Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• Most scholars believe Mark’s Gospel was written around the end of the 60s/beginning of the 70s C.E. The temple was destroyed during the Roman/Jewish War in 66-70 C.E. For the first readers of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ words about the destruction of the temple have just come true. These words are not predicting the future, they are telling the truth of what has happened.
• In the Bible prophets are not fortune-tellers, they are truth-tellers. They diagnose current conditions not to cast judgment but to prompt reform.
• In verse three, the disciples ask Jesus to tell them when the temple will be destroyed, but Jesus doesn’t tell them when, he tells them how to live and to not be afraid.
• This section of Mark’s Gospel is known as the “little apocalypse.” Hollywood tends to portray apocalypse as disaster, but the word literally translates to “uncovering.” It means to reveal or expose truth that is hidden.
For me Jesus is telling the disciples to look beyond the chaos. Follow his teachings and another world is possible void of the turmoil that is to come.
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