The end of the world isn't just coming; it's here.

Mark 13:1-8, 24-37

We are obsessed with the end of the world. Obsessed. Keep Awake, says Jesus. Not a problem, say the many Americans in their bunkers, readying for the apocalypse. Hoarding their rations. Just in case. Didn’t we just read something against that last week? Giving away everything… how that’s God’s will for us? This is a perfect illustration of how you can use and misuse the Bible to justify just about whatever you want. One moment give it all away; the next store up, be ready for the end. If you’re obsessed with the end of the world that’s all you’re going to hear in today’s scripture, and no matter what it actually says about the end of the world you will probably imagine it how you already imagine it. There’s a reason that pastors who preach on this stuff every week make the big bucks: People eat this up! Start preaching on the end of the world and people will come in droves. Add in zombies and you’ll really hit it out of the park. That’s the key to revitalization for our denomination. The first Lutheran Church of Zombies.

Or maybe not.

Jesus says, “Watch” and “Stay Awake.” Instead, we obsess. When’s the world going to end? How’s it going to happen? When’s Jesus returning? I bet there are secret signs and symbols that, if we just decode them, will let us in on the secret. If we can just figure out the right code, then we’ll know exactly how it’s all going to go down. This, in short, is how to write a bestselling novel and how to become famous. Just make junk up about how signs and symbols connect and point to the end of the world. Do this and people will hand you their money. Never mind that in the same breath that Jesus tells us to “Keep awake!” he also explains that we will not know the time when he will come again.

We. Won’t. Know. Period.

But from there it gets stranger, because Jesus also gives another promise: He says that this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

OK, let’s stop and think about that one for a minute. The Gospel of Mark was written probably around 65 A.D. Jesus was crucified around 30 A.D. This generation he is talking to in the Gospel of Mark is already on its way out by the time Mark is written, so either the writer of the Gospel thinks the apocalypse is coming immediately (which is definitely a possibility, though if that’s the case we can testify two thousand years later that Jesus was apparently wrong) or something else is happening here.

Assuming Jesus isn’t wrong, which is the most likely considering he is the Son of God and all, we absolutely have to be misunderstanding what he means by the end of the world. But in order to understand that, let’s turn first for a moment to those signs that Jesus is talking about. In verses 7 and 8: “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” So, the signs of the end of the world are wars, and earthquakes and famine. Now, I was a history minor in undergrad so I know a little something about how people have lived for just about always, and I can tell you that wars and earthquakes and famine are pretty much universal throughout history. There have been wars and earthquakes and famine every day in the history of mankind—from the first moment where Cain killed Abel to right now. It’s what we are good at. Well, the earthquakes we can’t take credit for, but wars and inequitable distribution of resources? Yes, we-human-beings can take all the credit for that.

So, for those who look at the news and think, “Boy, the end of the world must be coming soon with all this terrible stuff happening on my TV!” all I can say is: Thank God CNN wasn’t around during the Holocaust, the Civil War, the French Revolution, the Reformation, the Bubonic Plague, and the over one thousand recorded genocides that have taken place in the world’s history because the world has often been a terrible-awful-no-good place. There is always suffering in the world, so that alone is not any sort of evidence of its impending destruction.

Jesus continues in verses 24-25, “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”

OK, this is different. This is a much more telling sign. I’m thinking if the stars start falling from the sky you have a pretty good indication that the end of the world is here. But this only accentuates the fact that this didn’t happen in Jesus’ lifetime, right? Was Jesus wrong? And, if Jesus was wrong, why would Mark, writing his account of Jesus’ life, have passed along this story at all? I mean, Mark didn’t have to include this story. He didn’t have to put that part about the end coming within this generation. But he chose to, nonetheless, which again should make us consider why.

In our rush to find the end of the world in the daily news we’ve missed a crucial point, a point that Jesus is making clearly before our eyes and yet we choose not to see it. His point is the same one he has made over and over again in the Gospel of Mark, yet, like the disciples, we sit around scratching our heads, imagining he is talking about the thing we want him to be talking about rather than the thing he actually cares about. We hear “the end of the world” and think four horsemen of the apocalypse, Jesus beating up the devil, and us ascending to heaven on fluffy clouds. Jesus says “end of the world” and, in this case, he is saying, quite clearly, that the apocalypse has already happened. This Greek word, apocalyptos, which is the same word we translate as “Revelation” is a word that means to peel away the layers of how things appear in order to reveal what lies beneath. The apocalypse reveals that this old world is not what we imagined. The apocalypse is not about destroying the world; it’s about tearing away sin and revealing the world that was created and called “good” before sin entered it.

So, then, the end of the world that Jesus is referring to was absolutely imminent—it was coming within their lifetime; it did come within their lifetime, because the end of the world is Jesus’ death on the cross: THE EXACT SAME THING JESUS IS POINTING TO EVERY SINGLE TIME ANYBODY WANTS TO SUGGEST SOMETHING ELSE IS MORE IMPORTANT! And if you think I’m just making this up remember back to every Good Friday service you’ve ever experienced and think of the story of Jesus’ death. The scene begins like this: “When it was noon, [complete] darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.”

Darkness. As if the sun and stars and moon fell from the sky…

Then, the end of the world. Jesus cries, then dies, the curtain of the temple is torn, and the world as it appeared to be was forever gone, because that sin that so covered everything was given a death blow. The end of the world is the revelation of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world, who reveals the world for what it truly is. The end of the world has already happened.

Now, it’s going to end-end someday. The work will be completed. But “stay awake” doesn’t mean obsess over the moment when you will be rewarded for being a good Christian. It means stay awake because your every moment is a gift and a promise that God is coming for you to bring you home; you have responsibility to live a life worthy of that promise. Stay awake by taking care of the poor and the needy. Stay awake by loving your enemy. Stay awake by sharing the faith that is in you. Stay awake by being the church to a world that doesn’t care much for the church anymore. Stay awake not by removing yourself from this life or treating the earth as if it is something to dispose of on our way to the heavenly plane, but instead stay awake by dedicating yourself to the care and redemption of all that God has made, trusting that there is where you will find a deeper revelation that the world is good, covered by sin still, but that sin is defeated; that sin is just clinging on for dear life. Stay awake! Because the end is coming. It’s coming on Good Friday. It’s coming again. The end of the world is closer than we think; in fact it’s already here. So stop waiting, start living. Plant a tree. Feed the poor. Stay awake, because this is the only “now” that you have; that you will ever have. And Jesus wants you to know how important that is. The end is near. In fact it’s here right now. How will that change you?