Text

30 Then a sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn him. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 He will send out his angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather the chosen from the four corners of the earth. 32 Learn a lesson from the fig tree: when the branches become tender and put forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 Likewise, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors. 34 Amen, I tell you, this generation will not pass away before all these things have taken place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Comments

The Apocalyptic Discourse links three events that are temporally disparate but spiritually and symbolically linked: Jesus’ own death and resurrection, the destruction of the Temple, and Jesus' second coming at the end of the age. All three events represent radical turning points in sacred history, and all three events are vindication of Christ: The Resurrection proves that Jesus is the Son of God. The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple discredits the militant nationalism that Jesus rejected and many of his contemporaries embraced. At his second coming, Christ will reign over the world.

Jesus refers to all three events by quoting Dan 7.13, part of a larger vision in which the prophet Daniel sees a series of monstrous animals representing different militaristic world empires. Eventually, God passes judgment on the beasts and gives authority to “one like a son of man… coming on the clouds of heaven.” The vision speaks to the ultimate victory of humane justice and love over bestial power and domination, a victory that is embodied in Jesus himself.

In verse 34, Jesus says that “this generation will not pass away before all these things have taken place.” It is not entirely clear to what he is referring. His death and resurrection would occur imminently and so fall within that “generation.” The destruction of the Temple in 70 AD can also be considered to have happened within one generation of Jesus’ ministry (see note on 23.34-39). Jesus’ second coming has of course still not happened. He may not have been referring to it, or he may have been using the word “generation” (genea in Greek) to mean an age or epoch, and metaphorical meaning it can sometimes have in Greek.