30th November 2008 (Advent Sunday)
Mark 13:24-37
What is Jesus talking about? Mark 13 begins with his disciples marvelling at the temple buildings. Jesus’ response is to tell them that those buildings will be completely destroyed. ‘When?’ ask his disciples. ‘What warning will we get?’ Theologians tell us that rest of the chapter answers those questions, by predicting in apocalyptic terms the fall of Jerusalem and the terrible times associated with it. History tells us that the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD70, within the lifetime of that generation (v. 30).
Ordinary readers feel there is more to this passage than that. I think they are right. The sacking of Jerusalem did not exactly come like a thief in the night. The war started after massacres of Jews by Romans and Romans by Jews; in AD67 the Romans subdued the rest of the country before laying siege to Jerusalem itself in AD70, and the siege was a long drawn out process involving the building of a five mile wall and huge mounds of earth against the innermost wall. Before the siege began, the Christian community recognised that Jesus’ predictions were about to come true and fled from the city. Much of Mark 13, and parallel passages in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, were fulfilled at that time. But not everything. So the question remains, is Jesus talking about something else as well? Something much more sudden and unexpected?
In Matthew 24, Matthew’s version of this conversation, we read that the disciples asked another question: ‘What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ It seems to me that Jesus answers at the same time both the question about Jerusalem and the question about his coming. It is possible that the disciples expected the end of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ to be part of the same event, or at least to be very close together. (Some Old Testament passages might have encouraged that thinking, such as Ezekiel 38-39, and Joel 3.) We must not be surprised therefore that the two answers are difficult to disentangle. However, it seems to me that in the gospel reading for today, Jesus is speaking more about his second coming at the end of time. (Verses 28-30 seem to be the exception: ‘These things’ are probably the events around the fall of Jerusalem; ‘that day’, ‘that time’ in verses 32-33 probably refers to the time of his coming.)
What does Jesus tell us about his coming to earth again? He tells us it won’t be like the first Christmas, when he came incognito, born as a helpless baby. This time it will be as King in all his glory – ‘coming in clouds’ reminds us of the many times in the Bible that God’s presence is indicated by a cloud. This time will be the final harvest, the ‘ingathering’ of all his people. (Paul gives more details in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which we looked at a few weeks ago.) But above all, it will be sudden and unexpected – we will not be given any more preparation than we already have. (Paul does say in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that ‘the man of lawlessness’ will come first, which seems to be equivalent to the ‘antichrist’ John speaks about in 1 John – though he says in 1 John 2:18 that many antichrists have already come, which doesn’t help us fix a timetable!) The message for us is to be prepared: ‘Watch!’ In other words, we are to live each day as if we expect Jesus to arrive any moment. And that is a good way to live, even if he does not come for another thousand years.
Questions:
1) How helpful is it to try to imagine what Jesus’ coming will be like?
2) How can we better prepare ourselves for his coming?