Bible Commentaries
Luke 21

Verses 1-4

Luk 21:1-4

Commentary On Luke 21:1-4

Galen Doughty

Luke 21:1-4 - Jesus is in the temple observing people give. He sees the rich come and put their gifts in the temple treasury. Mark says they made a great show of it. In the Pharisees’ theology they had the advantage because by giving large amounts they gained great favor with God. There were 13 trumpet-shaped boxes in the Court of the Women where people would come and put their offerings. This apparently is where Jesus is watching people give. A poor widow, presumably known by her dress, comes and puts in two small copper coins, two leptas, which were the smallest denomination of coins in use.

Jesus observes her and the rich giving and turns to the disciples and remarks that the poor widow has impressed him the most with her giving. She has put in more than all the others because they gave out of their wealth. She gave out of her poverty and put in all she had. Jesus isn’t looking at the absolute amounts. He is looking at the proportion of the gift in relation to her wealth or income. Jesus is affirming the principles of proportional giving and sacrificial giving. The rich were probably giving based on a tithe. Jesus shatters that giving model by holding up the widow as the example of Kingdom giving. She gave all she had just as Jesus will give all he had for us, his life!

The widow reminds me of our friends in Africa who out of their poverty give generously. They have so little and yet what they have they share with others. That is the kind of giving that we need to cultivate in America. Lord help us! We think we are doing so well when we reach a tithe, yet Jesus is calling us to go way beyond a tithe. We need to grow in our giving to become more like the widow and more like Jesus.

Verses 5-38

Luk 21:5-38

Commentary On Luke 21:5-38

Galen Doughty

Luke 21:5-7 - Some of the disciples are talking about how beautiful the temple is and how it was adorned with amazing stonework and all the gifts that had been given. Jesus tells them the time is coming when not one of these stones will be left on another. Every one of these beautiful stones you admire will be thrown down. Jesus is speaking of 70 and the Roman destruction of the temple. The disciples then ask him when all this will happen and what will be the sign that they are about to take place. Given their understanding of the Messiah and the age to come the disciples might be thinking Jesus is about ready to usher in the Great War that will defeat God’s enemies and bring the Kingdom of God. They still do not understand God’s program and plan for the salvation of the human race. Their question may be one of curiosity or one of shock, how could this happen how could God allow it.

They ask and Jesus uses their question as an opportunity to teach about the end times. The teaching is difficult because like many prophets Jesus bounces back and forth between the long view, the coming of the end and his Second Coming, and the near view, the Roman invasion and destruction of the temple. In Jesus’ view the Roman attack in 70 is a pre-figuring of the final battle between God’s enemies and Jesus the Messiah. The disciples ask for THE sign, but Jesus will give them SEVEN signs: the false Messiahs; wars and revolutions; earthquakes, famines and diseases; the great persecution; Jerusalem surrounded by the nations; astronomical signs; and finally the Son of Man coming in the clouds. In Jewish thought Jesus is describing the birth-pangs of the Messiah. He is also preparing the disciples for the fact that the Kingdom comes in an already-not yet fashion. He, the Messiah, is here and the Kingdom comes with Jesus, but not all the way as yet. There is more that must happen before the end comes. The end, the final ushering in of the Kingdom of God and absolute rule of the Messiah, will not come immediately. Pay attention to the signs.

Luke may be using Jesus’ words to help correct a mistaken assumption in the early church that Jesus would return immediately. Some of Paul’s letters like Thessalonians appear to reflect that view, where later letters reflect a more delayed view of Jesus’ return.

Luke 21:8-11 - Jesus warns the disciples to watch out and not be deceived. Many will come in his name claiming they are Jesus and the time is near. Do not follow them. This is the first sign: false messiahs. All throughout the church’s history there have been false messiahs. Some of the disciples lived to see Eliazer, captain of the temple guard declared Messiah by the Essene Teacher of Righteousness. Clearly he was wrong. Plus in 135 the Bar Kokhba revolt took place with Bar Kokhba being declared a messiah not the Messiah. He too was proved to be a false Messiah. Today there are still many cult leaders who claim they are Jesus, and many prophecy teachers claiming the time is near. Jesus’ warning is still very much applicable to our time. Look at the Muslim claim of a Muslim messiah, the twelfth imam or maddi.

Jesus gives them the second sign: wars and revolutions. He encourages the disciples when they hear of these things not to be afraid. The wars and revolutions must happen first but the end is not yet. It won’t come right away. This was important counsel anticipating the Jewish revolt because surely many Christians, both Jewish and Gentile must have thought Jesus’ return was imminent. Perhaps they thought the Lord would return and save Jerusalem from the Roman armies. For us, we need to remember Jesus’ counsel not to be afraid when we hear about all the wars and revolutions all over the world. All this is but a precursor to the final battle with evil. We are not to be afraid. More will come.

In Luke 21:10 Jesus gives the third sign: wars, earthquakes, famines, signs in heaven. This is a more general sign that describes many of the others. This would fit Jewish eschatological teaching of the signs of the birth-pangs of the Messiah.

Nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom is another description of wars and revolutions. All the while that is going on there will be great earthquakes, famines, pestilences, in various places plus fearful events and great signs from heaven. When Jesus says great signs from heaven we immediately think astronomical, but in Jesus’ day the disciples would have been pre-disposed to see the signs as astrological. Even if they didn’t follow the stars that is what the culture believed. Certainly the Greco -Roman culture surrounding Judea watched the stars just as the Magi had at Jesus’ birth. Jesus will intensify this sign in Luke 21:25. The point is things will get much worse with disasters and tragedies of enormous proportions the likes of which the world has not seen before Jesus returns. Are we there yet? We certainly hear about disasters more because of our world media. Is the frequency greater? I am not sure but it seems so. The problem is almost every generation thinks they are the ones who will see Jesus’ return. People look at the events of their time and think how could it get any worse. So many generations of Christians throughout church history have been absolutely convinced Jesus was about to return in their time and yet they were wrong! Why are we right?

Luke 21:12-19 - Jesus tells the disciples that before the wars, famines, earthquakes and other signs there will be persecution. This is the fourth sign of his coming. This happened even before 70 and the Jewish revolt. Saul’s persecution was a partial fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy. The death of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa and the killing of James Jesus’ brother at the beginning of the Jewish revolt were also fulfillment, not to mention the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul by Nero in Rome. Much of what Jesus outlines here was fulfilled in the apostle Paul’s career and his testimony before Roman officials. Many Jewish Christians were forced out of regular Jewish synagogues by the rabbis. The rabbis even added a prayer specifically designed to expose people in the synagogue who believed Jesus was the Messiah and make them leave or denounce the Lord Jesus. By the end of the first century Domitian had instituted the most widespread persecution in the empire because he demanded to be addressed as our lord and god Domitian which Christians would not do. Persecution increased in the next centuries in the Roman Empire until Constantine in the 300’s. Today three quarters of all Christians in the world live in an area where they are persecuted. Jesus’ words have been fulfilled in a graphic way! They were fulfilled before 70 and in the years and centuries after 70 as well.

The prophecy of persecution is hard to hear but Jesus encourages the disciples by saying being arrested will give opportunity to witness to the Lord Jesus and they don’t have to worry what to say because the Holy Spirit will give them the words when the time comes. In fact he will give them such wisdom that their adversaries will not be able to contradict it. This is literally fulfilled several times in Acts, especially when Peter and John are before the Sanhedrin and Paul faces Felix and Festus.

Jesus warns the disciples that even their own families will betray them, which is reinforcing what he said in an earlier time about he came to bring division and that a relationship with Jesus is the primary relationship of life, even more so than one’s family! Jesus says all people will hate the disciples because of Jesus. He says this later in John’s gospel too; the world will hate us because of Jesus. The statement not a hair of your hear will perish is referring to eternal life and not avoiding martyrdom. Jesus calls us all to be faithful and persevere to the end. God has our lives in his hand.

Luke 21:20-24 - The fifth sign is the attack on Jerusalem and destruction of the city and temple. This is immediately fulfilled in the Roman siege and sacking of the city in 70 and later in the 130’s in the Bar Kokhba revolt when Jerusalem’s name was changed and the Jews were forbidden to enter the city on pain of death.

The disciples’ original question to Jesus was when will all the stones be thrown down and these things take place. Jesus says when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies you will know that its desolation is near. His counsel is to flee when you the city surrounded. In Luke 21:22 Jesus says Jerusalem will be destroyed because this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of the Scriptures. It is unclear which specific prophecies Jesus is referring to here, however God holds the Jewish leaders and people accountable for rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. And God will not allow the whole temple sacrificial system to continue because it is a denial of and an insult to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus the Son of God for the sin of the human race.

Jesus says there will be great wrath by the nations against the Jews and they will be killed and taken away as slaves by the nations. All that is clearly fulfilled in 70 and the Roman siege of the city. Josephus reports that Titus took so many Jewish slaves from Jerusalem to Rome that the price of slaves on the market was depressed because the supply was so great. He used many of those same slaves to build the Coliseum.

Jesus then says Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. The Jews never had control of the city again, except for the brief time during the Bar Kokhba revolt until the Six Day War in 1967. Have the times of the Gentiles been fulfilled now? The temple mount is controlled not by the Jews but by a Muslim family with the Israelis providing security. This is a difficult prophecy yet one cannot help but wonder whether Jesus’ words are now fulfilled and the time for his coming is near because the Jews once again control Jerusalem.

Dispensationalists read these verses and immediately think of the tribulation and the Antichrist. I am not so sure. The temple is destroyed and has never been rebuilt. It was destroyed within a Biblical generation of Jesus’ time. The Jews rejected their Messiah. The supreme sacrifice for sin was offered, which the Book of Hebrews affirms. God used the Romans to eliminate the false ways and punish his people for rejecting his Son!

Luke 21:25-26 - The sixth sign is a more general sign related to signs in the sun, moon and stars; turmoil in the sea and the shaking of the heavenly bodies. People will be terrified and in great anxiety over these signs.

The signs in the sun, moon and star are once again related to what we would term astrological signs and not astronomical alignments or phenomena. These signs will involve bright stars like Jesus’ birth star, which for us might be new super novae not yet seen in the night sky. We should look for unique planetary alignments, solar and lunar eclipses, especially over Israel. Because these signs are related to the heavens we need to remember that the events we would see in the night sky have already happened, some perhaps even millions of years ago. What we see is the light from those events reaching the earth at the precise moment that dovetails with other eclipses.

People will also be disturbed by the tossing and turmoil of the sea. Remember that the sea in Jewish thought often stands for the waters of chaos. People will be disturbed because it will appear that chaos is being unleashed upon the coast lands. Most people in the world live near the ocean coasts. This could also describe tsunamis which are direct results from earthquakes which Jesus has also described as happening before the end. We should look for an increase in devastating tsunamis or storm surges and flooding from hurricanes and typhoons.

Jesus concludes this sign by saying that the heavenly bodies will be shaken. Literally the words read the power of the heavens will be shaken. This could refer to the stars which were seen by ancient peoples as representing the powers which ruled the world. It could also be referring to what John describes in Revelation 12 and the war in heaven between God’s angels and Satan’s demons. However, it appears that spiritual battle has already occurred. It is difficult to tell exactly what Jesus is referring to here.

Luke 21:27-29 - At that time, that is of the sixth and final sign the seventh sign will appear, the coming of the Son of Man with the clouds. The Lord Jesus will return from heaven on the clouds in the same way he went up to heaven. See Acts 1. He will come with power and great glory. There is no hint here of a half -way provisional coming ala the pre-tribulation rapture. When he comes he comes once for all! There will be no doubt that he has come or who he is. He will come as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus says when you see all these things begin to take place, look up, because your salvation, your complete and final redemption draws near. When the six signs begin to happen know he is close!

Jesus will say his coming in another place is like a thief in the night. There is a tension here between no one knows when he will come because he will come when people least expect it and watch the signs and be ready because your redemption draws near. Both are true. As believers we need to watch and be ready because even though we know the signs we can’t know the day or the time. That is fixed by our Heavenly Father. Yet we can know the signs and be prepared so the master does not find us idle when he appears. We will be about his work. The bottom line is he is coming back to reign and no force in history or hell can stop him!

Luke 21:29-31 - Jesus tells a short parable about watching for the signs. When fig trees and trees sprout leaves you know summer is coming. So when you see these seven signs start to happen you know that the Kingdom of God is near. The Kingdom here is the final fulfillment. Jesus has said earlier in his ministry that the Kingdom of God is near and it is within you. That was the “already” part of the Kingdom. Here he is talking about the “not yet” part, the final fulfillment of God’s plan and reign when Jesus will return as Messiah and take up his kingly rule on earth forever.

Many of the signs have already been fulfilled, especially those that deal with Jerusalem and 70AD. Some of the other signs are happening even now. Some of them have not yet happened. That means that we are getting closer to the time of his Second Coming. We should be getting ready and be watching so that the Day does not catch us unawares. We don’t know the exact time it is coming but we know it is coming.

Luke 21:32-33 - Jesus then says this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. The first issue Jesus raises is what is a generation? The Greek word is genea, which can mean generation or it can mean race, or people who share a common ancestry and time. It is tempting to say Jesus is talking about the Jewish race here but I think that stretches the word beyond its normal meaning and the context does not demand that translation. But translating the word in its normal sense as generation, meaning a specific group of related people in a specific time frame, ala 30-40 years, creates its own set of problems. That leads to the second issue, what does Jesus mean by all these things? Is he talking specifically about the question of when will the stones of the temple no longer stand and Jerusalem be destroyed? If so, then he is literally correct because within 40 years the Romans had destroyed the temple and Jerusalem. The problem is the seven signs do not all happen in one timeframe but are spread throughout history. Some are early and still lie within the New Testament timeframe. Some do not come until right before Jesus returns which hasn’t happened as yet. How are they all contained within a single generation? There is no easy answer to this. One possible way to interpret Jesus’ statement is to say that when the final signs begin to happen Jesus will return within that generation. Given the fact that the earlier signs concerning Jerusalem have already happened one would only be watching for the final signs. That seems to be the best interpretation but even that is not entirely satisfying.

Luke 21:34-36 - Jesus warns his disciples not to let their lives and hearts be occupied with worldly pursuits, drunkenness, dissipation or spending too much, and the worries of life. The contrast is interesting because people use spending money and drinking to escape the anxieties of life. Jesus is warning us that when we do not focus upon God and trust him to provide we are sucked into the world’s way of living which is consumed by worry and then escape as a way to treat the worry. It doesn’t work and results in a vicious cycle of denial and increasing anxiety. Jesus says if we get caught up into that lifestyle his coming will come unexpectedly like a trap. He will come like a thief in the night and we will be unprepared. We will be doing things when he comes that are not pleasing to the Lord nor will we be about his business and mission.

No one will escape his Second Coming. It will come on all who live on the earth and not just those who live in Israel. The whole world will experience the signs and the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds. That means that the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans is only a type of the ultimate turmoil in the world at his Second Coming.

Jesus’ solution; be on the watch, be alert and pray so that you can escape all that is about to happen. And that you will be able to stand before the Son of Man. What does he mean? To escape all that is to happen I think means to survive it. If you are near the coastlands, move. If you live in an earthquake zone, get out. If you live in or around Jerusalem, leave! The signs in the heavens no one can escape. Neither can we escape the persecution but the Lord promises his presence and wisdom in that time. He will protect us and strengthen us. As for standing before the Son of Man there are two ways to take Jesus’ statement. First it can mean literally I survive until he returns. When the signs start happening then I know he is near and I do everything I can to stand before him as a faithful disciple. Second, even if I am killed because of the persecution, I remain faithful and so stand before him as one of his children and saints. The bottom line is to pay attention to the signs not so I can figure out exactly when Jesus is coming but so I can be ready and pray effectively. When the signs start happening it means the time is short and the work of the gospel is even more urgent. Prayer becomes paramount. Why, because we need to be ready; we need to be focused on Jesus on not on worldly things, and we need to be praying for all of those who don’t know the Lord, the unsaved. We need to be praying for God’s people that we will stand up for the Lord and be faithful to him! We pray that we can escape the signs and the judgments coming! There is no sense here of Jesus saying we will be taken out before the signs come, ala the rapture. The sense is we are here on earth when the Son of Man returns!

Luke 21:37-38 - Luke closes his section on Jesus’ temple teaching during Holy Week with a summary of Jesus’ activity. He would teach every day in the temple and then each evening return to spend the night somewhere on the Mt. of Olives, then return in the morning. Since Bethany was on the back side of the ridge it is possible that Jesus stayed at Lazarus, Mary and Martha’s home. That would fit with the other gospel accounts because it is at Mary’s home that she anoints Jesus for burial.

When Jesus came back to the temple each day people would come early to hear him. Great crowds gathered to listen to his teaching. This sets the stage for Judas’ betrayal because the religious leaders had to find a way to take Jesus in secret or at night because trying to take him by day in the temple would have caused a riot. They were afraid of the crowds.

Questions by E.M. Zerr For Luke Chapter Twenty-One

1. What did Jesus observe?

2. To whom did he give the honor?

3. On what principle was that?

4. To what was his attention directed next ?

5. State his prediction.

6. What questions did this bring from them?

7. Tell the warning he began with.

8. What would many claim to be?

9. What should not terrify them ?

10. Why not?

11. Who shall be arrayed against each other?

12. Tell what shall be in many places.

13. And what kind of sights?

14. From where will signs come?

15. What is to happen before all this?

16. To what will the disciples be delivered?

17. For what sake will all this be?

18. When it does, what will it turn out to be ?

19. What speech must they prepare ?

20. Tell what will be given them then.

21. How strong will it be?

22. By whom will they be betrayed?

23. What worse thing will happen to some?

24. Tell what all men will do.

25. Why will they do so?

26. What assurance does he give them ?

27. Tell what possessions they should maintain.

28. Then what may they know?

29. What should Judeans then do?

30. Should people immigrate or emigrate ?

31. What are these days to be called ?

32. Tell what are to be fulfilled.

33. On whom is woe predicted?

34. Why is it so ?

35. By what will some fall ?

36. To what will they be led ?

37. What will happen to Jerusalem?

38. How long will that continue?

39. State the disturbance that will occur.

40. What will cause heart failure?

41. Tell what will be shaken.

42. What shall then be seen?

43. At this time what will be drawing nigh?

44. What was used as a parable?

45. It was to compare what?

46. Who will outlive these predictions?

47. What is less likely to fail than these words?

48. Of what must they take heed ?

49. What surprise might come?

50. How may the surprise be avoided ?

51. For what should we pray?

52. Where did Jesus pass the nights?

53. What did he do in the day?

54. How did the people show their interest ?

Luke Chapter Twenty-One

By Ralph L. Starling

Jesus observed the rich and a widow giving gifts large and small.

He said, “of a truth she gave more than they all.”

Some talked about how the Temple was adorned.

Jesus said, “time would come, no stone be left on stone.”

He was asked when this would be?

“Beware,” He said. “Many will come to deceive,

Using my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ.’

Many things will happen but that won’t be right.”

“The will be wars and all kinds of commotion

You may be betrayed by all kinds of promotion.

You will be hated for my name’s sake,

But not a hair on your head will they take.”

“When you see Jerusalem by armies surrounded,

Everyone should flee to the mountains.

Woe unto them that cannot get away.

Some will fall by the sword, others led away.”

“When you see these things coming to pass,

Watch and pray that you may escape.”

By day He taught in the Temple as always.

At night He abode in the Mount of Olives.