The widow's coins and the end of the temple: Jesus on Jerusalem and the Son of Man

Luke 21 belongs to the third Gospel, written by an author whom the early church identified as Luke, the physician and companion of Paul (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24). The Gospel does not name him, and some modern scholars doubt that he knew Paul, but there is wide agreement that the author was a Gentile Christian of the first or second generation who gathered earlier sources (Luke 1:1-4). The date is debated. Defenders of an early date, around AD 60 to 62, point to the way Acts ends with Paul still in Rome. Most critical scholars date the Gospel between about AD 70 and 90, because they hold that Luke used Mark and that Luke 21:20-24 was shaped by knowledge of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Others reply that Jesus could foretell the fall of the city, since the prophets had foretold the fall of the first temple, and that Luke's wording draws on Old Testament language.

This chapter is one of the places where the synoptic problem, the question of how Matthew, Mark and Luke are related, can be seen at work. Most scholars hold that Luke took Mark 13 as his base and reworked it. Parts of the same teaching appear elsewhere in Luke (17:22-37) in a different setting. In any case the three Gospels agree in the main outline: a question about the temple, a warning against deception, persecution, the fall of Jerusalem, the coming of the Son of Man, and a parable of the fig tree.

The setting is Jesus' last days in Jerusalem. He has spent the day teaching in the temple court and has silenced his opponents (chapter 20). Herod the Great began rebuilding the temple around 20 BC, and it was still being finished in Jesus' lifetime. Luke's first readers, probably Gentile Christians, needed to understand why the holy city had fallen, how to live under persecution, and why Christ had not yet returned. This chapter speaks to all three.

The discourse is prophecy in the style of the Old Testament prophets and of Jewish apocalyptic writing. Such texts speak of historical events with images from the heavens (sun, moon, stars, the sea), and they often fold near and distant events into one view, as the prophets did when they spoke of an enemy's attack and the day of the LORD together.

• The first rule is to ask what the images meant to a Jewish audience familiar with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
• The second is to follow the questions the disciples ask. They ask 'when will these things happen' and what sign will mark them (21:7). Jesus answers in stages, and the reader has to judge which sentences answer which part.

The widow story that opens the chapter is the last scene of the temple teaching that begins in chapter 20. Luke has just told us that the scribes devour widows' houses (20:47), and now a poor widow gives to the temple all that she has.

The interpretive questions about this chapter are real and old. Does verse 32 refer to the generation of Jesus' hearers, to a future generation or to the Jewish people? Do verses 25-28 describe the same events as 20-24 or later ones? The tradition note sets out the main answers.

Verses 1–4

Jesus looks up and sees the rich putting gifts into the treasury, a set of collection chests in the temple. A poor widow puts in two small copper coins (lepta, the smallest coin in circulation). He says she has put in more than all the others, because they gave out of surplus and she gave 'out of her poverty' all she had to live on. Most readers take this as Jesus' praise of her. A minority of interpreters read it as lament over a religious system that took the last coins of the poor, and they point to the scribes who devour widows' houses. The text does not say that Jesus told her to give, and the first reading fits the contrast of surplus and everything better.

Verses 5–7

Some of the disciples admire the stones and gifts that adorned the temple. Jesus says that the time will come when 'not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.' The disciples ask when, and what sign will show that it is about to happen. In Mark four disciples ask privately on the Mount of Olives, while in Luke the exchange seems to stay in the temple.

Verses 8–11

The first warning is about deception. Many will come in Jesus' name, saying 'I am He' and 'The time is near.' The disciples must not follow them. Wars and rebellions are expected but are not the signal of the end ('the end is not imminent'). Nation against nation, earthquakes, famines, pestilences and fearful signs from heaven are the distress of a broken world, and Jesus does not treat them as dates on a calendar.

Verses 12–19

'Before all this' means before these larger troubles, the disciples will be seized and persecuted, taken to synagogues and prisons and brought before kings and governors. Luke's second volume shows exactly this. Jesus says it will be 'your opportunity to serve as witnesses.' They are not to prepare their defense, since he will give them speech and wisdom that no adversary can resist (compare Acts 4:13-14 and 6:10). Betrayal will come even from family, some will be put to death, and all will be hated because of his name. Yet 'not even a hair of your head will perish.' The phrase sounds strange next to the promise of death, and it is best read as a promise that nothing done to them can undo their final deliverance. By 'patient endurance' (hypomone) they will gain their lives, or their souls.

Verses 20–24

When Jerusalem is surrounded by armies, the people of Judea must flee to the mountains and those in the country must stay away. Luke's phrasing differs from Mark 13:14 and Matthew 24:15, which speak of the 'abomination of desolation' in language taken from Daniel. Luke names the armies. These are 'days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written' (compare Deuteronomy 28:49-57; Jeremiah 6:1-8; Hosea 9:7), and there will be distress and wrath on 'this people'. Some will fall by the sword and others will be taken captive among the nations. Jerusalem 'will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.' The phrase implies a limited period. Paul speaks of a related hope in Romans 11:25-26.

Verses 25–28

After the fall of Jerusalem, Jesus turns to signs in the sun, moon and stars and distress among the nations, as the roaring sea and the shaking of the powers of heaven bring fear. 'At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.' The picture comes from Daniel 7:13-14. The disciples are to stand and lift their heads because 'your redemption is drawing near.' The word redemption (apolytrosis) is the language of release from slavery. In a chapter of fear, this is the one verse that tells the disciples to look up.

Verses 29–33

In the fig tree parable, leaves show that summer is near, and in the same way 'when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.' The verb 'know' is an imperative: the signs are meant to be read. Verse 32 says that 'this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.' Verse 33 follows: heaven and earth will pass away, but 'My words will never pass away.'

Verses 34–38

The conclusion is practical. The hearts of the disciples must not be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness and the worries of life, so that the day does not spring on them like a snare. They are to 'keep watch at all times' and pray for strength to escape and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke ends by noting the pattern of Jesus' last days: teaching in the temple by day, nights on the Mount of Olives, and crowds coming early to hear him.

Several doctrines come together in this chapter.

• The first is the sovereignty of God over history. Jesus speaks of wars, earthquakes and the fall of a city as events that 'must happen' and as the fulfillment of what the prophets wrote (21:9, 22).
• The second is judgment and mercy together. The fall of Jerusalem is described as vengeance and as the consequence of the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28, and yet Jesus wept over the city (Luke 19:41-44) and tells people how to escape.

• The third is the return of Christ and the end of the age. Luke's picture of the Son of Man coming in a cloud agrees with Acts 1:11 and with Paul's teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. The New Testament consistently teaches that Christ will come again, visibly and in glory, to complete redemption and judge the world.
• The fourth is the character of Christian life while waiting: faithful witness under pressure, endurance, prayer, and a heart that is not weighed down by the world's cares.
• Finally, the chapter ends with the claim that the words of Jesus will outlast the created order, which echoes Isaiah 40:8 and puts his teaching in the place the prophets gave to the word of God.

Luke 21 shows Jesus as prophet, judge and coming king. As prophet, he sees what will happen to the temple and the city, as the prophets before him had done, and he speaks of the fall of Jerusalem with grief and with clarity. As judge and king, he describes himself as the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and glory. This is fulfillment of Daniel 7:13-14, where the Son of Man receives everlasting dominion. At his trial Jesus will use the same language of himself (Luke 22:69), and the angels at the ascension promise that he will come in the same way (Acts 1:11).

The claim in 21:33 is the most startling. Isaiah 40:8 says that the word of our God stands forever, and Jesus applies that permanence to his own words. Only one who speaks with the authority of God can say this, and it agrees with his claim in Luke 20 to be the Lord of Psalm 110 and the beloved Son.

The widow may be read as an echo. She gives all she has to live on, and the Gospel will go on to describe the one who gives himself entirely. This is an echo and not a stated type. Luke does not link the two, but he places the widow's gift just before the passion narrative, where Jesus' body is 'given for you' (22:19). The temple, whose stones will not remain, stands in the Gospel for an order that is passing, and John 2:19-21 and Hebrews 9 explain that Jesus himself is the place where God meets his people.