When we ask speculative questions, the Master bids us take heed to ourselves. His predictions in this passage were literally fulfilled in the events which culminated in the siege and fall of Jerusalem, forty years afterward. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together," and through these throes and agonies mankind steps up to a new level of experience. The devil will not surrender his kingdom, any more than the bodies of men, without a grievous rending first: but there is a mightier than he.
The Church is called to follow her Lord. No easier path than His may she choose. Where there is no outward suffering there may be the inner cross and the death to all that the soul had once prized. Jesus has always stood beside His own wherever they have been called to witness for the truth; and the testimony given by His witnesses has reached the great ones of the earth and reverberated through courts and palaces. In suffering our souls become searched as by fire. We learn to know ourselves and to come into possession of an experience and a self-knowledge with which only suffering could have endowed us. [source]
Chapter Summary: Luke 21
1Jesus commends the poor widow 5He foretells the destruction of the temple, and of the city Jerusalem; 25the signs also which shall be before the last day 34He exhorts them to be watchful
Greek Commentary for Luke 21:13
It shall turn unto you [αποβησεται υμιν] Future middle of αποβαινω apobainō It will come off, turn out for you (dative of advantage). [source]
For a testimony [εις μαρτυριον] To their loyalty to Christ. Besides, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” [source]
Greek Commentary for Luke 21:13
Future middle of αποβαινω apobainō It will come off, turn out for you (dative of advantage). [source]
To their loyalty to Christ. Besides, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” [source]