Hated (part 1)

You will be hated by everyone because of My name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. – Mark 13:13 (NET)

Jesus---the healer, the wondrous miracle worker, the good and wise man, the social revolutionary---tells His disciples that they will be hated by everyone because of His name. He says this in the midst of answering a question posed by Peter, James, John, and Andrew (13:3). Prior to the question and the answer, one of His disciples had spoken of the Temple, making reference to its size and grandeur. This occurs after Jesus has observed the significant offerings that were being made for the Temple, which would be used for its ongoing upkeep, adornment, and expansion. The amount of money that filtered through the Temple was substantial, with large offerings able to do wonderful things for the Temple that visibly represented Israel’s hopes, its dreams, and its God. Nevertheless, Jesus focuses in on one particular woman, a poor widow, who “came and put in two small copper coins” (12:42b). He said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others. For they all gave out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had” (12:43b-44).

We rightly view the recognition of such sacrificial giving as a badge of honor and praise from Jesus. It appears that Jesus is singling this woman out and holding her up for praise due to her gift. At least one of the disciples hears these words from Jesus as praise for the woman, as He honors her gift above the others, when he says, “Look at these tremendous stones and buildings” (13:1b), as if to say, “So much money has been given to erect and to maintain this Temple. Some of those gifts have been quite large, and in addition, all of the people participate in this construction and maintenance program by their gifts. This Temple would not be what it is today if all gave only what this widow gave, and yet you, Jesus, say that she gave more.” Jesus’ response to His disciple allows us to consider that His recognition of the widow’s gift was also something of a lament, as this woman has given all that she has to live on, and is now going to suffer hunger and thirst and privation, to support a Temple (and a Temple regime) that is going to come to an end. Jesus says, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another. All will be torn down!” (13:2)

These are cataclysmic words. These are weighty words. The Temple will be torn down? What do you mean the Temple will be torn down? This is big news---the biggest! Moreover, such words are not being spoken by some raving lunatic. This is being said by the man recently hailed with “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (11:9b-10) This same man had entered the Temple, and with a demonstration of a deep and abiding respect for the Temple and its purposes, along with a respect for Who and what it symbolized, and drove out those who were selling and buying in the Temple courts and overturned the tables of the money changers and prevented merchandise from being carried through the Temple courts (11:15-16), saying “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!” (11:17)

Not only had Jesus been conducted into Jerusalem as its King, and then said and done these things in connection with the Temple, but He said and did a great number of things prior to that which had enabled Him to gain a following and a reputation that resulted in His “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem and His being able to act with seeming impunity in the Temple. The record of Mark’s Gospel prior to Jesus’ words that spoke of the destruction of the Temple have Him enduring Satan’s testing in the wilderness following His baptism, casting out demons, healing Peter’s mother-in-law, cleansing a leper, healing a paralyzed man, restoring a withered hand, offering mysteriously authoritative teaching, calming a storm, restoring a well-known demoniac to sanity, reversing a woman’s twelve year long ailment, raising a twelve year old girl from the dead, feeding multitudes, walking on water, providing hearing to a deaf man, giving sight to a blind man, experiencing a transfiguration accompanied by Moses and Elijah, and cursing a fig tree so that it withers and dies.

This is the man---that has done these amazing works---that now speaks such things about the Temple. He goes on to speak of the possibility of being mislead, with many coming in His name, wars and rumors of wars, of nations and kingdoms rising up in arms against one another, of earthquakes, of famines, and of pain (13:5-8). It is then that Jesus speaks of His own disciples experiencing persecution, of standing before governors and kings on His behalf, of preaching the Gospel to all nations, of arrest, of the Holy Spirit, of brother rising against brother, and of children rising against parents. It is to this that Jesus adds those poignant words, saying “You will be hated by everyone because of My name.”