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CHRIST'S STATE OF MIND THAT LED INTO HIS PROPHECY 

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Christ prophecy in all three accounts was proceeded by his "triumphant" entry into  Jerusalem saddled on the colt.  The people of Jerusalem were laying their garments on the street in front of him crying Hosanna.  Also proclaiming him to be the prophesied King and Messiah that had finally arrived. Once he arrived he went to the temple and threw out the money changers. This is a story that almost all people who call themselves Christians readily recognize. This was the public exhibition of Christ to the whole world and yet it  led to his prophecy about the end of the first covenant age. After he threw out the money changers and ministered to the people in the Temple to the angst of the authorities. He went to spend the night in Bethany and was hungry, he found a fig tree and did this: 

Matthew 21:19. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing on it, but leaves only, and said to it, Let no fruit grow on you from now on  forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. 

Mark 11:13. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing on it: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
14. And Jesus answered and said to it, No man eat fruit of you any more for ever. And his disciples heard it.

This was clearly a sign speaking of the end of the first covenant age, notice the for ever part, the finality of the proclamation. Luke does not record this event but records something the others do not immediately following his triumphant entry. Before he goes to the temple.

Luke: 19:41. And when he was come near, he looked at the city (Jerusalem), and wept over it, 42. Saying, If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace! but now they are hidden from your  eyes.43. For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies  will build an embankment against you and surround you and hem you in on every side. ,44. And shall raze you to the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another; because you did not know not the time of your visitation.

Then in the temple the next day he uses similar language in his confrontation with the powers that be.

Matthew 21:33. Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and leased it out to farmers, and went into a far country: 34. And when the time of the harvest drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, that they might receive the fruits of it. 35. And the farmers took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did the same to them. 37. But last of all he sent to them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 38. But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us take his  inheritance (the farm) for ourselves. 39. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 40. When the lord therefore of the vineyard comes, what will he do unto those farmers 41. They say to him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will lease out his vineyard to other farmers, which shall give him the fruits of the harvest. 42. Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? 43. Therefore say I say to you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits of it. 44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.

Mark and Luke record the same parable and all three of them record other parables and quotes from the Old Testament that say the same things. Matthew ends the whole discourse that immediately proceeds the prophecy  in Matthew 24 with this:

Matthew 23: 29. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, 30. And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31. Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32.Finish then what your ancestors started. 33. You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? 34. Wherefore, behold, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them you shall  scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. 36. Truly I say to you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that murder the prophets, and stone them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! 38. Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

This is the context and the state of mind of Christ's prophecy. It is so obvious that the context has nothing to do with the end of the world but has everything to do with the end of the  First Covenant age, and the tragic cause and effect events surrounding the Jewish nation politically rejecting the great light that had come to them. 

© 2008 Daniel Martinovich