Mark 13:1,2 - What magnificent buildings!

13:1

We now get Jesus’ most expansive teaching on the second coming, and as with everything associated with the return of Christ interpretation varies enormously. There are some who seek to interpret it entirely in terms of first century events with AD 70 being the culmination (the destruction of Jerusalem). Others see it as totally future. The first view is referred to as the preterist interpretation, the second as futurist. I think it is much wiser, and more Biblical, to take the eclectic approach. The teaching quite clearly has relevance to the situation pertaining at the time, and what was going to happen in the near future, and we need to look at it in those terms if we are to have any hope of making sense of it. However, if we say that is all it is saying we end up having to force square pegs into round holes. Moreover, such an approach is not consistent with prophecies in the Old Testament. The messianic prophecies in the Old Testament usually had an immediate relevance, and were pointing forward to Jesus (both His first and second coming). Isaiah is perhaps the best example of this. So my approach is that we need to be aware of the historical context, along with the Old Testament background, and there will be partial fulfilment to be found there. However, it also teaches us general lessons about how the clash of kingdoms works (and its relevance to our lives), and to the return of Christ as well. One thing we should note is that this passage on the kingdom is located together with cross. The cross was central to the bringing in of the kingdom.

In this first verse we are told that at least one of the disciples was impressed with the current temple.

13:2

The disciple(s) thought that temple would last forever and was mightily impressive. Jesus was about to disabuse them of these ideas. We need to be careful what we are impressed by. Jesus acknowledges that the buildings are great, but then goes on to tell them that building would be completely destroyed. This was clearly looking forward to AD 70.