In my most recent study, I mentioned The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46). According to that parable, the authorities taking care of (governing) the vine (the Lord’s heritage or his people) were responsible for killing the servants (prophets) of the lord of the vineyard (the God of Israel), and for which they would be eventually judged (Matthew 21:40, 43). So, in this parable Jesus introduced a common theme found throughout the New Testament, and that is the theme of the vindication of the martyrs. Later, Jesus would accuse the Jewish authorities of being guilty of all of the blood of all of the righteous from Able (Genesis 4) to Zacharias (2Chronicles 24:20-22).[1] In other words they were guilty of all of the righteous blood that had been shed under the Old Testament (Matthew 23:35).
Moreover, Jesus said that he would send them prophets, wise men and scribes, and they, i.e. the Jewish authorities, would persecute them from city to city, beating them in their synagogues and killing others (Matthew 23:34), thus filling up the cup of their unrighteousness (cf. Matthew 23:32).
Paul mentioned this motif in Romans 8:18 when he claimed that the suffering (G3804) of that present time wasn’t worthy to be compared with the glory that would later come. Paul was referring to his vindication. We need to understand that Paul’s word for suffering (G3804) doesn’t concern affliction due to accidents, sickness or natural disasters etc. Rather, he was speaking about his own part in the sufferings of Christ (1Corinthians 1:5-7; Philippians 3:10). The word has to do with identifying with Christ and enduring the cost of doing so. Who were responsible for the suffering of the apostles and other believers in the first century AD? It was the work of the wicked tenants (Matthew 21:35-36). It was the Jewish authorities, who persecuted Paul and others, from city to city etc. (Matthew 23:32-34), but Paul knew his vindication would come in due time (Matthew 23:35), and it could come in his expected lifetime (Matthew 23:36).
Peter also spoke of this same suffering or affliction (G3804), when he told of the Old Testament prophets who searched the scriptures in an effort to understand the suffering (G3804) of Christ and the glory that should follow (1Peter 1:10). He also mentioned the trouble his readers were experiencing (1Peter 1:6-7), and that they were partakers of the suffering (G3804) of Christ (1Peter 4:13), as were his disciples throughout the world (1Peter 5:9).
Nevertheless, the whole point of martyr vindication is that this suffering was but for a little while. There would be an ‘end’ to it all, when Jesus would come to judge the disciples’ persecutors. Relief comes, according to the New Testament, “at the appearing” of Jesus (1Peter 1:7, 13), who also said he would be coming soon to his disciples who were suffering (cf. Revelation 22:7, 12; Matthew 16:27-28), and, according to Paul, it is a righteous thing for God to afflict those who afflict his people (2Thessalonians 1:6). Therefore, those saints in the first century AD were able to look forward for relief from their trouble, when the Lord appeared from heaven to judge their persecutors (2Thessalonians 1:7; cf. Revelation 6:10-11).
This, of course, occurred in 70 AD when Jesus returned in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64) to judge Jerusalem and the Temple. To prolong that time for 2000 years doesn’t fit the context of imminence in the New Testament. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but the fulfillment of one’s hopes is as a tree of life (Proverbs 13:12). Why would the Lord delay his coming, when to do so is considered the work of evil (Matthew 24:48)?
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[1] 2Chronicles is the last book of the Old Testament in the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible.
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