Matthew 24:3: Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives , the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?
The prophecy of Matthew 24-25 is frequently described as the Olivet Discourse because Jesus delivers it on the Mount of Olives across the Kidron valley to the east of Jerusalem . As Jesus speaks to His disciples, Herod’s unfinished temple is visible, but it is visible in the distance. Jesus abandons the house in Jerusalem , the palace of Israel ’s God, and sits instead outside the city.
The Mount of Olives is a crucial location in the final week of Jesus’ life.
A few days before, Jesus launched His triumphal entry from the same Mount of Olives . After He has His final meal with His disciples, He returns to the Mount to pray in the garden of Gethsemane , which means “Olive Press.” On the Mount of Olives , He is arrested; possibly, He is also crucified on this mountain, nailed to one of the oil trees in the grove.
After the flood, the dove brings back a sprig of an olive branch to Noah, a sign of new creation. Olive oil is used for anointing priests and kings, a symbol of the Spirit poured out on Israel ’s leaders, making kings and priests shine like lamps in the darkness. When Solomon builds the temple, the most sacred inner sanctuary is of “oil wood,” and Solomon makes two monumental olive wood cherubim to guard the ark-throne of the Lord. The temple was God’s garden, His olive grove, where He walked among the trees in the Spirit of the day.
But Jesus has left the olive grove within the city, and He’s not going back. He speaks about the end of the cursed olive grove of the temple, and, surrounded by His disciples, forms a new olive grove on another mountain.
We are that olive grove. We are the new holy of holies, the place where our Lord sits enthroned to instruct us. We are the bride of Jesus, the fruitful vine in His house, and we are the Father’s children, like olive trees round about his table. We are the new anointed ones, made kings and priests to God, God’s oil trees, green and full of sap beside streams of water.
Especially here at this table we are God’s olive grove in His Son. Olive trees were created on day three of the week of creation, along with fruit-bearing trees and vines and seed-bearing grasses. On the third day after Jesus’ death, He began a new creation, also with fruit and grain and oil. In the new temple that is the body of Jesus, these three abide: the bread and the wine and the oil.
Much of this is taken from Jim Jordan’s study of Matthew 24-25.
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