The Sure Promises of God: A Meditation on Mark 13 for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation,

spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not,

(let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house,

neither enter therein, to take anything out of his house:

 And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.

But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.

 For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved:

but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:

For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders,

to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

 

But in those days, after that tribulation,

the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,

And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds,

from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender,

and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:

 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass,

 know that it is nigh, even at the doors.

Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no,

not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house,

and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work,

and commanded the porter to watch.

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh,

at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

 

The second half of Mark 13 finishes the apocalyptic vision which Jesus gave to His disciples regarding the end of the age.  It aligns with the apocalyptic visions of Daniel, Ezekiel, and the other Old Testament Prophets, as well as with the visions of the end times recorded by the Apostles throughout the New Testament.  While biblical apocalyptic literature is sometimes intentionally obscure in details which people often want to know, it is inescapably clear in its primary revelation about Jesus.  For instance, in the passage above, the times of the end are left opaque, as is the identity of the abomination of desolation, or the various false Christ’s who will come, or the nature of the dark wonders they will perform to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.  But what is absolutely clear is that Jesus will abide with His people by His Word and Spirit unto and through those dark times to preserve His elect, that He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and that at His Second Coming all the dead in Christ will rise, gathered together from every time and place to join those still alive on the earth in the great Resurrection.  From the complimentary witness of the Prophets and the Apostles, we also know that when Jesus comes again, all evil will be judged and imprisoned forever in the Lake of Fire, while all the saints will enjoy the New Creation purged of all its dross unto ages without end.

 

With the clear promises and testimony of Jesus’ saving Word, particularly regarding the end of time, we should examine ourselves when we feel somehow abused or mistreated for not being given all the details we seek.  What God has not revealed or not made clear, He has left obscure for His own reasons and in His own wisdom.  When we challenge God’s wisdom in what He has revealed, accusing Him of not giving us the knowledge we want, we reveal in ourselves at least two primordial sins:  pride, and unbelief.  Pride, because we think from our own vantage point as finite humans that we understand better what should be revealed and when, in order for the universe to move properly toward its conclusion; and unbelief, in that we are not content with the sure promises of God, but hope to manipulate the details unrevealed to our own advantage.  Do we really think that given all the forces in the universe, both good and evil, those entities seen and unseen, both present and yet to come, that we could determine the right combination of revealed vs unrevealed details which will both guide the faithful and confound the enemy?  Do we really think that if we could individually better guess the times and the signs of the end, that we could run a little faster than our neighbor, gather a few more resources than the one who didn’t see it coming so clearly, and somehow dodge the coming calamity?  It is a pride and unbelief which plagues not only the people of antiquity, but the people of our age, and likely will continue among people until the end.

 

But what does it mean, when Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.  Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.  In English this may seem difficult, but no so much in Greek.  While the specific generation of Jesus’ time did in fact see a certain culmination of some of these events (the darkness and earthquake at Jesus’ crucifixion, the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 AD, the destruction of the Temple, with resulting slaughter and forced diaspora from Judea of the surviving Jews, etc.,) the Greek word for generation also points to a grouping of people.  In this case, generation also includes the continuing people of God gathered to Jesus by His Word and Spirit.  In this sense, the people of God who had always lived by grace through faith in His Word, from the Garden of Eden, through the Flood with Noah, Mount Sinai with Moses, Mount Carmel with Elijah, the Babylonian Captivity with Daniel, the fall of Jerusalem in the Apostolic era, and the saints of every age since, would continue to endure until all the things Jesus prophesied were fulfilled.  This also harmonizes with Jesus’ other teaching that the gates of hell would not be able to resist the Church, and that He would be with His people until the end of the age.  And in fact, this has been true—at no time in human history has there ever been a gap in the testimony of Jesus, or the preservation of His people against all the enemies and hordes bent on destroying them.

 

That’s a promise worth meditating on.  Since the Fall of man until our own age, for over 5,000 years of recorded history and into the mists of time before that, the earth has never been devoid of God’s saving Word nor of the people who clung to it by grace through faith.  There have been times when there were more of those people on earth, and times when there were fewer; times of persecution and times of resurgence; times of missionary zeal into the hearts of darkness, and times of bunkering into monastic arks; but at every time, God’s Word and His people have endured.  There has never been a time when the generation of God’s people has been left without a remnant, and by the grace of God there shall never be a time to come where God’s Word of promise will fail.  This generation—our generation—of those saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, will not pass away until everything Jesus has promised has been fulfilled.  He has been the Eternal Word from everlasting to everlasting, and all who gather to Him shall never be put to shame.  He promised to seek and to save the lost, which He has done, and continues to do, through His preached Word and Sacraments; He promised to be with His people through every calamity, carrying them through death unto eternal life; He promised to give His people His victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, by giving them His forgiveness, life, and salvation won for them through His Cross.  And He has promised to come again at the end of time, when the full roster of the saints will be complete, to usher in the Resurrection and the New Creation in a Kingdom that will never end.

 

At this turning of the season and the turning of the church year, may our hearts and minds return to the sure promises of God, that we might know the boundless riches of His grace already given to His people, and the surety of His Kingdom come.  Let go the pride and unbelief which would seek to know what God has intentionally hidden, and cling instead to the crown of life given to all who will repent and believe in Jesus, whose robes are washed clean from sin by the Blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  Rest in the sure promises of God which cannot be undone by any tumult or tragedy in this fallen world, not even by that last calamity of tribulation when divine judgment shall fall upon a wicked world, and the elements shall be dissolved in unquenchable fire, so that a new Heaven and a new Earth might be made our home in God’s eternal Kingdom forever.  And as Jesus commanded, let us watch, not in fear but in hope, knowing that our Savior has come and shall come again, just as He has promised.  All glory, laud, and honor, be to you, our Redeemer King—to whom to lips of saints and angels, our sweet hosanas sing.  Amen.