First Sunday of Advent

Be on Guard, Keep Awake

Mark 13:24-37

The picture of the second coming is one where normal life is interrupted in a moment, and then everything changes, and the question is: how will we respond?

This sermon comes from Mark 13 and this chapter is called the Olivet Discourse. The Olivet Discourse is in all three of the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, and Luke 21. You may remember I preached a couple of weeks ago Matthew 25:1-13 - the parable of the 10 Bridesmaids, and remember it is a part of the Olivet Discourse.  What was the parable of the 10 Bridesmaids about? Being prepared for Christ’s return and keeping awake.  The parable in our scripture for today, Mark 13:32-37 is about watching (being on guard) and keeping awake for Christ’s return.

Mark 13:32-37 draws the lessons in the Olivet Discourse to a close. The discourse began shortly after Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem Mark 13:1-3.

The chapter ends with an analogy, the Parable of the Watching Servant, predicting the end of the age (verses 32-37). Essentially Jesus wants to close this section of the Olivet Discourse by addressing his Second Advent – His second coming.  

Jesus in verse 32 says about his coming "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” We are not able to figure this one out! Not even one angel in Heaven knows. Jesus knows the time of his return now, as he resides in his glorified body with the Father. But when he was here, he did not know, due to the integrity of his Incarnation. Anyone who says that he knows the date of Christ’s return borders on blasphemy.[1]  In his commentary on Mark, R.C. Sproul says “This passage troubles many Christians. If Jesus was God, they ask, why did He say He did not precisely know the day and hour when the things He had been talking about were to take place? Simply put, there was a limitation of His knowledge during His incarnation.”[2]

Jesus continues in 33: "Take heed, watch, for you do not know when the time will come." He tells us to be watchful, He tells us to be waiting, He tells us to be hopeful, He tells us to be anticipating His return. Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming” (Mark 13:32-33). If Jesus was content not to know the day or hour, then let’s stop speculating about it. Be content with “no one knows … only the Father.”

Continuing in 34 “It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.” Rev. Tim Zingale in his sermon Between Two Comings says: “This is a short parable, but one which is filled with many truths. This is a symbolic parable meaning each part means something. The man is Jesus and His journey is the ascension, His servants are the church, you and I who are members of the body of Christ and He commands the doorkeeper to be on watch. The doorkeeper is a difficult term, but it could mean those who are in charge have a responsibility to keep the house in order until the master returns.”

Then He gives a warning in verses 35 -37 “Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake." Sleep is a symbolic word for a state of unpreparedness. It means one is indifferent and unconcerned. This parable was preached to the disciples before Jesus ascended into heaven as a warning of His return and description of the work of His church while they await His coming. The 10 bridesmaids fell asleep while waiting for the Bride Groom.

Notice in these words a foreshadowing of coming events in days to come after he has finished the Olivet Discourse.

Pastor Thomas Long says[3]: "The master could come "in the evening," and in the very next chapter, Mark tells us that "when it was evening" Jesus ate his last meal with the disciples, and tells them, “One of you will betray me." Or the master could come "at midnight," and Mark records that, later that night, the disciples went with Jesus to Gethsemane. While Jesus prayed his cry of anguish, the disciples, no doubt weary of waiting, slept. "Could you not watch one hour?" Jesus said to them. Perhaps the master will come "at cockcrow," and Peter turned to the accusing maid with a curse and a denial, "I do not know this man." The cock crowed. Maybe the coming of the master will be "in the morning," and "as soon as it was morning," Jesus was bound and led away to his trial and to his death."

Maybe Jesus was warning the disciples His coming was not so far in the future, but it would be in the next days. His coming as the Messiah would be revealed for all to see, and they flat-out missed it.

What about us?? Is our vision better than those of the disciples??? How do we see and read scripture concerning His return? The message of His return is found throughout the New Testament as it says: In Acts 1:11, "This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven shall return in like manner." 

In John 14: 3, Jesus says: "I go to prepare a place for you, and when I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to myself that where I am you may be also."

He is coming again in that we can be sure, but when that is remains a mystery for in Matthew 24:44 He says: "Always be ready because I am coming at an hour you do not expect." or in Matthew 24:36 He says: "Of that hour and that day no one knows, only the Father in heaven."

Jesus is coming again, and what about our vision?? Are we waiting for His coming only at the end of time or at the end of our time?? Or, do we sense He comes now, in many surprising ways?? He comes as a Babe born in a manger again this year as we relive that experience. He comes as a peasant carpenter as throughout the new church year as we relive Jesus’ life. He comes as gifts the wise men brought at Epiphany as He comes when we give gifts of kindness, love, and compassion. He comes on a cross as we during Lent relive His passion. He comes in an empty tomb as we relive His resurrection during Easter. He comes as we see tongues as of fire on the head of the disciples during Pentecost. He comes in word as we throughout this church year hear his word from Mark. He comes through His church, through us as we become "little Christs" one to another. He comes in many mysterious and wondrous ways, as He comes and comes and comes.

He comes and what about your vision?? Do you see Him, are you ready for Him to come into your life?? I think we have lost something of the urgency of His coming into our lives. We have lived so long with the promise and hope of His coming that it really has become meaningless for us. But is it meaningless?? I think not. Though He has not come in His second coming, we have seen He continues to come and come into our lives. He comes because though we belong to His kingdom now, we haven’t fully arrived. We are on a path of becoming, and growing all the time. Paul understood the paradox of Christian living, being in the kingdom, but not having fully arrived when he says: "as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Corinthians 1:7). Christ is revealed, but not fully.

William Willamon says in his book Between Two Advents[4] "In I Corinthians 1, Paul is simply recognizing the Corinthians haven’t arrived yet, but they were on the way. They still made fools of themselves at times, but they knew who they were and whose they were. The church had been born, but it wasn’t finished. The kingdom had come, but it had not come." He continues, "Wait, God is not finished with us. There is still more glory to be revealed, more surprises in store for us, more birthing to be done. We have not yet arrived. We are between the now and the not yet, stretched between what has happened and what is to come. It means that the changes are not yet finished. His world is not yet what He intended it to be. He still has some creating to do in the world and in you and me. He has come to us, and He is forever coming to us, in spite of us, because of us, for us. He will not stop until our salvation is complete...to us who live in our own dark corner of the world and waver between thinking that we have seen as much as there is to see and thinking that we have not seen anything; who find out the hard way that even after the joy of Christmas, there is still to come Egypt to go through, and some cross to bear, still some waiting to do, still the need for hope...We who impatiently, groaningly, sometimes despairingly, sometimes hopefully, faithfully wait for his coming, for his continuing daily advent among us."

Amen

 

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