Was Jesus wrong about the end of the world?

November 17, 2024

Today’s first reading and the Gospel reading takes up a theme that has fascinated human beings from all time - i.e. the theme of the end of the world. We have predictions about the end of the world from all kinds of civilisations from ages ago,  and even today there are many interpreting the words of Nostradamus and other more recent voices to try and decipher when the world will end.

It would seem to me that from the beginning of our existence as Homo Sapiens, we have always found the world, the universe, as something that is so unpredictable, so chaotic, so unjust, and so on, that we are desperate to believe that everything will someday be put right.  This was certainly the experience of the early Church, which could not explain why a God-sent person like Jesus could be crucified, why his followers could be hounded, persecuted and tortured, and who saw a world in which, what they perceived as ‘evil’, was repeatedly winning.  A professor of theology , DiTommaso, suggests that this fascination with the apocalypse (i.e. the complete final destruction of the world) springs from a desire to reconcile two conflicting beliefs.  According to him, "the first is that there is something dreadfully wrong with the world of human existence today," and secondly, the strong belief that ‘there is a higher good or some purpose for existence, a hope for a better future."  And so according to him, viewing the world as a flawed place, headed toward some sort of cosmic correction reconciles these two beliefs. And so, for those who believe in some religion, God is going to solve them, while for others it is a time where there will be some cataclysmic event. Also, we, as human beings, tend to believe that the worst things are happening in our own times, and so our own age will usher in the end times.

We find an example of one such apocalyptic statement in today’s Gospel, which begins with Jesus  prophesying that “ the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken,” and then ends with: “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”. So whether Jesus actually made this prophecy or not, it is clear that the New Testament church believed that the apocalyptic last day was going to happen in the lifetime of some of them. However, a cursory overview of the various statements of Jesus about this imminent end of the world would point out two different parts of his prophecies. One is about an imminent invasion and destruction of Jerusalem, where a desolating sacrilegious statue of some form would come up in the very place of the sacred Jewish temple. This could be said to have been proven true when in AD 70 the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem temple.  

The second part of such an apocalyptic prophecy - which is also found in other writings in the New Testament - is a general prophecy about the end of the world. However the second one created a lot of angst for the early Church, - because they were clearly expecting it to happen in the lifetime of some of those living during the times when the New Testament was written, but in actual fact the apocalypse did not come about.  And so within the New Testament writings itself, we gradually see a change in the expectation.  Consequently, in the second letter of Peter, we have these words: “A day with God is a thousand years, and a thousand years is a day." (2 Peter 3:8-9).  So was the early Church trying to adjust its expectations, by suggesting that maybe their  understanding of time was wrong, because they too probably could not understand how such a prophesy could go wrong.  Again, in the later letters of Paul, which were probably written by others among his disciples, particularly in the letters to Timothy and Titus, we do not notice any such ‘waiting for the end’ kind of language. In fact the writer, who was long believed to have been Paul himself,  starts talking about his  own death and says: "And in that day, whenever that might be, I will come before Jesus to be judged." So he is no more sure about when this is going to be.  Furthermore, Paul, or whoever is writing in Paul’s name, is no more telling people not to get married, or that slaves should not try to change their slave status, etc because the ‘time is short’ and “this world in its present form is passing away”.(1 Corinthians 7:29-31). Rather in these letters it would seem he is more interested in talking about how the Church should function, as it would seem that since the world was not ending, the Church needed to be prepared for a longer journey, and so systems (institutionalisation) needed to be set up.

So the early Church faced the same ‘crisis’ that many Christians experience today, which could be expressed as follows: Was Jesus wrong in his prediction, and if he was indeed wrong, how can we say he was the one sent by God?

And there are two possible responses by believers to this. One is to bend backwards and tie oneself up in knots to try and ‘re-interpret’ Jesus’ prophecy found in today’s Gospel to ensure that Jesus could not be wrong.  In other words, in this scenario ‘believers’ of any such apocalypse prophesying leader convince themselves that it is their own inability to properly interpret the religious text that is the problem, and not the truth of the prophecy itself.

The second option for believers is to begin to appreciate that the Bible is not to be understood as the word of God dictated to human beings, but the word of human beings, inspired by the spirit of God, the word of human beings interpreting their own experience of God. Of course there were many such interpretations in  multiple Gospels, letters, and other writings (e.g. there were around 50 Gospels),  but the early Church community zeroed in on the few texts that form our New Testament as being ‘authentic’ expressions of the experience of God that was shared with us through Jesus. And since this final selection of the texts was only done in the fourth century, they obviously knew that these  apocalyptic  prophecies had NOT come true, and we can assume that they too, were intelligent enough to see other contradications and differences even in the four Gospels they finally selected. Yet, despite these glaring contradications and false prophecies, these writings were eventually chosen to be considered part of the inspired word of God. How could they do that, knowing that there were mistakes and confusions in the writings?  Could it be because they were clear, as perhaps we are not, that it was the message behind these teachings, and not their historical or prophetical accuracy that made them inspired texts, and therefore these complex texts were yet to be accepted as the word of God to us.

And if that is what the early Church itself did, why do we find it so difficult to do the same today?  Why do we want to insist that there could be no mistakes and contradictions in the Bible or the New Testament, when the people who lived much closer to the time of Jesus did not so insist. What are the insecurities within us that prevent us from accepting even what the Christians in the first few centuries  had no difficulty accepting?  

First Reading: Daniel 12:1-3

 

“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

 

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:11-14, 18

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

 

Gospel Reading for November 17 2024 – Mark 13:24-32

 

Jesus said to his disciples: “But in those days, following that distress, “ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.