Mark 13:1-8; 1 Samuel 1:4-20; Hebrews 10:1-14 and 19-25
25th Sunday of Pentecost.
This morning I would like to share some thoughts about the coming of Jesus and the beginning of a birth pain of the end of times that the Gospel of Mark talks about.
The entire chapter 13 in the gospel of Mark has been called Mark’s mini-apocalypse. This chapter belongs to what is known as the Apocalyptic Literature. The Apocalyptic literature was a special kind of writing that was very popular among the Jews. We find it all over the Bible, and Daniel is a great example in the Old Testament. This kind of literature deals with the end of the world, the end of times. This end, and all the circumstances around it are described using very clever and meaningful symbols. These symbols include wars, monsters, famines, angels, and death, among others.
In Jesus’ times, the end of the world was something many Jews were waiting for. The community of the Essenes is a good example. For these Jewish communities the end of the world included the extermination of all their enemies and the revival of Israel’ old glory. Therefore, when Jesus told the disciples about the destruction of the temple, they were worried, maybe confused, and later they continued the conversation and asked for signs. Jesus provided them with a description of some signs of the end. These included false messiahs, wars, earthquakes, and famines, to begin with. When Jesus was questioned about the signs of the end he gave them some examples of the signs, but to the question of when the end will happen, his answer was “Watch out that no one deceives you…” What he meant was “be alert, be on the lookout” from being deceived.
After Jesus’ resurrection and the Church being persecuted, many in the first-generation of the Early Church did actually believe that the end of this world and Christ second coming would happen during their lifetime. They lived in expectation. They lived with energy and enthusiasm because they fully anticipated they would live to see the end, and Jesus coming for them. They were on the lookout. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, says, “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord forever.” Everything Paul and the rest of Jesus’ followers did, they did it because they knew they were nearby the re-encounter with their master and Lord. Because the end of this world and the beginning of a new one was around the corner; that assurance, that belief was the propeller to live their life on the edge.
I think that that is precisely the difference between the Early Church and us, they lived their faith on the edge. They took risk in order to live and share what they believed in. In other word they meant, what they believed in. They woke up every morning expecting for that day to be the day Jesus told them about. When I say that they lived their faith on the edge, I’m not saying that they panicked or that they tried to connect all the world affairs with the end of the world. What I mean is that they believed in what Jesus told them, they obeyed what Jesus commanded them, and they did what Jesus asked them to do under any cost. To live on the edge is to make God’s kingdom visible for others at any cost.
Mark ends this chapter with a parable assuring that nobody knows the day of the end. “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
“Therefore, keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!”
My brothers and sisters, living out our faith on the edge as the Early Church did is to be alert and doing the task God has assigned to every one of us, because, if He comes, do not let him find you sleeping. To live on the edge, to live alert, to live expecting that today or tomorrow can be the day when our Expected One comes, can make an incredible difference ln the way we serve God; It can make an incredible difference in the way we see and treat others; It can make an incredible difference in the way we live our lives. If you knew for sure that Jesus will come next month, what would you do for those who are starving? What would you do to stop all the fighting among kingdoms and nations? What would you do to bring the gospel to those who need it? Sometimes I think that all the signs mentioned in the gospels besides being signs of the end, are also signs for the need of a new beginning.
Maybe what Jesus was telling His disciples then and is also telling us today, is: when you see famine, people starving, remember to feed the hungry. When you hear about wars and rumors of war; when you hear about nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, be my peacemakers; when you hear about earthquakes, help those in need because by doing this I return to this world thru you, and the end which is manifested by a famine, by wars and earthquake will end; and my kingdom will come, and with it a new beginning. Remember, the end of the temple in Jerusalem was a big shock for all Jews, it also marked a new beginning in the history of salvation. What Jesus told the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well, became a reality “believe me –He said-, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…” after the end of the physical temple, a new temple emerged, which is you and me; and now we are God’s new dwelling place. That was a new beginning, that was Jesus coming through us.
Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that Jesus physical coming will not happen, no; what I am saying is, because Jesus is coming we should live our faith on the edge; because Jesus is preparing a place for us, we should wake up every morning expecting that today will be the Day of His coming; because Jesus promised to come back for us, we should live every day working in the assigned task Jesus left for us to do. Because we do not know when that day will come.
An anonymous writer put it this way: “When the last hungry person is fed and the last homeless one put to bed; when the crying of the children is stilled and the cupboards of poor homes are filled; when the Gospel of Christ has been preached to the last, the lost and the least; when sad, broken hearts have been mended and sin and crime are all ended; when Christ rules the hearts of all men, and this earth is a little like Heaven; then, only then, we can sit idly by, wait in peace for our home in the sky. But while sin, death and want are around us, and evil forces surround us, God give us the grace to attack it and keep “everlastingly at it.”
Every generation in church history has proclaimed that Jesus will come in their time because of the signs. But besides proclaiming his coming, we must make his coming happen; we must make His kingdom come and visible, and How can we do that? By bringing Jesus wherever those signs of end are happening, because wars, famines and risings among nations and kingdoms are clear signs of Jesus’ absence and is the duty of all of us, us his dwelling place, His people, to show the world that our God is alive and active. Let’s pray…