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Trinity/After Pentecost

The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity

The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, Francesco Hayez
The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, Francesco Hayez, 1867Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
An Italian Romantic's painting of the sack of 70 AD, with the menorah being carried out through smoke and figures scattering down the steps.Zion shall be ploughed as a field and Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins: Micah says it, and the gospel reading says it will happen in this generation.Francesco HayezThe leading Italian Romantic painter, whose historical subjects carried coded arguments for Italian unification.Gallerie dell'Accademia, VeniceVenice's own collection of Venetian painting, in a former church and convent complex at the foot of the wooden bridge.Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Overview & Insights

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world.” (Matthew 24:21)

This passage begins Matthew’s fifth and final discourse containing Jesus’ teaching (chaps. 24–25) and is directed to the disciples. The focus of 24:1–35 is Jesus’ predictions about the temple’s destruction (introduced in 23:37–39). In 24:3 the disciples respond to Jesus’ initial claim of the temple’s fall with a two-pronged question—the first about the time of the temple’s destruction, and the second about the sign of his return at the end of the age. Jesus responds to the first question in 24:3–35, while the latter question is addressed in 24:36–51. Allusions to Daniel 7:13–14, which function here as Jesus’ claim of vindication for his temple predictions (24:30–31), have already been introduced in 10:23 and 16:27–28 and will be reiterated at 26:64 during Jesus’ trial before the high priest.

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Take it further: Matthew 24:15-28

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What is this discourse?

Jesus foretells the abomination of desolation and a great tribulation, warning against false christs; his own coming will be unmistakable, like lightning flashing across the sky (Matthew 24:15–28).

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