DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Luke 21:5-7, 10-11, 20-24 (1/16) For Wed. of the 34th
Wk after Pentecost (Wed 29th Wk)
The
Destiny of Jerusalem:
St. Luke 21:5-7,10-11,20-24, especially vss. 23, 24: “For there will be
great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the
sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until
the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” During the days immediately
before our Lord’s arrest, He was invited to admire the magnificence of
the great temple of the Jews in Jerusalem
- the third and greatest of the national shrines erected for worship under the
Old Covenant.
Significantly,
the Lord directed His remarks to events that would impact the Church after His
Passion and Resurrection. He
graphically prophesied how both the great building and the capital city would
be razed in war. Later, Church
Fathers such as St. Cyril of Alexandria linked these warnings to ancient
Israel’s rejection of the Lord as Messiah and to the complicity of the
Jewish leadership in His death: “For He forewarned them that however
worthy the temple might be accounted by them of all admiration, yet at its
season it would be destroyed from its foundations being thrown down by the
power of the Romans, and all Jerusalem burnt with fire, and retribution exacted
of Israel for the slaughter of the Lord.
For...such were the things which it was their lot to suffer.”
The
years between AD 33 and the fall of Jerusalem
in AD 70 were marked by the very signs that the Lord describes in today’s
reading. There were national
uprisings and battles between kingdoms within the greater Roman
Empire (cf. Lk. 21:10). There were earthquakes, famines and
outbreaks of plagues (cf. vs. 11).
Eventually, Jerusalem was put to siege by
the crack legions of Rome
under Vespasian. Finally, it was
conquered by his son Titus. Both of
these generals served Rome
not only as military leaders but eventually also as Emperors (cf. vs. 20).
Ironically,
when Titus and his legions approached Jerusalem,
many Jewish pilgrims ignored him and went into the city for the Passover
celebration. They were confident
that the Holy City was invincible under the hand of
God. From an Orthodox Christian
perspective, and as history proved, these pilgrims were foolhardy. The Lord Jesus had warned that it was
time to flee when the armies came, for “Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles...”(vss. 20-24). Anyone with a measure of historical
knowledge cannot help but read the Lord’s comment in vs. 22 soberly. “For these are the days of
vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”
Finally,
let us sketch the history of the years from the time of the Lord to the fall of
Jerusalem under
Titus. In 4 BC, the murderous Herod
the Great died. By the decision of
Caesar Augustus, Herod’s three surviving sons were appointed to rule over
portions of Herod’s kingdom. Archelaus (Mt. 2:22), to whom Jerusalem
and Judea were assigned, proved so inept that
he was removed by the Romans in AD 6.
Then a series of Roman Procurators assumed control, one of whom was
Pontius Pilate. In AD 41, with a new
Emperor in Rome, the grandson of Herod the Great, Agrippa I, briefly assumed
rule over Judea and Jerusalem but died horribly in AD 44 (see Acts 12:23). Agrippa’s reign, however, stirred
up Jewish nationalism, which was further inflamed by a series of political
blunders by the Roman Procurators.
Finally, in AD 66, the Procurator Florus raided
the Temple
treasury, and full-scale rebellion broke out. The revolt ended in AD 70 with the Temple’s utter destruction and slavery for Jerusalem’s
survivors.
We
Christians, the new Israel, have lived through two millennia and might well
wonder whether “the days of vengeance” are completed for Jerusalem,
living in an epoch when the city again is in hands of a Jewish government, and
again is torn by civil, religious, and ethnic unrest, and again has massive
international armies hovering nearby.
What will be the next chapter?
Salvation
is of the Lord, and Thy blessing is upon Thy people. (Ps. 3:8
LXX)
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