On the Back Porch
Reading, pondering and studying God’s Word is sometimes best done “on the back porch.” Each week we will try to offer something for you and your “back porch time.”
33rd Sunday, Year B
What We Celebrate
“But in those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken
The opening verse of this Gospel could not offer words more closely associated with the “end time” so popularized in modern Christian fiction. Mark borrows these images from Old Testament prophet Daniel (Dan 7). But these same images are also found throughout the prophets (Isa 13:10; 34:4; Ezek 32:7–8; Joel 2:10–11; 3:4, 15), where a divine theophany causes the turmoil in nature. As Brian Stoffregen notes “such phenomena have always been with us: solar and lunar eclipses, falling stars, booming thunder, etc. The time to prepare for the end has always been in the present time.” And while the discourse holds up somewhat terrifying images, what is promised is that the Son of Man will come, together with the elect, from the ends of the Earth. His ascent to the divine throne marks the end of the war being waged by the fourth beast against the “holy ones.” God gives judgment on their behalf and bestows an everlasting dominion upon them.
As always, a lot going on in the gospel reading. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and take a moment on the back porch with the Word of God.
Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary
Image credit: Flevit super illam (He wept over it) | Enrique Simonet, 1892 | Museo del Prado, Madrid | PD-US
The Destruction of the Temple
Context is everything. While outside of our gospel reading, it is important to understand that our gospel message is one that, for the disciples, was anchored in the centrality of the Temple in Jewish minds, hearts, and worship. For faithful Jews of Jesus’ day there could be no greater or horrifying portend of the end times and days of wrath than the destruction of the beloved Temple in Jerusalem.