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CHAPTER XIII Jerusalem Destroyed
He had dreamed that he was walking along a road.
He had felt intense pressure to find those he expects to meet and give them needed information. He seemed to travel just above the surface of the earth faster than a man could run but not so fast that it didn't take longer than he had anticipated or that he wished. He saw the road stretch miles away before him, and he couldn't find the place he was looking for. Someone came along in a chariot drawn by haggard horses, stopped, and with a kindly, inquisitive face, offered to help him. "Can I help you, sir? Can I help . . ?"
He awoke. It was still dark, but the dim night lights of the city vaguely illuminated the drab, nondescript walls of the inn. He thought briefly of the dream before dismissing it. Yet he could not dismiss it. It seemed to float around the periphery of this thoughts screaming at him, demanding he pay attention, demanding interpretation. He felt himself the weary and frustrated traveler, on the one hand, and, on the other, the offerer of helpful assistance. He wondered which he really was. Perhaps both. He had felt the lostness of the one and the knowledge to guide of the other. "I am both!" he thought to himself. I know how it feels to be lost and frustrated in purpose and at the same time to have an answer to give.
We had arrived the previous night late. The innkeeper, ready to retire, paid little attention to anything except to what we would pay for a night's lodging. The sounds of the city lulled us to sleep. The dream had awakened Jesus early. There was a basin in the room partially filled with water. He splashed the stale liquid on his face in an attempt to wash the dream from his brain. He moved among sleeping forms and awakened Peter, James, John and Andrew. Together they left the inn and made their way to the hillsides. Finding a rock upon which to sit, Jesus waited under the olive tree lowering overhead. The place was rife with olive trees. He knew what was coming. The men would want to know why he had roused them. They would want to know his thoughts. And, no doubt, they would want to know why he had selected only the four of them. Why not everyone? Was there anything special about the four he had selected? They wondered. He knew that they were wondering. It was not unlike that moment several years ago on the mountain a hundred miles to the north where Jesus was transfigured when only these few were with him. Had it not been for Peter, this incident and the content of what was said would have been lost.
"Tell us," asked Andrew, his mind still troubled by the previous day's comment about the Temple. "When will all of this happen? When will the Temple be destroyed?"
The question must be taken at face value. There was no ulterior background from which it emerged. The most ringing thing Jesus had said the previous evening was that the Temple would be destroyed; "not one stone left upon the other," I believe he said. Quite a feat given that many of the stones were larger than the largest chariot. "I awoke this morning in a dream," Jesus responded. "I have sent you into the world to share the truth I have given you from the Father, yet there will be pain, frustration and persecution in the doing of it. I confess, the road for these past years has been weary and our earthly vessels have been already sorely tried. Now I must speak to you from a weary chariot, and you must listen carefully. Take care of yourselves and beware of men. You have walked with me. You have walked along this lonely road with me every day for the time we have been together. The time has gone rapidly, yet it seems we have been slogging through mud. In this time, we have learned to love and trust each other, depend upon each other. "But now I must speak to you. I must appeal to you. Let me help you to understand." The dream began to unfold. "I have asked you . . . no, I have commanded you not to have authority over each other but rather to be servants to each other. But I know you have not heard. I know you have not understood. You will instead become progenitors of a great religion, a highly stylized religion of men controlling men. This I never intended. But this thing that you create will turn and devour you. It will leave in wreckage countless numbers of my followers. It will take upon itself a life of its own. Yet, within it, my people will live and will prosper in their knowledge of me insofar as an oppressive, institutional structure will allow them. In the course of this time you will be delivered to these institutions, these churches with their councils--indeed you will be delivered even to prison. "A moment, Lord," interrupted Andrew. "My question concerned the destruction of the Temple about which you spoke last night. Of what do you speak now? I know of no plans to start a great religion." "No. Of course you don't." Jesus paused, pensively, taking a small olive twig between his fingers and placing the end of it in his mouth.
"All right, I will speak more of this in a moment. Shortly after I am gone, you will be treated badly by the Romans. You will be scourged in synagogues and dragged before governors and kings. The Jewish nation will be persecuted, and many will be put to death and hated by the gentiles. "When you see Jerusalem encircled by armies, then know that her desolation draws near. When you see 'the abomination of desolation,' spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, when you see the Temple desecrated and destroyed by Roman forces, then it is time to flee to the mountains. Waste no time, for death, destruction and slaughter will come. I have spoken of this to you before. Do not minimize the importance of my words. "If a man is working on his roof then he should not delay to go down and take anything out of his house. No one working in the field should go back to pack his clothes. For these are days of Roman rage, that all things that Daniel said may be fulfilled. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! People will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive by the Romans. Vultures and beasts will gather to feed on the carcasses. There will be much to keep them busy. "The city of God will be destroyed. Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Romans until they are sated, until their time has been fulfilled. But when all is said and done, Israel will remain as a testimony before the nations. My Body will henceforth succor this people and nourish them. My Body will keep the Jewish nation alive and sustain it until I come. Israel shall come to rely on my Body and shall one day become a part of it." These incredible words! The four of them didn't know whether to feel joy or rage. Jerusalem destroyed? The abomination of desolation? What was that and just how would it come? Clearly, Jesus was describing some future event, not something in past Jewish history. I had thought that the abomination of desolation had come during the rape of our nation by Antiochus Epiphanes. I had perceived him as that abomination, but Jesus spoke of something yet to come. Was there to be yet another such abomination? And what was the "Body" of which he spoke, and how could it be so powerful as to sustain the entire nation of Israel? Could there be such a power that exceeded even the greatness of Rome? The walk back to the inn was quiet. These were terrible, incomprehensible things to ponder.
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