Jesus thus prophesies that Jerusalem itself will be destroyed, as the Gospel of Luke makes clear (Luke 21:20). This prophecy was fulfilled in AD70 when God sent the Roman armies to besiege and destroy the city. It was God’s judgment on his faithless people, on the city that rejected his Son. Jesus therefore warns his disciples to flee from the city at that time (13:14). He also promises that God himself will “cut short the days” so that the gospel will go out to the nations and all of God’s “elect”—believing Jews and Gentiles together—will be saved (13:14–20).

Look for the Coming King!

In a changing and uncertain world, God’s promises give us hope.

Each of the three Synoptic Gospels records Jesus’s Speech on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21). This was his last extended word to his disciples before he faced his death, and it is full of promises designed to give us hope. The speech comes after Jesus’s final entry to Jerusalem on a donkey, and after his interactions with Jerusalem’s leaders in the temple (Matt. 21–23; Mark 11–12; Luke 19–20). It comes immediately before his celebration of the last supper, his betrayal by Judas, his arrest in Gethsemane, his trials before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, and his crucifixion (Matt. 26–27; Mark 14–15; Luke 22–23). The speech is often called “the Olivet Discourse” because Jesus “sat on the Mount of Olives” when he spoke these words (Matt. 24:3; Mark 13:3). Knowing that his death, resurrection, and ascension are near (Matt. 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22), Jesus prepares his disciples for the end. He most immediately addresses those first disciples, and Mark specifies that he speaks privately to Peter, James, John, and Andrew (Mark 13:3). But our Lord knew that change and uncertainty would cause fear and confusion in every generation, and so he also speaks into the future—to every generation, including our own. At the end of the speech he makes this clear, “what I say to you I say to all” (13:37).

The immediate context for the speech is Jesus’s prophecy that the temple will be destroyed (Mark 13:1–3; cf. Matt. 24:1–2; Luke 21:5–6). His disciples then ask him, “when will these things be, what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” (Mark 13:4; cf. Matt. 24:3; Luke 21:7). Some interpreters see the whole speech referring to events in the first century (the “preterist” interpretation). Others hold that the whole speech refers to events that even now remain in the future (the “futurist” interpretation). The most common interpretation, however, and the best, understands that Jesus speaks of both the immediate and the ultimate future. He speaks about “these things”—events that will occur within a generation. Beyond that, he also speaks of the whole church age and of his own return in glory at the end. In this speech, therefore, our Lord teaches his first disciples—and us—how to live faithfully in the period between his resurrection and return.

There are differences between the three synoptic accounts, but Jesus’s speech has the same basic structure in each of them. Recognizing this structure helps to unlock its meaning. In the Gospel of Mark, we find that Jesus teaches his disciples to expect first God’s judgment on Jerusalem (13:5–23), and then his final coming as the Son of Man (13:24–27). “All these things” relating to God’s judgment of Jerusalem, he says, will occur within a generation (13:28–31; cf. 13:4), but “that day and hour”—the day and hour of his return—will come at an unknown future point (13:32–37). This gives Jesus’s speech an A B A1 B1 pattern. He first addresses the question of what to expect, in two parts (A 13:5–23; B 13:24–27), and then the question of when the prophesied events will occur, also in two parts (A1: 13:28–21; B1: 13:32–37). We can lay this out as follows:

By structuring his speech this way, Jesus teaches that the two climactic events are theologically related but chronologically distinct.

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