I asked if we could have the reading from Daniel for our first reading this evening instead of the more usual epistle reading, so I’d like to start by saying a few words about the Old and New Testaments in general, before turning to the two particularly difficult readings we have just heard.
The New Testament is, of course, of great importance to us as Christians, as that is where we read of Jesus and all he said and did. It is the New Testament that presents us all with that great question “Is it really true that Jesus rose again to new life after being dead and buried?” It’s a question about which we all have to make up our own minds, and live accordingly.
But the Old Testament is important, too. For one thing, it’s full of great stories of the sinning saints of the past, not to mention others who seem to have been wicked through and through.
But another thing is that, obviously, the Old Testament is all that Jesus had. It’s a strange thought that he didn’t have the New Testament: actually he is the New Testament. But it’s the Old Testament that he was brought up on, as a boy. That’s where the stories and the rules and the prophecies that he listened to, and learned, and loved, all came from. When he read in the synagogue, it was always from the Old Testament. And they were the scriptures that his disciples and his crowd of hearers would be familiar with. He could quote them and refer to them knowing that they would know what he was referring to. So, if you like, we can get closer to Jesus by reading from the Old Testament ourselves.
The Bible is really the whole story of God’s dealings with the people he created. So a third point is that, however important the New Testament is to us now, the Bible simply wouldn’t be complete without the Old Testament. It gives us the first part of the story, from the very beginning, up to the time before the birth of Jesus. And as we all know, a lot of what Jesus said and did was foretold in the Old Testament. Matthew is specially good at showing us these links. In a fascinating book called “Jesus as they saw him”, I discovered how, for example, all the things Jesus called himself would have meant a great deal to the Jews, because of their very strong connections with their past, as documented in the Old Testament.
Now we talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament, and we know what they are. But do we know what we mean by calling them ‘testaments’? In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read, “In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died.” A footnote tells us that the Greek word for a will also means a covenant. “Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.” Now, you know that a testament, as we use the word, is another word for a will. We talk of somebody’s last will and testament. So these three ideas – testament, will and covenant – are all really telling us the same thing. In each case, we are dealing with a record of what God has promised, as in a will, and made us inheritors of, by virtue of a death.
Now let’s turn our attention to the two readings we have heard today, one from Daniel, one from Mark; one from the Old Testament, one from the New. There is the closest possible link between these two readings. In one, Daniel is telling us of his vision of the end times, and in the other Mark is telling us what Jesus had to say on exactly the same topic. In Matthew’s account of this conversation, we even read that Jesus referred to Daniel by name in connection with what he was saying.
Daniel is one of the strangest books in the whole Bible. It’s actually more like two books. The first six chapters tell the adventures of a young man named Daniel, including such well-known episodes as the Burning Fiery Furnace, the Writing on the Wall, and the Den of Lions. The other six chapters are what’s known as apocalyptic writing. Daniel is usually described as a prophet, but he’s not really. He’s not like the other prophets, who basically tell the people how they should behave, and describe what will happen if they do, and what will happen if they don’t. Their purpose is to change behaviour. That’s not how it is with Daniel, nor with the other great apocalyptic book in the Bible, Revelation. The future Daniel describes is portrayed not as a possibility, but as a future certainty. Behaviour is no longer important. We are past that stage. We are in the realm of spiritual powers, not earthly ones. We are in the time of judgement. “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens.” And others will suffer everlasting shame.
It is scary stuff – so much so that we don’t usually think about it. For the disciples, the subject came up because they were admiring the magnificence of the temple. Jesus knew, and told them, that the temple, that great symbol of God’s favour towards his people, would be totally destroyed. This must have scared the disciples. They must have pinned their hope on the temple, and its destruction suggested the end of everything. They would have known that Daniel’s troubling visions of the time of the end are coupled precisely with the ruin and desecration of the temple.
And what they wanted to know was ‘When?’ And furthermore, if the end of the temple was the end of everything, they wanted to know what was going to happen just before it, so that they wouldn’t be taken by surprise.
But why should we be interested in any of this? Why should we bother our heads with the end of time? Aren’t our day-to-day lives difficult enough and the world in enough turmoil, without getting worried about that too? But the problem is: What if these disasters and dislocations are actually a precursor of the end? I think Jesus recognises that in the way he answers the disciples’ question. You see, he specifically says that the things he describes are not the sign of the end. He says people will be deceived in their faith (they are, aren’t they?), and there will be wars, earthquakes and famines (there are, aren’t there?) And of course, some people have responded by the equivalent of putting on sandwich boards and walking around with the words: THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH in big letters. It’s just what Jesus told us not to do.
He understands that it is natural for us, when we are aware of destructive events that are too large for us to control or handle to get panicky and imagine that the whole world is going to come to an end. How true that can seem nowadays! We have nuclear arsenals that really can cause mass destruction, chemical and biological weapons, not to mention pollution, global warming, genetic engineering and nanotechnology. And of course we have the fear and devastation caused by those who are deceived in their faith. The panic surrounds us all the time And we feel it, don’t we?
But Jesus says, ‘Don’t!’ “Do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” His message to us is not “Don’t take any notice,” but “Don’t be alarmed.” We are, of course, right to be concerned; we are stewards of the world God has given us, and these things affect us. But we are not to assume that it is a sign of the end of time. It isn’t. Jesus is quite definite. “No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
But it’s still not a very cheerful message. Things are going to go on being unbelievably awful, but don’t despair! Well, thanks! How much comfort can we take from that, then? Is this the good news of the Gospel: Life is a four-letter word, but just hang on in there and you’ll be OK?
Well, here are three points we can hang on to. Number 1: Jesus recognises our situation. It was a desperately awful time for him too. He gave us ideals, certainly, but he never lost touch with reality. God has proved to us in Christ that he understands and cares. That’s comfort.
Number 2: Whatever the end of the universe will be, and whenever it will be, it is in the sole charge of God the Father. Whatever we do, the end of all things will not be our doing. He gives us responsibility and power to affect the lives of those around us, for good or ill, but bringing the universe to a close – thankfully that’s still beyond us! The Father created all things, us included, and he will call all things back to him in his own good time, us included. That’s comfort.
Number 3: The story doesn’t end here. Later, Jesus says, quoting Daniel, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Well, that sounds good, but saved from what, and saved for what? This is the moment to turn our attention to the most extraordinary words that we’ve heard in our readings today. After describing all the disasters, Jesus says, “These are the beginnings of birth-pains.” Now, Jesus always chooses his word-pictures with care, but this, surely, is one of the deepest. We can certainly accept that the world is ‘in pain’. But ‘birth-pains’ is more specific and more suggestive. Paul takes up the idea when he says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
The idea that the world’s problems are like the pains of childbirth is truly remarkable, and I invite you to dwell on this metaphor for a bit. What it speaks of is a process of change; that we are in process of transformation from one state of being into another state of being. Now, you may decide for yourself whether you find it helpful to think back to the Garden of Eden and beyond, to consider the conception of this ‘child’ whose coming to birth is so uncomfortable. But the ‘childbirth’ idea helps us to understand that we, and the whole of creation with us, are, in a way, foetal, not yet fully formed. Every part has to develop from nothing to the point where we will be mature and ready to emerge into a new experience of life. The result of labour is something unimaginably wonderful, joyful and bursting with life. What that life will be like we cannot know. That is something that an unborn child can never know. We can only believe, with Paul, “that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” So that helps, too!
But where does Daniel figure in this? Is he just ‘Old Testament’: interesting, but not specially relevant? Not at all! The fact of the matter is, that in these strange words that we have heard, we have the very first suggestion in the entire Bible, of a personal resurrection. His vision is that, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake… Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens… for ever and ever.” It is a vision of that new life that Jesus hints at when he speaks of birth-pains.
Now some people believe this; and some people don’t. As I said earlier, that is the challenge that the New Testament faces us with. Do we accept that, after being dead and buried, the Son of Man rose again to new and glorious life? Because that is the inheritance that is our Father’s will for all of us.
Tell you what, though: if we are going to live for ever, we’d better be nice to a few people now, or it’s going to be awful later on!