As Jesus concluded his prophecy about his coming and the terrible things that would lead up to that event, he called his disciples attention to the fig tree. He had cursed a fig tree on the Mount of Olives only the day before (Mark 11:12-14), and this morning as he returned to Jerusalem his disciples called Jesus’ attention to how quickly it had withered (Mark 11:20-21). Now, near the end of the day, Jesus pointed to another fig tree, saying, when its branches are tender in the spring, and its leaves begin to sprout, this is evidence for the nearness of summer (Mark 13:28). In the context of Jesus’ Olivet Prophecy his disciples were to understand the nearness of his coming from the analogy of the fig tree. When the horrifying events that Jesus had just described began to occur, they were to understand that his judgment upon Jerusalem and the Temple were about to transpire, and his coming would bring an end to the Old Covenant age (Mark 13:29; cp. Matthew 24:3; Deuteronomy 31:29; Hebrews 8:13) and establish the new and never-ending age of the Gospel (cp. Daniel 2:44).
Many folks today don’t believe Jesus came in the first century AD, as he told his disciples he would (Mark 13:30), and as his disciples understood him to say (Romans 13:11-13;1Corinthians 1:7;1Peter 1:13, 20; 4:7; 2Peter 3:13-15; Revelation 1:3; 22:10, 12, 20). Not only so, but folks today even look for men to rebuild what the Lord in judgment had torn down, namely the Temple at Jerusalem (cp. Mark 13:5-6). Nevertheless, Jesus predicted that he would return in the very generation that had rejected and crucified him (Matthew 16:27-28; 23:34-36).
As proof of his statement, namely that he would come within one generation of time (cir. 40 years), Jesus told his disciple that heaven and earth would pass away, or, in other words, heaven and earth would perish, but his word could never perish or be averted. That is, Jesus claimed his word was surer than the Temple itself. The Temple was a citadel, built to last the attack of mighty forces, yet Jesus claimed his word to his disciples on that day upon Mount Olivet was surer than the Temple could be defended. The Temple would pass away, but Jesus’ words were surer than its walls of stone (some of which weighed 100 tons) and would prove to be true.
The Jewish scholars taught that the Temple precincts were like Eden. Heaven was the place where the Lord dwelt, and in the beginning he shared his dwelling place with men. It was the Garden in which he placed man (Genesis 2:8). It was there that the Lord communed with man (Genesis 3:8), but when man rebelled, he was banished from the Garden (Genesis 3:22-24), and this points to the Most Holy Place within the Temple, before which hung the veil, which hung between it and the Holy Place, where only the priests could enter. This is where heaven, the place where the Lord dwelt, and earth, the place where man dwelt, met. It is to this that Jesus pointed, when he claimed that heaven and earth would pass away. Yet, many modern Christians think the Lord claimed all of creation would pass away, something which the word of God rejects (Isaiah 45:18; cp. Genesis 9:8-17). Therefore, the heaven and earth that Jesus said would pass away (Mark 13:31) pointed not to the universe, but to the Temple citadel that stood in Jerusalem during the first century AD.
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