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Sixty-seven years before Jesus was born, the Roman General, Pompey, invaded Palestine and subjected the Jewish people to Roman rule. For a number of years, Rome ruled the Jewish territory through client kings who collaborated with Rome in order to maintain their own power and privilege. The most notorious of these kings was Herod the Great, whom we encounter in the gospels when we read the stories of Jesus' birth.
Many Jews, chaffing under Roman dominance, hoped for that day when God would liberate them from Rome, just as God had liberated their ancestors from slavery in Egypt long ago. Some believed God would raise up a messiah--a new king like King David--to defeat Rome in a great battle, to liberate Jerusalem once and for all, and to rule over a new age of justice and prosperity.
When Herod the Great died soon after Jesus was born, Jerusalem erupted in a revolt against Herod's son, Archileus, whom Rome had appointed as his successor. The Jewish revolt spread quickly throughout Judea and up north into Galilee. Rebel leaders claiming to be the hoped-for messiah recruited followers and attacked Roman garrisons.
Rome responded by dispatching two legions from Syria. They swept into Galilee killing, raping, and destroying nearly everything in sight. They marched south into Judea, where they re-established order in Jerusalem and executed hundreds of Jewish rebels in mass crucifixions.
After crushing the Jewish revolt, Rome decided to dispense with ruling Judea and Jerusalem through Jewish client kings and to rule instead through Roman governors. It was one of these Roman governors, Pontius Pilate, who crucified Jesus.
In June of the year 66, a little more than thirty years after Pilate crucified Jesus, Jerusalem once again erupted in revolt. As it had a generation earlier, this revolt spread quickly throughout the Judean countryside and up north into Galilee as rebel leaders recruited rural peasants to take up arms against Rome.
In November of 66, Cestus Gallus, the Roman legate of Syria, marched on Jerusalem to quell the insurrection. Gallus and his troops occupied most of Jerusalem and laid siege to the Temple Mount, but after fierce fighting, the rebels forced Gallus to retreat from Jerusalem, pursuing him all the way to the coast and inflicting heavy casualties on his troops.
Jerusalem was euphoric. The Jewish people had risen up and finally defeated the Roman oppressor who occupied their land. Under God's direction, with God's help, they had liberated Israel and brought the nation's suffering to an end. Israel's long exile was over. The new age was dawning. Alleluia!
Israel's euphoria was short-lived.
From Rome, the Emperor Nero dispatched Rome's most powerful general, Vespasian, to crush the Jews. Gathering legions from Egypt and Syria, Vespasian marched through Galilee and Judea with 6,000 heavily armed troops, leaving a path of destruction and bloodshed in his wake. It was shock and awe Roman style.
Vespasian reached Jerusalem in June of 68. After surrounding the city and preparing to destroy it, he received news from Rome that Nero had died, and that the four men competing to succeed him had dragged Rome into a civil war. With great haste, Vespasian packed up his troops and equipment, and quickly took off for Rome.
Once again, on the very brink of destruction, Jerusalem was spared. The folks inside the city woke up one morning to see the Romans picking up their weapons and running away. It was a miracle! God had intervened once again on Jerusalem's behalf. God had given the Jews a sign that the new age was dawning. Again, the people were euphoric.
Back in Rome, General Vespasian overpowered his rivals and prevailed in the struggle to succeed Nero. He became Emperor of Rome and immediately dispatched General Titus to Jerusalem to crush the Jewish revolt once and for all.
For the third time in this Jewish-Roman war, Roman forces march into Judea and prepared to lay siege to Jerusalem. Emboldened by the two previous miraculous "victories," Jewish rebels canvassed Palestine, actively recruiting Jews to join the last great decisive battle against Rome.
Titus reached Jerusalem and began the siege of the great city in April of the year 70. For five months, Jewish rebels held off the Roman troops. Finally, the Romans prevailed, storming the city, destroying it, and burning the Temple to the ground.
The Romans killed scores of Jews. They publicly crucified the rebel leaders. Many Jews whom Rome did not kill were forced into slavery.
Rome's destruction of Jerusalem was a total disaster for the people of Judea and Jerusalem, not only a physical disaster, or national disaster, but a spiritual disaster. Their deepest, most fervent hope that God would not only protect them but liberate them was dashed to pieces. Rather than being God's greatest act since the exodus from Egypt, this was the greatest national and spiritual disaster since the exile into Babylon.
The Jewish revolt against Rome, and Rome's destruction of Jerusalem, form the immediate historical backdrop for the Gospel According to Mark, from which we read our lesson this morning. Many New Testament scholars think Mark's Gospel was written in northern Palestine sometime between the years 68 and 70, ether just before Rome destroyed Jerusalem or just after Rome destroyed Jerusalem.
Some scholars think the events surrounding the Jewish revolt may have placed those Jews in Palestine who believed Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah in a difficult position. Keep in mind that during this time, many Christians in Palestine were Jews, Jews who believed Jesus was the true Jewish messiah. And because these folks were Jews, the rebels recruiting for the war effort would have included them in their efforts. They would have pressured these folks to support the war effort, to come to the defense of God's Temple in the holy city of Jerusalem, to witness the incredible miracle of Rome's defeat that was about to occur.
Some scholars think the recruiters for the war effort confronted the Jews who believed Jesus was the messiah with some very difficult questions:
Should they pick up arms, join the rebels, and come to the defense of Jerusalem?
Was it God's will that they fight against Rome?
Believing Jesus Christ would come again at the end time, did the battle for the holy city of Jerusalem mark the end time?
Would the Jewish victory over Rome--God's victory over Rome--herald the second coming of Jesus Christ and usher in the kingdom of God? If so, what would it mean for them to not participate? Would it demonstrate a lack of faith? Would Christ judge them upon his return and find them lacking in faith because they did not participate?
Or conversely, what if it was not God's will that they take up arms against Rome? What if the battle for Jerusalem was not the event that would herald the second coming of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God? Should they sit this one out, even if it means being treated like traitors by those Jews calling on them to fight?
You can appreciate how people must have struggled with these questions given the enormity of the events unfolding, the immediate sense of urgency, the atmosphere of crisis--both the danger and the opportunity--and the powerful feelings of national and religious responsibility. Not only did the nation and God's Temple in Jerusalem hang in the balance, but one's very soul as well.
Some interpreters of Mark's Gospel, when reading the "little apocalypse," believe Mark is addressing the question: should the followers of Jesus Christ join the revolt and come to the defense of Jerusalem, and are these events the sign that Jesus Christ is about to return?
And Mark's answer is no.
Jerusalem will not be liberated. Jerusalem will be destroyed. The Temple will be destroyed. Not a stone will be left standing. When the desolating sacrilege appears in Jerusalem, know that the time for Jerusalem's destruction has come, so flee as fast as you can. No matter what you are doing, drop it immediately, and head for the hills. Escape is your only chance for survival. The Jewish war against Rome is not the final battle between good and evil, and it will not usher in the messianic age. This war is not the means through which God will bring about the kingdom of God on earth. The kingdom of God will come at some other appointed time, a time of God's choosing. Not a time the rebels choose. Not a time that Rome chooses.
However, be prepared to suffer painful trials and tribulations. Your refusal to participate in the battle to defend Jerusalem will bring suffering upon you. People will despise you. You will be rejected, hauled in for judgment, considered traitors, and made to suffer. They will call you unfaithful and disloyal to God and the nation because you did not take up arms. But your persecutors are wrong. Your refusal to participate in this violence demonstrates your loyalty to God and to Jesus Christ.
Above all else, hold out and hang on for the true fulfillment of the kingdom of God. The kingdom will come. In God's good time. And when it comes, those with eyes to see will surely see it. Those who are truly faithful will know it and enter into it.
Some scholars think Mark's Gospel was written just before Rome destroyed Jerusalem--that the author was anticipating Rome's destruction of the city and warning Christians not to rush to Jerusalem's defense. Other scholars think the gospel was written just after Rome destroyed Jerusalem--that the author already knew Rome had defeated the revolt and that the author was justifying the decision of those Christians who had refused to participate in Jerusalem's defense, Christians who were being blamed and persecuted for the city's destruction because they refused to participate in its defense.
In either case, this section of the gospel serves as a fascinating testament to the issue of hope and misplaced hope.
It is a testament to a people who tragically invested their hope in signs, events, and beliefs that in the end turned out to be tragically false. For those Jews who fervently placed all of their hope in God's final act of liberation their hope was dashed to pieces, turning instead into the dark and bitter reality of tremendous disaster. It is truly psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually devastating when one's deepest hopes and expectations are crushed. It is truly a tribute to the depth of their faith that the Jewish people were able to survive this disaster spiritually intact if not geographically intact, and to refashion their hopes and expectations in ways that enabled them to continue on, even to survive future disasters.
In contrast to the hope that God will liberate Jerusalem from Rome if Jews come rushing to the city's defense, Mark's Gospel articulates an alternative vision of hope--the second coming of Jesus Christ or the Son of Man at a time of God's choosing, a time that is coming soon. But this too is a hope that has never been fulfilled, at least not in the manner Mark describes it, with his apocalyptic imagery complete with clouds of glory and angels. Yet many Christians today continue to place all their hope in this story of the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end time. Is this too a misplaced hope? A false hope? I'll let you judge that one for yourself.
One thing this section of the gospel illustrates is that hope is a tricky thing.
It is all too easy for us to invest our hopes in signs and beliefs, in dreams and expectations, that don't work out. It is all too easy for us to believe in things that are not true and hope for things that will never happen. All too easy to set ourselves up to experience the great disappointment of having our hopes dashed and our expectations unfulfilled.
Hope is a tricky thing. It can lead us to a place of incredible distress and bitterness.
Does this mean we shouldn't have hope?
I don't think this is what it means.
But I do think it is good for us to reflect on the whole phenomenon of hope and the role hope plays in our lives. And I think it is good for us to reflect deeply, consciously, and honestly on what it is we are hoping for in our lives, on what informs our hope, what drives our hope, what motivates our hope.
To what extent are our deepest hopes based on self-centered desires and fantasies?
To what extent are our deepest hopes based on spiritual aspirations?
Hope is a tricky thing.
I'm finding that I'm hoping less and less in specific things and specific outcomes, and seeing hope instead as an openness to the future. An openness to God's spirit that meets me in every single moment. A responsiveness to God as the future breaks upon me with every breath I take, with every moment presenting a fresh possibility for a new direction, a liberating insight, a chance to act, an opportunity to change.
I'm finding that I actually close off my future, constrict my future, limit my future when I crowd it with too many of my own narrow expectations and desires, when I make too many demands on it, and when I try to control the outcome.
As Joe Strummer of The Clash said, "the future is not yet written." So why should I project all of my own desires, expectations, and fantasies upon it, thereby limiting it? Far better to be open and responsive to its open, unwritten immensity.
That's not to say I don't have any self-centered desires that motivate my plans, or that I don't have any spiritual aspirations that I long to fulfill. I do. It's just to say that I'm realizing more and more that hope is a tricky thing, and this advent season, I'll be spending more time consciously reflecting on the role of hope in my life.
And I hope you do the same.
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