So I was driving home one day, westbound on Belmont Avenue, when I pulled up next to one of those plastic wrapped busses that are giant, moving, advertisements from stem to stern. Usually I pay little or no attention, but this one caught my eye because written in bold letters on the side were the words: “Judgement Day is here.”
“Yipes!” I thought to myself. “I wish somebody had told me I would have warned my people.”
Pulling back my gaze just a bit I saw a very stern looking woman staring down from window level on the side of the bus. She didn’t look at all happy. Clearly judgement day was coming, and all was not going to go well for any who were subject to her glowering scowl.
I recognized that face. It was no other than, Judith Susan Sheindlin, better known to most of us as Judge Judy who for twenty-five years mediated disputes big and small between parties who were willing to have their courtroom arguments heard in public. For her efforts her program was consistently rated among the top programs on daytime television and also made her an incredibly wealthy woman.
Not unbelievably, in 2013 “ABC's ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ took to the streets of Los Angeles ... to ask people what they thought of President Obama nominating Judge Judy to the Supreme Court. Of course, Obama did no such thing”1 but that didn’t stop many who were interviewed from voicing their support. At this point in time, it wouldn’t surprise me that a majority of the even more gullible American people believe she is on the supreme court.
She is not, but she does apparently have a new show “Judy Justice.” Same format, same kinds of cases, but for some reason she has exchanged her black judicial robe for a more telegenic red one.
The ad on the bus clearly referred to the new show’s premier when, obviously, judgement day would come. The disciples couldn’t see it but for Jesus the signs of the judgement for the people were written in the handwriting on the walls of the temple in Jerusalem.
For the disciples the temple was the biggest, boldest, and most unshakable symbol of the presence of the Holy One they could imagine but it was also the largest public works project of its day.
It was built by King Herod who, Scripture and history tell us, was a despicable human being. He was a misogynist, a slanderer, and a destroyer of any enemy, real or perceived, that seemed to get in his way. He was a leader without any moral compass. And, to make matters worse, because he surrounded himself with toadies who dared not say no to him his power was mostly unchecked.
The two things he had going for him was that he was a dealmaker and a builder.
So, the first thing he does is strike a deal with the religious leaders. It was transactional. I’ll build you a centre for worship and you leave me alone to do whatever I please. They would be free to practice whatever religion they wanted; in whatever way they wanted so long as they didn’t question Herod and his authority. He would build them a temple if they would give him peace.
And build them a temple he did. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was “twice as large as the Roman Forum and four times as large as the Athenian Acropolis with its Parthenon.” The Roman Historian Josephus reported that “Herod used so much gold to cover the outside walls of the temple that, in the bright sunlight, it nearly blinded anyone who looked at it.”2
While the religious leaders saw the temple as the centre of their worship life Herod saw it as his way to make money and, in so doing, solidify his power. He was a first century huckster. “Let’s see if we can increase tourism just a little bit and give all those people coming to Jerusalem on pilgrimages something to see.” he might have said. But, make no mistake about it, it was clear that this was Herod’s temple, the only thing he didn’t do was place his name on the front of the building in 20-foot-high letters.
That is what Jesus’ disciples were looking at on that fine day, and without a doubt, the temple, Herod’s temple, was one of the most spectacular things they had ever seen. But Jesus throws water on his friends’ slack-jawed amazement by announcing. “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”3
You can imagine the disciples looking at him with puzzled looks on their faces. Maybe he had to repeat himself: “There’s not a stone in the whole works that is not going to end up in a heap of rubble.”4
When they catch their breath enough to respond all they can do is ask, in effect, “Where? When? How?”
And all Jesus does is give them a warning for their day and for all time.
So, Jesus began to tell them: “Be very careful that no one deceives you. Many are going to come in my name and say, ‘I am he’, and will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, don’t be alarmed. such things are bound to happen, but the end is not yet. Nation will take up arms against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in different places and terrible famines. But this is only the beginning”
And then he goes on to tell them one verse later in The Good Book: “You yourselves must keep your wits about you...”5
That may be the hardest, most difficult ask of all by Jesus.
When the world seems to be falling apart and the wrongs seem often strong we are not to follow after any charlatan, religious or political, who sees themselves or are seen by their followers as “the annointed one” who can solve any problem and make their people’s lives great again. Do not follow after anyone who promises that “anything broken they can fix.”
History is full of such “leaders” who have failed their flocks mightily in the words of the old commercial “promising them anything but giving them Arpege.” And history is also full of fallen followers who “drank the Kool-Aid” and paid the price.
Jesus is only saying to us: “Be careful. Be very careful who in this life you choose to follow because you just may discover that your hero is really a Herod in disguise.
It dosn’t take a warning on the side of a city bus to bring us up short and remind us that the world just may be bringing about judgement on itself.
Jesus was not a soothsayer. He wasn’t about the business of predicting the future but he could read the signs of the times, and he knew that Herod’s of his day and ours don’t last. Judgement day will come for them.
Just as the temple – built by Herod – would be destroyed less than a biblical generation after his disciples were caught up in admiration of its magnificent stones so too the proud emperors and empires of earth will pass away.
We know that the only thing left of the temple after the revolt against Rome in 70A.D. is the Western Wall, the “wailing wall” still there but still fought over to this day.
So, it shouldn’t take a warning on the side of a city bus to remind us that some have chosen to follow the lesser gods of politics – power and prestige – will find out that those gods won’t last.
In this troubling context, it’s easy to despair. Or to grow numb. Or to let exhaustion win. But it’s precisely now, now when the world around us feels like it may be coming to an end, that we have to respond by tethering ourselves more closely to Jesus and following his ways.
It’s precisely now, when systemic evil and age-old brokenness threatens to bring us to ruin that we have to “hold each other tight” and allow the walls that separate us one from another to fall and to reveal what is really happening. What’s happening, Jesus promises at the end of this week’s Gospel reading, is not death, but a new beginning.
A new beginning that will come, as the hymn writer reminds us, “not through swords loud clashing, nor roll of stirring drums, but in deeds of love and mercy.” That’s how Christ’s kingdom, a reign and rule that has lasted through the ages, will come.
May that day of new beginnings and restoration come and come soon.
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1. Sean Sullivan, “Jimmy Kimmel Asks: Judge Judy for the Supreme Court? (Video) - The Washington Post, thewashingtonpost.com, May 17, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/05/17/jimmy-kimmel-asks-judge-judy-for-the-supreme-court-video/.
2. Debie Thomas, “Not One Stone,” Journey with Jesus, November 11, 2018, https://journeywithjesus.net/essays/2010-not-one-stone.
3. St. Mark 13:2. (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]
4. St. Mark 13:2. (MESSAGE) [Message=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2004)]
5. St. Mark 13:5-11. (PHILLIPS) [J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English (London, ENG: HarperCollins, 2000).
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