. God knows the number of our days and everything else there is to know about us. Our “Father alone” can be trusted with this information (Ps. 139). He uses it to heal, guide, and protect us as we journey through life.

O Jesus, Son of the Father, we thank You for entering our world and through Your words, deeds, and life, reveal to us the heart of God. In Your goodness we discover that, even when we disappoint Him, the Father loves us. We realize our responsibility to learn truth and solve riddles that hinder our growth, but we also understand that there are things we cannot know and it is best to leave them to the Father. O Lord, strengthen our trust in You.

In verse 30, we come to the climax of events Jesus predicted in this chapter. It is here, with “the sign of the Son of Man” appearing in the sky that the curtain comes down on human history. When this happens and everything we have ever known is vaporized, when heaven and earth “pass away,” Jesus and his words will be the one remaining, stable reality (v. 35).

When preaching on this passage, a good number of ministers manifest a triumphant attitude, as if the coming of Jesus is all about the vindication of our faith in him. We are given the impression that what matters most is on the day of the Lord, is that we will be proven right and everyone else proven wrong. We could accept this sort of interpretation (and attitude) if our love for Jesus did not tell us that he intended to communicate a deeper and more important message.

Do you remember how Matthew’s gospel opened with Jesus’ genealogy? What was Matthew telling us? That charting the advance of human history, we could discern how it was moving toward “Jesus the Messiah” (1:1). This is the same message we find here in chapter 24. History has a goal, the universe has a center, our lives have a purpose, and all of it comes back to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Dear Lord, is it not true that our greatest frustrations arise when we imagine ourselves to be at the center of the universe? We expend too much energy trying to control everything and everyone around us. May we learn in the depths of our souls what it means to say, Jesus Christ is Lord. Let us imagine the day when everyone on earth clearly sees that You are the eternal center of the universe so that we can have the freedom to give up trying to occupy that position and find our true place under Your care and in Your service.

Looking ahead, Jesus predicted a period of suffering and gave his disciples emergency response instructions for specific crises. He knew that many people would be deceived, which is not surprising, for in times of turmoil people prefer to embrace a present lie than a future promise.

Perhaps the most convincing education is personal experience. We tend to believe what we see with our own eyes. But Jesus warned that people would produce “signs and wonders” to trick others into following false Messiahs and false prophets. For those of us who long to witness a genuine miracle, this can be a bitter pill to swallow. But it is better to live without ever seeing a miracle than to live and die holding on to a false god that performs many wonders.

A miracle gives us a connection with God across the gap between heaven and earth, divine reality and human experience. But so does faith, and that is the bridge Jesus wants us to cross. If he repeats the command, “do not believe” (i.e., the false reports of his coming, vv. 23 & 26), it is because he wants us to believe in him and place our trust in him alone.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for watching out for us. Thank You for looking ahead and then preparing us for the future challenges we will have to face. Thank You for going before us, clearing a path for us to follow. If we go through our entire lives without ever receiving one miraculous answer to our prayers, we are content so long as we have You at our side, now and forever.

Jesus did not predict a happy or blissful future for his disciples. With the world on fire, they could expect to get burned. Jesus described coming events as one world crisis after another. Then, in a matter-of-fact way, he added, “[They] will kill you” (v. 9). Had I been there, I probably would have interrupted him and said, “Excuse me, Lord. What did You just say?”

Jesus never runs out of surprises. In particular, the verses quoted above run counter to what good Evangelical Christians would expect him to say. They would expect something from Jesus like, “Put your trust in Me and you have nothing to fear. Disaster may come to the world, God’s judgment will fall on the nations, and he will bring history to a close, but you will be protected.” In other words, we expect Jesus to say, “The one who is saved will endure to the end” rather than the other way around.

We will probably never understand why God has not make life easy for his children. Jesus did not seem overly concerned that his disciples would go through hard times, but he was very concerned that they remained anchored in him. It was not that Jesus wanted his followers to suffer, he just wanted them to love him more than life.

We confess, O Lord, that we have a small view of life. To us, life means this brief span of mortality. You, however, see a horizon that recedes into infinity. In Your eyes, we are more than the sum total of what we can achieve or acquire in our lifetime. Help us to be less attached to, and enamored with the temporal things of this world and more anchored in the eternal–more anchored in You.

We can hear sorrow in Jesus’ voice as he looks to the horizon of Jerusalem’s future and predicts disaster (v. 36). Even though he was persecuted and rejected by Israel’s religious leaders, the Lord did not relish the brutal fate that was going to catch up to them. He did not denounce Jerusalem with the fiery vengeance of an angry prophet, but grieved over them as a brokenhearted father who wanted all of his children to run to his home for shelter.

We are more resistant to God than we realize. If he comes to us in an unfamiliar form, if he says things we do not want to hear, if he challenges our cherished dogma, or wants to teach us something new, we dig in our heels and push against him. Only we do not realize we are pushing against God. We think we are driving away that annoying, crazy prophet. We may not kill and stone those who try to awaken us to God’s message for today, but we do reject, malign, and blackball them.

How sad for Jerusalem! They would effectively run Jesus out of the temple and then have all to themselves an empty shell. “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” In winning this battle, they would lose everything.

Forgive us, Lord, for our smug criticism of the Pharisees and scribes because in their determination to preserve a religious tradition they lost sight of the God they claimed to serve. We have followed in their footsteps. We have drifted toward peripheral concerns rather than the “weightier provisions” of Your will. We have put more energy into defending what we believe than becoming the kind of people whose good works glorify You. We have learned so much and understood so little. Forgive us, and, for the sake of our Savior’s tears, draw us under Your wings.