MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 13:32-36

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THESE FEW verses round of the record of Mark's account of the teaching of the Lord as to his return at the end of the world. There are two main issues that it contains. Firstly, what it teaches us further about the return of the Lord, and secondly, what it teaches concerning our attitude to the return of the Lord. Let us consider both in turn.

Firstly, what we learn about the return of the Lord. We learn two very important facts. We learn what the coming will be like. It will be marked by two things which we need to remember and consider very seriously. The coming of the Lord is absolutely certain. There is nothing much that we can be entirely certain of in life. However we can be certain that one day we will die, and the other certainty is that Christ will return one day to this earth. This certainty is of such great importance because it marks the judgement and the end of this created order and universe, and our state before God either at death or at this time determines our eternal welfare.

Then we learn that the coming of the Lord will be sudden. One moment everything in the world will be going on much as it has always done, and then the Lord will appear with his holy angels, and the whole world order will stop and bow before their Lord and creator. There will be no warning. There will be no announcements in the press or on Television. There will be no time to put things right at the last moment. There will be no time to believe or repent or change our way of life. The way we have been living up to that moment will be frozen for all eternity, and there will be no time to make amends.

Secondly, we learn, contrary to so much speculation, that although Jesus in this chapter gives certain signs that precede his coming, and the New Testament in other places tells us of things that must take place before Christ comes and of events immediately preceding his coming, yet there is still no way of knowing when the Lord's coming will be. Jesus tells his disciples that even he does not know when he is to return. The time is entirely in the hands of God the Father, and he alone knows when it will be. This needs to be emphasised because there has been in the past within the Christian church a lot of teaching and interest in the second coming of Jesus, which has concentrated on the events leading up to his coming, and all for the purpose of seeking to determine when the second coming will take place. In the past, even dates have been predicted for his coming, all of which have been proved to be false. Jesus did not give all the information in this chapter for the purpose of speculation, but that we may understand and be ready when Jesus does come.

For the other truth, what does Jesus urge upon us as we consider his coming? It is one thing - which is to so watch that we are ready when he comes. Whether we die before Jesus returns to this earth or whether we are here when he returns, we must watch so that we are ready. We have to be ready for death just as we need to be ready for Christ's return, for in both we meet our God and judge and will have to give an account of our lives. Though death may usually come with old age and we know when we are drawing nearer it, we do not ever know when it will come, so we must be always ready. The untimely death of Princess Diana shows us that death can come to any of us when we least expect it. We must be ready.

How are we ready? Jesus speaks of us as servants left in charge of their lord's property when he goes away on a journey. Being ready is serving our lord and looking after the property he has left in our care. Jesus also speaks of assigned tasks, speaking of the fact that God has a purpose for every one of our lives which we are meant to fulfil.

The life of Noah is a helpful example as we consider being ready for the coming of the Lord. Noah was waiting for the coming of the Lord in judgement on all the inhabited world at that time. He did not know when the flood would come, but he believed in the word of the Lord that it would come, and in the word of the Lord concerning the Ark by which he and anyone else could be saved. We are further told that he was a preacher of righteousness, by which we understand that in all the long time which was needed for the ark to be built and up to the time the flood came, Noah warned the people who lived at that time that God was coming to judge by a flood and that they could escape if they joined him in the ark.

So we learn first of all that being ready is believing and acting upon the word of the Gospel and so resting our souls in the perfect finished work of Jesus for us, which is our ark of salvation, and renouncing all trust in our own righteousness. Then in the second place being ready is urging others to take the same refuge, and warning them that there is judgement to come unless they do. In the third place we need to live each day for the Lord seeking to live in a way that pleases him, and is the fulfilment of the life he has given us to live on this earth.

If our life is lived in this way, whenever death comes or Christ returns, we will be ready and be of the number whom Christ will gather to himself saying, 'Come, you blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world.' As we can never know the day or time of Christ's return, we must always be resting in faith in the work of Jesus for us, living in love to please him, and sharing with others the way to be ready.