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When their buds burst open,
you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;
in the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that the Kingdom of God is near.
It is surprising when we consider what specifically were the "these things" Jesus to which Jesus referred. They included "wars and insurrections" "earthquakes, famines, and plagues" and signs in the sky and in the see so significant that people would "die of fright in anticipation" of what was coming. Most people would not immediately think to use the analogy of the buds of trees bursting open and the near approach of summer for such events. They seemed rather more like the beginning of the end in a way that would be more appropriately signified by winter. But the apocalyptic signs to which Jesus referred were not merely the beginning of the end. They did in fact point to a new beginning. Chaos and catastrophe would not ultimately have the last word because it was not heaven and earth, nor words about them that would abide. It was the words of Jesus that would last forever. Therefore his Kingdom, together with all of those who built their lives on the foundation of his words, would merely be shedding their old protective shells to unleash the fruit they were always meant to bear. No amount of apocalyptic chaos could prevent this from happening. Indeed it seemed that for Christians difficult circumstances led more inexorably to bearing fruit than did comfortable ones. It was fitting for them to looking at the most trying of times with supernatural hope. There were no situations so dire that they could not lead mysteriously to the coming of the Kingdom, especially in the lives of Christians specifically because of the fruit that God brought forth from them at such times.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
The things that seem the most permanent to us are typically the ones that our senses have demonstrated to be reliable. The ground beneath our feet today was also there yesterday. The sun rose yesterday and will probably rise tomorrow. But these apparently reliable phenomena are rooted in that which is by its nature temporary and partial. The words of most people are much less solid than created things themselves. Promises made by normal women and men simply can't compete with gravity or the laws of thermodynamics for consistency. Science and philosophy themselves only seem solid to the degree that they accurately define what is actually the case for heaven and earth. But in Jesus all of this is reversed. His words are in the fact origin of all things, they accurately describe how they will end, and they point beyond that to what will truly last. If we root our lives in the circumstances of heaven and earth as we now experience them it is inevitable that our peace will be repeatedly shaken. They will not exist forever and we aren't intended to cling to them in their present form. True peace can really come only to the degree that we learn trust in the words of Jesus since it is precisely these words that give us access and entrance into that which eternal, permanent, and perfect.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
The former heaven and the former earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more.
I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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