The King's Coming!

Jesus laments over Jerusalem. He desired to protect His people under His wings, yet they were unwilling (23:37). And because of their unwillingness to cling to their Messiah by faith, Jesus departed from the temple one last time (24:1). “God-with-us” leaves His people, but not without offering hope of His return (23:39). Before His return, however, there remains much trouble, which includes the destruction of the temple, the center of all their religious activities. 

His disciples struggle to make sense of what’s happening, so they come to Jesus in private and ask, “Tell us, when will these things happen?” (24:3), a question which gives rise to Christ's fifth and final discourse (teaching unit). It is famously called “The Olivet Discourse” because Jesus spoke these words as “He was sitting on the Mount of Olives” (24:3). Concerning these chapters, J. C. Ryle once wrote, “All portions of Scripture like this ought to be approached with deep humility and earnest prayer for the teaching of the Spirit.”¹ Deep humility and earnest prayer must be our attitude regardless of the text at hand, yet some passages, Matthew 24 in particular, require extra caution and care. It is perhaps the most difficult passage in Matthew’s entire record.

It is difficult for two reasons. First, in answering His disciples’ questions about the destruction of the temple, His coming, and the end of the age (24:3), Jesus makes few clear chronological distinctions. He appears to be speaking of events that will take place in the immediate future as well as those we are to expect at the very end without clearly distinguishing between the two. Second, the difficulty of this passage is highlighted by the different interpretations among Christians, some of which contradict the others.

Some, called preterists, conclude that all the predictions in Matthew 24 happened from the time of Christ’s resurrection and ascension to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Nothing in these verses teaches about the last days of history or the return of Christ. Others, called futurists, take a nearly opposite approach and conclude that the whole of Matthew 24-25 speaks of the future tribulation at the end of the age, right before the physical return of Christ. 

I believe we will avoid a lot of difficulties if we keep a broad view of what Jesus is talking about in these two chapters. It seems that the best way to understand Christ’s words is to view this discourse as describing both the events before and after the temple's destruction and the last days before Christ’s coming. Sometimes, it seems as if Jesus is speaking of those two events as if they were one event in time. Theologians have sometimes referred to this concept in biblical prophecy as "prophetic foreshortening.”² 

The analogy of a mountain range is often used to explain this concept. If we stood on a mountaintop staring across to another mountaintop, it might appear that the peaks are close to each other when they are miles apart. So, in Matthew 24, Jesus spoke of two mountaintops (AD 70 and the Second Coming) as if they were close together when they were thousands of years apart.

As we study these two chapters of the next couple of months, my hope is not to add to the confusion but to walk through what Jesus said and consider the application to the original readers and us, as well as the immediate impact it should have on our lives as we await for the King’s coming. What is that immediate impact? Jesus wanted to encourage His disciples in faith so that they would endure to the end (24:13). Remain faithful! Be Ready! He is coming! (24:44).

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¹ J. C. Ryle, Matthew: Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Crossway Classic Commentaries (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1993), p. 225.
² Anthony A. Hoekema, The Bible and The Future (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979), p. 148-9.