Those Mysterious Tensions

Mark 13:32-37

³² “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. ³⁵ Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— ³⁶ lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷ And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

We all know what it means to wait for something or someone. Today, if I want to know when someone will arrive – well – there’s an app for that. I can literally track their movements with “Find My Friends” on my phone, which will tell me within a minute when they will arrive. Even with that information there is still that sense of time passing too slowly and anticipating their arrival. But I remember well waiting anxiously for the arrival of a guest or a loved one before I had that wonderful app. My father traveled a great deal for his job and I spent many an evening awaiting the flash of headlights through the picture window of our home to signal his arrival. We had little idea as to when he would arrive and on the evening when he was late, the anxiousness grew.

Jesus promises His disciples that He will indeed return for them (us!) but He gave zero indication as to when that would be and no one hearing those words believed it would be over 2,000 years later. He even goes so far as to tell them that He doesn’t even know when that time will be and this is where we have to find the ways of God truly mysterious. Jesus is God. And yet He doesn’t know the day or the hour when He will return. Only the Father knows that; yet Jesus and the Father are One. We can say that Jesus had chosen in that instance to set aside His divine knowledge and operate purely as the Son of Man. But that isn’t really a satisfying conclusion – and there’s where we must embrace that uncertainty and allow God to be God. He is mysterious by choice for we most certainly do not need to know all things.

In His infinite wisdom and perfect love for us, God has chosen to protect us from ourselves. Having that information would prove disastrous for us. Many throughout the centuries have predicted that Jesus’ return was imminent and have even gone so far as to express an exact date and time – all of which have come and gone without seeing Jesus return on the clouds at the predicted time. I even saw a story this week about those who are predicting that Jesus will return this coming Tuesday after the total eclipse of the sun. Something about the lining up of all the stars . . . I don’t know. Once again, read the Bible folks. If Jesus didn’t know – neither will you. If He does choose to return on Tuesday, well good deal for all of us!

Before He ascended into Heaven, Jesus affirmed our continued ignorance about time and date for His Second Coming.

Acts 1:7

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

What Jesus does instruct us to do is wait expectantly. The disciples looked up into the clouds expecting Him to return in that same moment that He ascended. That is who we must be. Yes, it’s been 2,000 years, but He will return. We’re just waiting for the flash of those headlights!