September 23rd, 2023

In some congregations this Sunday is called the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, and the gospel reading for this Sunday is Matthew 20:1-16. We are making our way through that same gospel account, but at a different pace, as it has been laid out. And we are just a bit farther along than the text for this Sunday. We are beginning the last of the five major sermons in this gospel account, what is more commonly known as chapters twenty-four and twenty-five. This last sermon deals with the last days, and Jesus gave this sermon during some of his last days on the earth, before his crucifixion and resurrection. But there is a special emphasis in this sermon on the words of Jesus, and these words will ring true until the VERY end of all things, and then there will be a new heaven and new earth.

What follows is an attempt at a somewhat-literal translation of what is usually called chapter 24 of this gospel account (you may wish to compare it to other translations):

And having come out, the Jesus, from the temple, he was going; and they approached, the disciples of him, to show him the buildings of the temple. Now the One, having answered, he said to them, “You do see these things, all, do you not? Amen, I am saying to you, certainly not, it will be left here, a stone upon a stone, which not will be destroyed.”

Now sitting, he, upon the Mount of the Olives, they approached him, the disciples, according to their own, saying, “Tell to us, when these things will be, and what the sign of the Parousia and of a completion of the age?”

And having answered, the Jesus, he said to them, “See not anyone, you, he leads astray. For many will come upon the name of me, saying, ‘I, myself, am the Christ, and many they will lead astray. Now you are about to hear wars and rumors of wars; see not, you are disturbed; for it is necessary to happen, but on the contrary, not yet is the end. For it will be raised, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes throughout places; now all these things, beginning of birth-pangs.”

“Then they will deliver you into affliction, and they will kill you, and you will be, being hated by all the nations on account of the name of me. And then they will be scandalized, many, and one another they will deliver over, and they will hate one another; and many pseudoprophets will be raised, and they will lead astray many; and because of, to be increased, the lawlessness, it will grow cold, the love of the many. Now the one having endured into end, this one will be saved. And it will be proclaimed, this, the gospel of the kingdom, in all the inhabited earth, into a testimony to all the nations, and then it will come, the End.”

“Therefore, when you see the abomination of the desolation, the having been spoken through Daniel, the prophet, standing in place, holy, the one reading, let him understand; then the ones in the Judea, let them flee into the mountains, the one upon the housetop, not let him come down, to take the things out of the house of him, and the one in the field, not let him turn around behind, to take the garment of him. Now woe to the ones, in womb having, and to the ones nursing in those, the days; now pray that not it happens, the flight of you, of winter, and not on a Sabbath; for it will be, then, affliction, great, such as not has happened from beginning of world until the now, neither certainly not it will happen. And if not, they were cut short, the days, those, not would be saved, all flesh; now on account of the chosen, they will be cut short, the days, those.”

“Then, if anyone to you says, ‘Behold, here the Christ, or here,’ do not believe; for they will be raised, pseudo-Christs and pseudoprophets, and they will give signs, great and wonders, so that, to lead astray, if possible, also the chosen. Behold, I have before-told you. Therefore, if they say to you, ‘Behold, in the desert he is,’ do not go out; ‘Behold, in the private rooms,’ do not believe. For as the lightning goes out from east, and it shines until west, so it will be, the Parousia of the Son of the Man. Wherever it may be, the corpse, there they will be assembled, the eagles.”

“Now immediately, after the affliction of the days, those, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give the light of it, and the stars will fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then it will appear, the sign of the Son of the Man in heaven, and then will bewail all the tribes of the earth, and they will see the Son of the Man coming upon the clouds of the heaven with power and glory, much; and he will send out the angels of him with trumpet, great, and they will assemble, the chosen of him, out of the four winds from ends of heavens unto the ends of them. Now from the fig tree, learn the parable: when already the branch of it becomes tender and the leaves it sprouts, you know that near, the summer; thus also you, yourselves, when you see all these things, you know that near, the summer; so also you, when you see all these things, you know that near, he is, upon doors. Amen, I am saying to you that certainly not it will pass away, the generation, this, until all these things happen. The heaven and the earth will pass away, now the words of me certainly not will pass away.”

“Now concerning the day, that, and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of the heavens, nor the Son, except the Father only. For as the days of the Noah, so it will be, the Parousia of the Son of the Man. For as they were in the days, those, the ones before the Cataclysm, eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until which day he entered, Noah, into the ark, and not they knew until it came, the Cataclysm, and it took all, so it will be also, the Cataclysm of the Son of the Man. Then two, they will be in the field; one, he is taken away, and one, he is left; two grinding in the mill; one, she is taken away, and one, she is left. Therefore, watch, because not you know which day the Lord of you, he is coming. Now that, know, that if he knew, the house-despot, in what watch the thief is coming, he would have watched and not would have allowed to be dug through the house of him. On account of this, also you, be ready, because in which, not you think, an hour, the Son of the Man is coming. Who then is the faithful slave and wise, whom he appointed, the lord over the household of him, to give to them the food in time?”
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“Blessed, the slave, that, whom, having come, the lord of him, he will find so doing. Amen, I am saying to you that over all the belongings of him, he will appoint him. Now if he says, the evil slave, that, in the heart of him, ‘He is delaying, of me, the lord,’ and he begins to strike the fellow-slaves of him, now he eats, also drinks, with the ones being drunk; he will come, the lord of the slave, that, in a day on which not he expects, and in an hour which not he knows, and he will cut in two, him, and the portion of him with the hypocrites he will place; there it will be, the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.”