Merely the Beginning: Mark 13:1-13

Most of you who have followed along on this gospel adventure journey have likely concluded that I am a detailed person, and you would be correct. The message Jesus shares in this journal entry’s passage is in three of the four gospels, and the detail that I noticed while studying this passage comes to us from Mark’s gospel.

As Jesus is sharing about what will happen, He describes rumors, wars, earthquakes, and famines, but how He frames these things is interesting. At the end of verse 8, after telling us about all the bad that is coming, He says, “These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”

What stands out to me is the portion of this teaching that is describing nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom being simply the beginning. Is Jesus telling us that all this stuff will continue, and progressively get worse and worse, similar to the way labor gets more intense as it progresses forward? Or is Jesus subtly sharing that there will be a point between nations fighting with each other and His return where there technically would be large scale peace?

These are some of the questions that run through my mind as I read Jesus’ words in this passage.

I know it seems as though each war that has happened has gotten progressively worse. Perhaps not in the number of casualties, but worse in the number of lives affected. Living in North America, war is not a daily reality as it is in some other parts of the world. In recent history, wars escalated to the level of major nations allying with each other on both sides to create large scale “world” wars.

However, Jesus describes all these events as “merely the beginning”.

This passage tells me one big truth: We are in the “beginning of the end” and we have been for some time. Regardless of the political landscape and the wars that are raging in parts of the world, God is not surprised with what is going on and He has our future secure in His hands.