Luke chapter 21

vs 21

I'm given to thinking that this passage is of little relevance to us today, except as a historical witness to the prophetic powers of Jesus.

vs 22

Now here's a novel verse. I wonder what "written" exactly Jesus is speaking about here. I'm not aware of any prophecies requiring the levelling of Jerusalem post-exile. Perhaps the ones pre-exile were only partially fulfilled. Perhaps, on the coming of Christ, the temple had to be well and truly forever smashed, just to show that it doesn't work anymore.

vs 23

I don't think Jesus is calling down a specific curse on pregnant women and nursing mothers. It's not like he's got something particularly against them. What he's saying is that in such times of cursing, these people will be most vulnerable. All of 'this people' are going to be suffering the wrath, though.

vs 24

It really sounds like a second exile, doesn't it? So which one is he talking about, I wonder? I mean, after the destruction of the temple, I think there was a bit of a diaspora. My jewish history is a little shaky, but I think the Jews started spreading out more after that. Certainly they would have when Jerusalem fell to the Muslims. But that's another few hundred years away.

vs 25

Who's going to read these signs in the sun, moon and stars? Not Christians, I reckon - we don't like fortune tellers and horoscopes. I think it would be funny if the weekly horoscope girl in the Women's Weekly found out about the end times before Christians did. The roaring and tossing of the sea is meaningless to us, but to an ancient worldview, the sea is a nasty, brutish, chaotic thing. It is quite often used to portray chaos and destruction. That's why God is portrayed as conquering sea monsters like Leviathan and Rahab. Probably why there is 'no longer any sea' in Revelation when the new Jerusalem comes.

Just goes to show how much of a gap there is between us and the ancients sometimes.

vs 26

And what, exactly, will that do? Will the sun and moon shake in the sky? Or will bits fall off them and fall to earth as a result? Will it just be an earthquake so big that the sky will seem to shake?

vs 27

Who cares about the last verse - if the sun starts shaking, then you know Jesus is coming back. I'll try my best not to faint from terror then.

vs 28

Aye aye.

I say Yes Sir, but what things exactly is he talking about? Is he only talking about the signs of the sun, moon and stars? the NIV puts a paragraph division at the start of that, which sort of suggests it. Or is he going back to the armies surrounding Jerusalem? Surely not as far as the persecution. That's been going on for millenia.

If we do break it up to only the sun and stars and moons, that seems to make some sense. Because you've got 4 sections then: the "war and stuff but that's not a sign" bit, the "Christians get persecuted" bit, the "Jerusalem gets owned" bit (otherwise known as the "times of the Gentiles" bit), and then the "heavens shake and Jesus appears" bit.

vs 29

All the trees in the world? Or just the local fig tree and its surrounding trees? Or is this a metaphor?

vs 30

Must be a metaphor, unless it also happens that summer is coming near at this time. We could probably work out what time of year it is... a week before crucifixion is unlikely to be summer coming, methinks. Unless you can tell that summer is coming in a few months.