Daniel spoke of an abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Daniel 9:27; 11:31). Many readers connect his words with Antiochus Epiphanes, who set up an idol in the temple in 167 BC (1 Maccabees 1:54). Jesus tells his disciples to watch for the pattern again, and he adds a note to the reader: 15"let the reader understand." Within a generation, Roman armies would destroy the temple. The pattern is one of a power taking God's place in the one room reserved for him.
What Jesus asks of his disciples is action. 16"let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." The one on the housetop should not go down for belongings, and the one in the field should not turn back for a cloak. He speaks ahead of time for the vulnerable, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and he asks the disciples to pray that the flight not come in winter or on a Sabbath. The warning is meant to be obeyed in real time by real people. 25"See, I have told you beforehand." Jesus warns because he loves them, and love that sees danger coming says so plainly.
The tribulation will be 21"such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now." That sentence could crush hope by itself, and the next one turns it: 22"for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short." The horror is real and bounded. The hand that allows the tribulation also sets its limit, and the limit exists for God's people.
Into that trouble come impostors who say 23"Look, here is the Christ!" or 26"Look, he is in the wilderness," or that 26"he is in the inner rooms." Jesus warns that false christs and false prophets will 24"perform great signs and wonders." Signs alone do not prove a claim, and the claim has to match the Christ who has told his people what to expect. Every false christ shares one feature. He has to be found in a particular place by a particular few. Jesus answers with the sky, comparing his coming to lightning that crosses from east to west. Lightning needs no scout. It crosses the whole sky at once, and everyone sees it. No one will need a rumor to know that Christ has returned.
His first coming was quiet: a child in an occupied province, recognized by a handful of magi from the East (Matthew 2:1-12) and missed by the powerful people who should have known their Scriptures. His second coming will be open to every eye. The Christ who was born quietly will return with nothing hidden. The saying about the corpse and the vultures in verse 28 adds that judgment, like vultures finding a carcass, needs no guide.
Warning and promise sit in one passage. Between his two comings his people are warned in advance, protected by a limit only he sets, and watching for a sky that will one day show his glory to everyone at once.
When someone offers you a hidden Christ, a secret method, or a private timetable, remember the lightning.
Prayer
Father, we live between your warnings and your certain return, and we confess how easily we are drawn toward whatever promises to be found, explained, or controlled. Keep us from chasing hidden things when you have promised your coming will be as plain as lightning. Thank you that even the worst tribulation answers to a limit you alone set. In Jesus' name, amen.