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BLIND MAN CONQUERS EVEREST

Eric’s climb up Everest, in April, May, and June 2001, didn’t begin auspiciously. During the first stage of the climb, Erik fell into a crevasse, and when his partner reached down to catch him, he scratched Erik’s nose and chin with a climbing pole. Wounds don’t heal quickly in such oxygen-starved air. And that afternoon Erik passed out in his tent. Pasquale commented, “I was thinking, ‘Maybe this is not a good idea.’”

But after two months of recuperation, Erik started out again, and after weeks of climbing finally got up to Camp 4. From there they tried to reach the summit, but were forced back. Then on May 24, with seven days left in the climbing season, they knew they had only one more shot at the top. Slogging up the South face to 27-and-a-half thousand feet, the sky suddenly exploded with lightning, wind, and driving snow. Erik recalls, “We thought we were done.” Then just as suddenly the weather cleared, and they went for it.
There’s a 656-foot, knife-edge ridge, leading to what’s know as Hillary Step named after Sir Edmund Hillary. It’s just ice, snow, and fragmented shale. Then it’s 39 feet up the last main obstacle, before the final sharp-angle slope to the “top of the world.” When he arrived, his climbing partner exclaimed, to this blind man, “Look around Dude, just take a second, and look around!”

Erik says he spent about 10 minutes up there. He could see nothing, but he could feel it! In that setting, Erik prayed a prayer of thanks to God for success and safety. Then they headed safely down. A blind man had conquered Everest.

Which, in a strange way introduces the events of Mark 13, where we read about a group of “blind” men climbing up a mountain. Yes, they had physical sight alright, but they’d lost insight about the imminent end of the life of their Master—despite the fact he’d told them about it, over and over again. So they climbed a modest hill top, the Mount of Olives, and Jesus made another attempt to have them understand what was about to happen to Him personally. First, He was about to be crucified. That was the key point. Second, soon after, Jerusalem would be sacked and the temple destroyed. And third, in time, the entire world would fall into chaos just before He returned to receive His people and take them to be with Him for ever in a recreated perfect world. Three stupendous events.

You know, friend, this program is called the Voice of Prophecy, and the chapter we’re about to open, is a wonderful “prophecy” I love to share.

As Jesus walked past the temple in Jerusalem, He commented, “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (based on Mark 13:2). The startled disciples assumed that only the end of the world could bring down such a building. And they wanted to know what would be the signs of the end of the world? And Jesus told them.

Politically there would be war, and the threat of war, internationally (that’s Mark 13:11).

Geographically, the earth would shake as its tectonic plates slid over one another in jerky motion. And widespread famine would rear its ugly head (that’s Mark 13:8).

Socially, families and communities would be torn apart as they took sides, some for and some against the gospel (that’s Mark 13:12).

But chronologically, when the gospel is preached in all the world, the end will come.

So the ultimate, end-time meaning of this prophecy as recorded by Mark is about the signs heralding the end of the world, at the end of this age.

But there’s a second application that was much closer at hand when Jesus spoke. In these verses, Jesus presented a view of the events that would lead to the destruction of the temple some four decades later. How incredibly brilliant, Jesus took the two questions the disciples had, and gave one answer for both of them!

This is so amazing it bears repeating: the indicators showing US that world history is coming close to the end, are the identical indicators that signaled to the disciples that the temple in Jerusalem was about to be destroyed. That happened in 70 AD. And in the 35 years between the time Jesus spoke and the destruction of Jerusalem in Palestine by the Roman army, there were local wars, famines, earthquakes, social unrest, and divided families. And the gospel did find its way throughout “the world of that day” according to the apostle Paul in Colossians 1:23.

So we see there are two fulfillments to this prophecy. The set of circumstances Jesus named on a local, limited scale, led up to the destruction of the temple under General Titus in AD 70. And the identical set of circumstances on a world wide scale, show us today that the end of the history of the world is fast approaching. Jesus soon will return.

But I see another deeply personal meaning in the words of this prophecy from Jesus. And I imagine this third meaning would have been the one Mark most wanted us to see. It’s the terrible fate our human Jesus faced to pay the price for the sins of the world. And the awe expressed by Peter, James, John and Andrew about the Jewish temple at the beginning of the Olivet conversation, gave Him a perfect introduction to what he wanted to say about “the temple of His body.”

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus had startled the Jewish hierarchy by saying: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (see John 2:19). Of course He spoke of the temple of His body. At the end of His ministry, Jesus elaborates this theme and gives the outline of His “personal” end-time drama, the drama of His trial and execution. Note these points from Mark 13.

#1 “Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out that no one deceives you’” (Mark 13:5). And when Jesus stood before Pilate, virtually all the church leaders were deceived. They saw only a human being in front of them. They thought only about earthly politics. And when Pilate pronounced, “Behold your King,” the rabble replied, “We have no king but Caesar” (see John 19:14-16)! How easy it is to be deceived!

#2 Jesus said, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Mark 13:8). At His trial, one kingdom is pitted against another, an earthly against a heavenly. And when the High Priest provokes Jesus by asking, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?” Jesus responds, “Yes, it is as you say, and you’ll see me, the King, coming in the clouds of heaven at the end of the age” (Matthew 26:64).

#3 Jesus said, “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues” (Mark 13:9). And it happened to Jesus. He, the head, was treated the way His body, the church, would be treated in the future. He stood before Governors and Kings and witnessed to them, and was flogged.

#4 Jesus said, “The gospel must first be preached to all nations” (Mark 13:10). And He “enacted” it, He is the Gospel story, and when He died only then could that good news be preached throughout the world.

#5 Mark wrote that Jesus was “arrested and brought to trial” (Mark 13:11). And in that experience, Jesus said, “Brother will betray brother to death” (Mark 13:12) And that’s just what Judas did to the brothers with whom he had walked and worked for three and a half years.

#6 Jesus said, “All men will hate you because of me” (Mark 13:13). And the cries of the people to crucify the Lord showed an intensity of feeling that answers the description of “hatred.” That made the disciples very afraid. They fled and hid, locked themselves in a room, scared they’d be hunted down and crucified too.

#7 Jesus said, “Because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again” (Mark 13:19). At Calvary Jesus Himself suffered distress unequaled in history, and knowing what was ahead, for it was all written down in the Psalms, He asked His Father that if at all possible He be released from the terrifying events ahead. The angels longed to rescue Him. And the few faithful followers that stood with Him, mostly women, experienced the ultimate in distress. There never was, or ever will be the equal of that experience.

#8 Jesus continues: “But in those days, following that distress, the sun will be darkened” (Mark 13:24). The sun refused to shed its light on the travesty of justice being enacted at Calvary. The physical sun in the skies hid its face behind clouds.

Oh friend of mine, this third meaning is so vastly important. Within hours of Jesus speaking to the disciples on the Mount of Olives, the first of the three fulfillments began to unfold. Within three and a half decades a second, limited, local, application unfolded with the destruction of the temple. And today, a third worldwide application continues to unfold. And the church and the world are hastening down the road to meet their appointments with destiny. Thus, these final words from Jesus: “Be on guard” (Mark 13:33)! Be alert, because we don’t know precisely when the climax will come—but come it will.

You know, the most important question any of us will ever consider is this: Have I given my life to the Jesus Who died for me at Calvary? It’s the great decision with eternal consequences you and I must answer in this life. And when we answer that question by saying “Yes,” to Jesus, we will find blindness falls from our eyes, and we will with patience and confidence begin our daily climb with Jesus, with the same fortitude and courage Erik Weihenmayer showed climbing Everest, until Jesus takes us to heaven at His return.