And as he was going out of the temple, one of his disciples says to him, Teacher, see what stones and what buildings!
Jesus has just walked out of the temple for the last time. As He goes, one of His followers stops Him to admire the huge stonework. The verse turns on a clash of sight. The disciple sees a masterpiece. The Lord sees something already condemned.
The disciple says this to a Man who has just declared the temple abandoned. One writer ties his words straight to that sentence:
His three years' ministry ended in a solemn, judicial sentence: "See, your house is left to you desolate." And Jesus went out and was going away. But the disciples did not grasp the inner meaning of the Lord's words and action. They came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. Their hearts clung to the earthly system that had the temple at its centre. But a temple, however splendid, is worth nothing when its God is disowned. And Jehovah was there in the person of Jesus. The nation did not know Him or recognise Him; or if it recognised Him, it rejected Him. He leaves the temple with sorrow, and desolate indeed is that which Jehovah forsakes.
The admiration was not naive. The building was a genuine wonder, and one writer treats the disciple's words as proof of its scale:
Its stones were white and wonderfully large: some say twenty-five cubits by twelve cubits. We may or may not take that figure as correct. But the words the disciples use in Mark 13:1 make it certain that the stones stood out for their size.
Yet that splendour had a history the admirers were not weighing. The temple was Herod's project, still unfinished. One writer reads the disciple's outburst almost as a plea for it:
Herod's magnificent temple was still not finished, though it had been nearly fifty years building. It was the glory of Israel, despite the murderous hands that built it. The temple drew them still. "What wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" they urge, as if pleading for that house which He was leaving desolate.
The disciples and their Master looked at the same stones. They reached opposite verdicts. One writer traces the gap to how each of them saw:
They saw the building but not with the eye of Christ. He had seen it, and all around it, with the eye of God. It was costly and beautiful beyond compare, yet He had written its judgment. But the disciples still eyed the beauty of the stones. So Jesus, in patient grace, had to write out the doom of that place again — because they asked, and because their eyes could not see.
A few verses earlier, the Lord had pointed His disciples to something of His own choosing:
He called His disciples to Him, as verse 43 tells us, and pointed the woman out, proclaiming the virtue of her act. This is striking when we notice how Mark 13 opens. His disciples were eager to point out to Him the greatness and beauty of the Temple buildings. They pointed to costly stones shaped by men's busy hands. He pointed to the moral beauty of a poor widow's act. He told them that their great buildings would all crash into ruin. It is the widow's act that will be remembered in eternity.
The remark opens a long prophecy. One writer notes the stamp that prophecy carries in Mark:
Here we find that the Lord's warnings and instructions clearly have their service in view. This has been the character of Mark all through. Christ Himself is the perfect Servant of God. So even in His prophecy He is the Servant still. He gives them what would matter so much, not only for their souls, but in their work. This is not only a prediction of coming judgments. It warns them and instructs them in their testimony.
The same instinct is alive today. One writer turns it into questions you can ask yourself:
What is the tendency of all this church architecture? Does it make us more heavenly? Does it suit our pilgrim profession? Only the eye of faith sees the beauties that attract us. They are the glories of a sanctuary that no human hand has built.
- He leaves. The disciple speaks to a Lord who has just called the temple "your house" and walked out. What Jehovah forsakes is desolate, whatever it looks like.
- They look. The stones were huge, and the building was the glory of Israel. Their hearts clung to the earthly system it stood at the centre of.
- He sees. They saw it with man's eye; He saw it with God's. It was beautiful beyond compare — and already sentenced.
- He points elsewhere. Just before this, He had pointed them to a widow's two coins. Hers is the act that outlasts the stonework.
- He instructs. Their misplaced wonder becomes His opportunity. The Servant answers with a prophecy shaped for His servants' work and witness.
And Jesus answering said to him, Seest thou these great buildings? not a stone shall be left upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down.
Jesus is leaving the temple for the last time. One of His followers stops to point out the huge stones. His answer is a sentence of total demolition. It also raises the question that fills the rest of the chapter: why would God tear down His own house, and what were His disciples to do about it?
The disciples looked at the temple and saw glory. Jesus looked at the same walls and saw a verdict already written.
They saw the building, but not with the eye of Christ. He had seen it, and all that surrounded it, with the eye of God. Costly and beautiful beyond compare as it was, He had already written out its judgment.
The problem was not the architecture. It was where their hearts had settled.
How little man sees as God does! The temple was God's house, but men gave more honour to the house than to its Lord. In fact it had become, in effect, their house.
Why would God let His own house fall? One writer answers by pointing to who had just walked out of it.
His three years of ministry ended in a judicial sentence: "See, your house is left to you desolate." Then Jesus went out and was walking away. The disciples did not grasp the inner meaning of His words or His action. They came to point out the temple buildings to Him. Their hearts were tied to the earthly system that had the temple at its centre. But a temple, however splendid, is worth nothing when its God is disowned. Jehovah stood there in the person of Jesus, and the nation did not know Him, did not recognise Him — or recognised Him and rejected Him. He leaves the temple in sorrow, and whatever Jehovah abandons is desolate indeed.
Jesus does not deny that the buildings were magnificent. He denies that their magnificence could save them.
The Lord admits that the buildings were great. But what men admired so much had become a den of thieves in the sight of God, and it was doomed to destruction. Not one stone would be left on another.
What was really coming down? Far more than a landmark.
The Lord does not try to turn their eyes away from the thing that filled their minds. Instead He foretells the complete destruction of what seemed to be the indestructible palace of their religion. That building was needed to carry out the duties their religion imposed. It was also the one place where they had to bring the offerings, and those offerings were the only way the people could be put in relationship with God. All of it was about to come down, from top to bottom. Their religion, and every dealing they had with God under the ancient covenant tied to the temple, would be completely abolished along with it.
This verse opens a long discourse. In it Jesus speaks as the Servant, preparing other servants for their work.
Christ Himself is the perfect Servant of God, the Prophet here on earth preaching the Gospel and doing works in keeping with its spirit. So even in His prophecy He is still the Servant. He gives them what would matter so much, not only for their souls, but for their work. This is not only a prediction of judgments to come. It warns them ahead of time and instructs them for their testimony.
The word of Christ was set against the word of the mightiest empire on earth. Only one of them could stand.
But the Lord Jesus had said that not one stone should be left upon another. Whose word was to stand? That of a dead Galilean peasant, as the world would judge, or the word of the general of the mighty army of the mightiest empire the world had ever seen?
- Sight. The disciples saw stones. Christ saw a sentence already written on a house whose God the nation had rejected.
- Sentence. Splendour cannot save a house whose Lord is disowned. What Jehovah leaves behind is desolate, however grand.
- Scope. More than a building came down. The temple, its sacrifices, and the whole old covenant relationship tied to them fell together.
- Service. Jesus does more than predict. He warns His servants in advance and equips them for the testimony ahead.
- Standing. The world weighed a dead Galilean's word against the word of the mightiest empire's general — Christ's word is the one that stood.
And as he sat on the mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,
Jesus has just said that the great temple will be torn down to the last stone. Now He sits on the hillside facing it, and four men come to Him alone with the questions that draw out His great prophecy.
The Lord's move out of the temple is part of the message.
The Lord leaves the temple, now forsaken in judgment until His return. He sits on the Mount of Olives. The valley of the brook Kidron separates Him from the high plateau where the temple stood in all its grandeur.
Where He sat shaped what came next. He pronounces judgment on a building He can see across the valley.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all connect this prophetic discourse of our Lord with the temple whose beauty had been pointed out to Him. He had predicted that the time would come when one stone would not be left on another. He continues the subject in the quiet of the Mount of Olives. There He sits with His disciples, as Mark points out, "opposite the temple," its imposing grandeur before His eye. He pronounces its doom and, we might say, the doom of the entire Jewish nation.
The disciples and Jesus looked at one building and saw two different things.
The disciples saw the building, but not with the eye of Christ. He had seen it, and everything around it, with the eye of God. Costly and beautiful beyond compare as it was, He had written its judgment. On the very wall He had written the doom of "that beautiful house." "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… See, your house is left to you desolate." This was writing with the same divine authority that had sentenced Belshazzar and his feast. But the disciples still had their eye on the beauty of the stones. So Jesus, in patient grace, had to write out that doom again. They asked, and their eyes were not opened: "Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."
Mark supplies the names. They turn out to be men who had shared a boat before they shared this hillside.
Our Lord gave His great prophetic word on the Mount of Olives during His last week. Matthew, Mark and Luke record it with more or less fullness. But we owe to Mark the interesting fact that the questions of Peter and his former partners in the fishing trade — Andrew, James and John — drew the prophecy out (Mark 13:3). So we have our apostle once more playing the part of the inquirer.
Usually three of these men are singled out. Here the circle widens by one.
Peter, James and John, and sometimes Andrew, were always the closest companions of the blessed Lord. He let only the first three come in at the raising of Jairus' daughter (Mark 5; Luke 8). He allowed only the same three apostles to be present at the transfiguration (Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9). It was the same three who witnessed His agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22). But all four — Peter, James, John and Andrew — come together to ask the Lord privately about the destruction of the temple (Mark 13).
The word "privately" carries weight.
As He sits on the Mount of Olives, Peter, James, John and Andrew ask the Lord Jesus privately when all these things would take place, and what sign they should look for. Just as in Matthew 24:3, the Lord's outline of prophetic events is meant not for the crowd but for disciples. Here in Mark it is for disciples who are particularly concerned. Prophecy is never rightly grasped apart from serious spiritual exercise.
This was also their habit with Him, not a one-off.
The apostles sometimes used moments of His privacy to lay their difficulties before Him… These were not exceptional cases. They were used to such private teaching, as we read, "he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything" (Mark 4:34)… God makes His ways known in the quiet of the sanctuary rather than in the noise of the camp.
- He left. The Lord walks out of the temple and sits across the Kidron valley. Behind Him is a house forsaken in judgment until His return.
- He faced it. Mark alone notes He sat opposite the temple. Its grandeur filled His view as He pronounced its doom — and the nation's with it.
- They looked. The disciples saw beautiful stones. He saw with the eye of God, and had already written the sentence over that beautiful house.
- Four drew near. Peter, James and John are the three usually taken apart. Here Andrew joins them — four former fishing partners, with Peter again the inquirer.
- Alone with Him. The answer comes privately, to disciples who cared enough to ask. Prophecy is never rightly grasped without that spiritual exercise.
Tell us, when shall these things be, and what is the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?
Jesus has just foretold the ruin of the temple, and four of His followers want to know when. Their question asks for a date and a sign, and it draws out the long prophecy that follows.
The place where they ask matters. They are outside the city now, on the hill that looks across at it.
They are sitting on the Mount of Olives — that place of judgment, departure, and return — looking out over the loved but stubborn and rejected city. What had been the centre of all their thoughts is being destroyed and left empty, and it moves them. So they ask, "When will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?" Here the Holy Spirit presents the question to us in a much simpler form. It concerns the setting aside of the Jewish resting place.
For them the temple was far more than a building.
This statement would sound so strange to those who looked on the temple as the house of God and the glorious centre of their religion.
Only one Gospel tells us who asked.
In the short account Mark gives us of our Lord's prophetic discourse on the Mount of Olives, and of the questions that led to it, he names the favoured hearers more exactly than anywhere else: Peter, James, John, and Andrew. Mark pays this kind of attention to detail, though his is much the shortest of the Gospels.
It also matters who was listening.
Just as in Matthew 24:3, the Lord's outline of prophetic events is meant for disciples, not for the crowd. Here in Mark it is for disciples who are deeply concerned. No one sees prophecy rightly without serious spiritual exercise.
Commentators differ on how much the question in Mark covers. One reading keeps it to the temple's destruction alone.
In Mark 13 the only question asked is, "What will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?" — that is, the destruction.
Others see the reply reaching further, with each of the three Gospel writers taking up a different strand of it.
The Spirit led Matthew to concentrate on what the Lord said in His reply about the end of the age (Matthew 24, 25). Mark, as he usually does, makes a special feature of the Lord's remarks about the trials of His servants in that critical time (Mark 13). Luke dwells almost entirely on the Lord's reply to the first of Peter's questions, the one about the coming Roman desolation (Luke 21).
They asked for a date and a signal. They received neither in the form they expected.
First, He fixed no dates. Any answer He gave about timing was indirect. Second, He went beyond what they asked, to the larger issues of the last days and His own coming in glory. The same feature appears in many Old Testament prophecies. God gave them with some coming event of history in view, and they really did apply to that event. Yet their wording applies with even greater fullness to events still to happen in the last days.
His mind was on more than dates.
They were thinking of events. The Lord had before Him His own sufferings and dangers, and theirs, in the middle of those events.
Mark's telling turns the future into instruction for men who still had a job to do.
Here we will find that the Lord's warnings and instructions clearly have their service in view... Christ Himself is the perfect Servant of God, the Prophet on earth preaching the gospel and doing works in the spirit of it. So even in His prophecy He is still the Servant. He gives them what would matter so much, not only for their souls but in their work. This is not only a prediction of coming judgments. He is warning them beforehand and counselling them about their testimony.
- Asked. The temple was the centre of their religion, so its fall shook them. They asked from the Mount of Olives, looking across at the doomed city.
- Asked privately. Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Him alone. Mark alone names them. This teaching is for concerned disciples, not for a crowd.
- Asked narrowly. Commentators differ on the reach of the question. Some limit it to the temple's destruction. Others include His coming and the end of the age.
- Answered largely. He fixed no dates and only hinted at timing. Then He went past their question to the last days and His own coming in glory.
- Answered practically. They were occupied with events. He was occupied with them in the events. So the prophecy comes as warning and equipment for their service.