Mark 13:24-37: Like a Thief in the Night

Lectionary Cycle Year B: First Sunday in Advent
Mark 13:24-37 (Read it on Bible Gateway)
Like a Thief in the Night
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This passage from the Gospel of Mark is a solid sign we have entered Advent. By way of brief reminder, Advent is the season of anticipation and preparation in the Christian year. It has a dual focus. First we prepare for Christmas and look back at the generations of faithful who waited for the coming of the Messiah, whose waiting was fulfilled in Christ's birth. However, we also recognize we are the people waiting for Christ to come again, and we thus spend some time focusing on the teachings that have given us hope and assurance of his return, such as this passage.

When spoken, Christ's words may have brought mixed reactions. After all, he was still with them and most likely no one was realistically expecting that to change as suddenly and dramatically as it did. When Christ was then crucified most people would then have wrestled with their new found faith in him, after all, would the messiah be executed? With his then resurrection and ascension, these words would most likely have taken on a sudden and pressing reality.

In the early Church there certainly seemed to be a mindset that the Second Coming was a soon to be reality. Christ's teachings from the Gospels and Paul's writings in his letters to various Christian communities use language that shows a pressing immediacy to it. However, as we now are over 2,000 years past, this immediacy has faded.

Now some scholars, struggling with the language which seems pressing and has turned out to not be so, use the explanation that it wasn't necessarily perceived as coming soon in human terms of time, but that Christ's coming, death and resurrection marked the beginning of the final age that would culminate with the Second Coming. In other words, as far as geological time, or Divine Time, the time was near.

This explanation doesn't do it for a lot of Christians. One of the struggles many Christians face is the limbo of waiting. If we are all about Christ coming again and Christ hasn't come again, don't we look a bit like we've been stood up? Other Christians, refusing to be let go of that sense of urgency, latch onto the various signs listed in the Scripture and proclaim them as being fulfilled now, meaning that the end is NOW upon us.

As is often the case, the truth lies somewhere between those two extremes.

God's sense of timing is certainly not like our own. As we look back in time we can plainly see this. The overall plan of salvation, from a Christian perspective, has had major developments and steps that have taken place over millennia. God's initial relationship with humanity reached back to the humanity's origins, the promises of covenant came into play long after that in the time of Noah, then Abraham. God's focus from a family line to a nation grew over generations. The first coming of Christ happened centuries later and now the Christian movement has done its own growth and development in the intervening time.

There has always been intention and purpose in God's waiting. In fact, many times God's promises were made long before they were fulfilled and the waiting itself was a critical part of the foundation of faith. God promised Abraham his descendants would be as numerous as the stars when he was a much younger man, but that child did not come until Sarah was well past the time most women could give birth. The waiting itself proved a critical part of the growth of faith in the couple.

Many of us as Christians when we think about the end times, we like to focus on looking for the signs. Many preachers who use the end times to create the sense of urgency and commitment they want in their congregations like to do the same. We ask ourselves what are the signs to look for in order to know when Christ's coming is drawing near?

Here's a thought. Maybe God is looking for signs from us as well. Maybe like with Abraham and Sarah, God is looking at us Christians and waiting for us to show we're truly ready for it. Maybe God is testing our faith and its limits by having us wait until collectively we've shown that our faith will not falter. Maybe God has a certain set of circumstances and conditions that God expects to be fulfilled here.

The same is true for the first coming of Christ. Christ was born in a time and place where conditions were optimal for his teachings to spread. During the time of the Roman Empire travel and trade reached unprecedented levels. This was mostly due to the Roman imposed peace and Roman sponsored creation of roads. Christ was then born in the land of God's promise, but at a time when it was also a crossroads for much of the known world.

Maybe the same is true now and God is waiting on things to be just right.

Whatever the reason, we should not lose this element of our faith. The Second Coming of Christ, whatever form it takes, whatever means it uses, whatever timing and conditions it uses, is a central element of our identity, a promise that in part defines us as Christians. So, even now, today, may we indeed keep watch and be ready!

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