GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 13:15
The Temporal and the Eternal
In 2024, archaeologists exploring near Pompeii discovered the remains of a woman who died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and near her were coins and jewelry, including gold and pearl earrings. Writers speculate about whether the woman was seeking shelter in the house or had returned to the house to retrieve her valuables and was caught in the eruption.
Preachers and motivational speakers tell a story about a man who came home to find his house afire. He remembered a chest containing valuables and ran into the house to save it. As he struggled to remove the chest, it became wedged in the doorway. Rather than abandoning the chest, he continued to struggle with it as the flames spread. After extinguishing the flames, firefighters found the man, dead, slumped against the chest as if he were still attempting to push it through the door.
Attachment to material possessions is a natural instinct. For example, many bird species aggressively defend their nests, eggs, and young. Sometimes they give loud warning cries to alert their mate and nearby birds about a predator. Some species swoop at invaders, including humans, to drive them away. Sometimes groups of birds may join together to harass a hawk, owl, snake, cat, or other threat. Observers saw a mother cat carrying her babies to a new nest because the old one had become waterlogged.
This natural instinct, however, can threaten one’s life—as the woman at Pompeii, the man and his chest, and the birds illustrate. Jesus warned that there is something more valuable than pearls, chests, or nests: one’s life. “And let the one upon the roof not go down nor go inside to take anything from his house.” (Mark 13:15) Of course, Jesus’ prophecy focused on a specific event—the approaching destruction of Jerusalem. However, the principle that a one’s life does not consist in what one possesses was true for Jerusalem, and it is true today—one should not forfeit the eternal for the temporal.
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