Keep Calm

Scripture: Mark 13:1-13

Video Link: https://youtu.be/kURCOQhAKTc

Structure:

• Introduction
• Calm your enthusiasm
• Calm your speculation
• Calm your fear
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Keep calm and carry on has become a well-known phrase around the world. Some might say it is overused. Keep calm and carry on was originally coined by the British Ministry of Information in 1939, just before the Second World War.

The Ministry of Information put this phrase on posters to help the public. They printed nearly two and half million copies. However, very few posters were ever displayed. Hence the slogan didn’t really catch on during World War Two.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the 21^st Century that keep calm and carry on became popular. A bookshop owner was sorting through a box of second-hand books when he found one of the original posters. When he displayed the poster in his shop, it created so much interest he reproduced it and started selling copies. Now it’s everywhere. 

Keep calm and carry on reflects the spirit of British stoicism. It speaks to the self-discipline and fortitude of the war generation. It’s about not being carried away by anxiety but staying calm under pressure for the sake of those around you.

Today we continue our series in Mark’s gospel, focusing on chapter 13, verses 1-13. In this reading Jesus talks about the future. The disciples can expect the years ahead to be difficult. When the mud hits the fan, Jesus’ advice is to keep calm and carry on. From Mark 13, verse 1, we read… 

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” ² “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” ⁵ Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶ Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. ⁷ When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁸ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. ⁹ “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. ¹⁰ And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. ¹¹ Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. ¹² “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³ Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Keeping calm is the key to carrying on. If you don’t keep calm, you won’t be able to carry on for long.

In the verses we just read, Jesus counsels his disciples to keep calm. More specifically, they need to calm their enthusiasm for the temple. They need to calm their speculation about end times, and they need to calm their fear of rejection. Let’s begin with the disciples’ misplaced enthusiasm.  

Calm your enthusiasm:

Have you ever seen a shiny red apple which looked fresh and crisp in the fruit bowl, only to bite into it and get a mouth full of floury mush?

Have you ever read glowing reviews about a restaurant, only to find the meal servings were tiny and the prices enormous?

Have you ever bought an electrical appliance that seemed like good value in the shop, only to have it break down a few days outside of its warranty?    

Sometimes it pays to curb your enthusiasm.

In verse 1 of Mark 13, as Jesus is leaving Jerusalem for the Mount of Olives, one of his disciples expresses his enthusiasm for the temple. He remarks how the stones are enormous and the building looks magnificent. His enthusiasm is understandable. Some of the stones were the size of a bus and the architecture was ornate.  

The temple of Jesus’ day had been rebuilt by Herod the Great. The same Herod who had murdered innocent babies around the time Jesus was born.

Herod’s purpose in building the temple was to make a name for himself and wrangle political power. Herod was not interested in honouring God.

The temple was meant to be a place of prayer and purity. Instead, it had become a place of politics and corruption. It was supposed to be a place of healing and reconciliation, but it had become a place of greed and conniving. The temple should have been a place to worship God in spirit and in truth, but it was really a man-made idol.       

Jesus pours cold water on the disciples’ enthusiasm for the temple, predicting a time when the temple will be destroyed, not one stone left on top of another. Why does Jesus do this? Because the temple is under God’s judgement.

Enthusiasm for the temple building is misplaced, it is a waste of energy.

Getting all excited about the temple is like being eager to buy a ticket for the Titanic’s maiden voyage. 

The Jerusalem temple was, in fact, destroyed by the Romans just a few decades later, in AD 70. We will hear more about that next week.

When speaking to the Pharisees in Matthew 12, Jesus says: “I tell you, one greater than the temple is here”. Jesus was talking about himself.

Given the choice between looking at a picture of an ice cream or actually eating the ice cream, most people would choose to eat the ice cream.

Following this metaphor, the temple building was just a pretty picture, an image, it wasn’t the real thing. Jesus is the ice cream. Jesus is the real thing. Through Jesus we taste and experience the goodness of God. 

Jesus is greater than the Jerusalem temple, for Jesus embodies the living presence of God on earth. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice who makes us right with God. In Jesus we find healing for body, mind and soul. Through Jesus our prayers and our worship are made acceptable to God.

Sadly, the disciples couldn’t tell the difference between the picture and the ice cream itself. The disciples couldn’t yet see that being in Christ was better, by far, than being in the temple courts. For when we are in Christ, we are as close to God as we can possibly be.

So, given Jesus’ criticism of the Jerusalem temple, does that mean we should not have church buildings? Well, no. Our situation is different from the Jewish temple of the first century.

The church buildings are useful in so far as they support relationship and connection. The buildings provide a place for the community to come together for worship and fellowship, and they are a symbol of the Christian presence in this place. We want our buildings to be functional and safe. That’s why we did the earthquake strengthening and the north wing renovations.

At the same time, we hold our buildings lightly. We recognize that while the buildings are useful, they are not the most important thing. The church depends on Jesus, not on this auditorium. The church would continue to exist if the buildings were taken away.

Jesus is our temple. Wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, the Lord is present. Therefore, the church is the people, all those who are in Christ.      

I don’t think anyone could accuse Tawa Baptist of making too much of their buildings. Someone told me once (before we did our renovations) how they liked that our buildings looked a bit tired and weather worn. They could identify with this. They had been knocked around by life and felt at home here.

That’s the gospel. Weakness and vulnerability speak to people in a way that strength and beauty can’t.    

Jesus is more concerned with the quality of our relationships with God and each other, than he is with our architecture. Are we a people of faith and prayer? Are we a community of grace and truth? Do others experience something of God’s presence among us? Does this church feel like coming home?

Calm your speculation:

After calming the disciples’ enthusiasm for the temple, Jesus goes on to calm their speculation about end times.

For thousands of years people have speculated about how the world will end. Some thought it would all be over 12 years ago because the Mayan calendar ran out on the 21 December 2012. And yet here we are. There was also quite a bit of anxiety 25 years ago with the Y2K bug. Remember that?

Not to mention all the conspiracy theories that float around whenever there is a war. The leaders of those countries we consider to be our enemies at the minute, tend to be labelled the anti-Christ. Give it another 30 or 40 years and our enemies will be our allies again.

People are slow to learn. Consequently, history keeps repeating itself.

Humanity remains fascinated with the so-called apocalypse. A case in point: The Left Behind book series sold over 65 million copies and was made into a number of movies as well. Sadly, some people base their belief about end times on those books. The Left Behind series might be entertaining in the way that Tom Clancy or Stephen King is entertaining, but it’s not the gospel. It’s fiction.

To be clear, the experts are not agreed that Mark 13 is about the end of the world. But that is how many people today read it. In the context Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem which, to the Jews of the first century, would have seemed like the end of the world.

When four of Jesus’ disciples ask him when the temple will be destroyed and what sign they should look out for that the end is nigh, Jesus seeks to calm their speculation.

Jesus tells his disciples to watch out for false Messiah’s and not to be alarmed when they hear of wars and rumours of wars. Such things must happen,but they do not signal the end.  

Jesus goes on to say: ⁸ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

Wars, earthquakes and famines happen in every age of human history and do not necessarily carry any weight as signs that the end is imminent.

Jesus wants his disciples to guard against apocalyptic fanatics who think the end of the world is at hand. These fanatics point to false prophets, false Messiah’s and various earthly upheavals to prove their point. [1] Don’t be sucked in by their conspiracy theories.  

Jesus’ metaphor of birth pains sounds a note of hope. Wars, earthquakes and famines are normally associated with death and destruction. But Jesus sees beyond the death and destruction of these events to the new creation God is bringing about. Jesus’ story does not end with the cross. Jesus’ story (and ours) continues with the resurrection.

Rather than speculating about how the world might end, the disciples are to give their time and energy to preaching the gospel to all nations. You can’t control the future, but you can tell people about Jesus in the present. 

Calm your fear:

Perhaps the hardest part of keeping calm and carrying on is managing our fear. Fear is often more difficult to control than enthusiasm and speculation.

But it’s not just fear in general that Jesus wants to calm. More specifically we need help to calm our fear of rejection.  

We can experience rejection in a variety of ways. For example…

Being made redundant from a job you really enjoyed and were good at.

Not getting a job you interviewed for. Being dumped by someone you really liked. Or perhaps having your husband or wife cheat on you. Being picked last for a sports team in PE. Being overlooked or abandoned by a parent. Not getting invited to a party.

These are just some of the ways we might feel rejected.  

Sometimes rejection is relatively minor. Other times it is more significant. Whether it is major or minor though, rejection erodes your spirit and your self-confidence. Suffer enough rejection and you will end up with a hole in your heart, where faith and hope used to be. That’s a difficult hole to fill.

Often when someone rejects us, they have made a judgement about us that is not fair. Prejudice goes hand in hand with rejection. No one wants to be prejudged or condemned. We are naturally afraid of rejection and try to avoid it.

To those who have been judged and rejected unfairly, let me say this. God sees you, even when you are invisible to others. The Lord is our judge and he is just. God will make things right in the end. He can heal your wounds and fill the hole in your heart. That’s not speculation. That is God’s character.

In verses 9-13, Jesus warns his disciples of the prejudice and rejection they will face because of their relationship with him. Their rejection will be quite a bit worse than being picked last in PE. Their rejection will be akin to the suffering Jesus faced. Jesus’ experience sets the pattern for his followers.

The disciples will be flogged and rejected by their fellow Jews in the local synagogues. They will stand trial and be rejected before the Roman authorities as well. And, worst of all, they will be betrayed and rejected by members of their own family.  Everyone will hate the disciples because of Jesus.   

In verse 11 Jesus says, “Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.”

This is not an excuse for preachers to avoid doing the hard yards with their sermon prep. The idea here is that, when you are blindsided and the pressure comes on you from the authorities, keep calm and carry on. Don’t panic. The Holy Spirit has got you.

We read how the Holy Spirit empowered the apostles under trial in the book of Acts. For example, in Acts 4 we read how Peter responded when standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin…

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! ⁹ If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, ¹⁰ then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹ Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ ¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to humankind by which we must be saved.” ¹³ When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus… 

The Sanhedrin tried to silence the apostles ¹⁹ But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 

²⁰ As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John were rejected by the Jewish authorities, but the Holy Spirit gave them the courage and the words they needed to keep calm and carry on.

On that occasion the apostles were set free with a warning, but it didn’t always end so well. Eventually Peter was killed for his witness for Jesus and John was sent into exile.

Humanly speaking, not many (if any) could stand the rejection that believers suffered in the first century, except by the strengthening of the Holy Spirit.

When we are rejected because of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is like a hug from God. The Spirit reassures us of Jesus’ presence and God’s acceptance. When we know that God is for us, what does it matter who is against us.  

Conclusion:

One commentator notes that Jesus’ followers live at a place where the purposes of God and the pain of the world cross paths.

“Many Christians today face persecution every bit as severe as that which the early church suffered; and those Christians who don’t face persecution [Christians like us in NZ] often face the opposite temptation, to stagnate, to become cynical, to suppose nothing much is happening, that the Kingdom of God is just a pious dream”. [2]

We are unlikely to suffer in the same way the early church did, but the temptation to not carry on is no less real. We need to find our balance.

We don’t want to be so uptight that we burn out or put others off. 

Nor do we want to be so relaxed that we become bored or fall asleep.

As Jesus said, those who stand firm to the end will be saved.    

Let us pray…

All knowing God, save us from wasting our energies on misplaced enthusiasm and speculation about the future. Fill us with your Spirit that we would know your acceptance and not be afraid. Help us to keep calm and carry on, in your will, to the end. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
2. What is the purpose of a temple? Why does Jesus curb the disciples’ enthusiasm for the temple? What is the church?
3. Why does Jesus discourage speculation about end times? What does Jesus encourage his followers to do instead?
4. In what ways did the disciples of Jesus experience rejection? In what ways have you experienced rejection? How did you feel when you were rejected?
5. How does Jesus say the Holy Spirit will help the disciples? Can you think of a time when the Holy Spirit gave you the right words in a tight spot? What happened? 
6. What does it mean to stand firm to the end? How do we do this? How might we find a healthy balance with keeping calm and carrying on? 

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[1] See Ben Witherington’s commentary on Mark, page 337. 

[2] Refer Tom Wright’s commentary on Mark, page 180.