While Mark 13 is often referred to with the oxymoronic tag of the “Little Apocalypse,” it is probably better to look at these verses as part of Jesus’ ongoing teaching about the failure of the Temple and all those who served in it. While the end of all the world might not be the focus of these pronouncements, the destruction of the Temple and the ravaging of Jerusalem that Jesus proclaims would certainly be experienced as an apocalypse for the Jewish faith. Indeed, when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, it was the end of a faith that was based upon ritual sacrifices and overseen by a special breed of priests.

Jesus’ final statements about the Temple are both verbal and physical. It is as he and his disciples are leaving the Temple that Jesus makes his pronouncement about its impending do…