Tag Archives: keep watch

MARK’S GOSPEL…TIMELINE OR SIGNS – 31

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Mark 13:3-8, 13 NIV

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” 

Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you.”

Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains…Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭3‬-‭4‬, ‭6‬-‭8‬, ‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

A somewhat complicated answer to a simple question! Jesus had just made a bold statement…

“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The disciples were marvelling at the massive temple structure they were leaving, a seemingly indestructible monument compared with the other buildings surrounding it. They looked up at its stone walls, huge blocks of rock, cut from a far-away quarry and hauled over rough terrain to be placed, one on top of the other, to form this beautiful “house of God.” How it was done was a miracle of engineering. 

Jesus, always seeing things from a different perspective, interrupted them. “This seeming permanence isn’t permanent. This huge monument to man’s ability will soon be a heap of rubble.” 

“What! How is this possible?”Intrigued by Jesus’ reply, the disciples, no doubt led by Peter, asked a simple question that released a stream of mystifying “signs” that seem impossible to piece together.

Clever humans have tried to create a timeline out of Jesus’ signs, which He didn’t intend. Rather, His clues were meant to show them, not when but that it would happen. 

Woven together into a tapestry of prophecy, Jesus presented His disciples with a picture of events soon to happen, fulfilled by the Roman army under Titus, which destroyed Jerusalem, slaughtered many Jews and scattered the Jewish believers across the Roman Empire, and events that would herald His return. 

Jesus gave them precise instructions for their survival when God’s judgment fell on Jerusalem. 

““When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Run…and pray!

Not long before, with tears streaming down His face, Jesus had predicted this horrifying event. So terrible would be the destruction that Jerusalem would be razed to the ground, the temple included. 

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭19‬:‭41‬-‭44‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“These are the beginning of birth pains…” 

These few words hidden in the text are the clue to understanding this prophecy. Not a timeline but signs. All these predictions… deception, wars, natural disasters, persecution…have been a part of human history from the beginning of time.  Nothing new but…the signs lie in the increase in volume of these adversities. 

“Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

Every generation has had those who predict the end in their time. Some have even put a date to their predictions and yet… we are still here,  eagerly awaiting Jesus’ return. 

So, how do we respond to these sobering words? I don’t think Jesus ever meant us to try to work out the exact date of these events heralding His return. The danger of doing so is that we might be tempted to live carelessly until the predicted date of His return comes closer. 

At the end of this long discourse He gives us His prescription…

““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!’ ”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭32‬-‭37‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Be faithful to your assigned task! Then you will be ready. 

“The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭12‬:‭42‬-‭43‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Keep watch! Not for the signs that are being fulfilled but for the enemy who would deflect you and derail you from faithfulness to the Master on your journey to the Father. 

GETHSEMANE – THE PRESS

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GETHSEMANE – THE PRESS

“He took Peter, James, and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’, He said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’” (Mark 14:33, 34, NIV).

Gethsemane was an olive grove outside Jerusalem where olives were cultivated. The Greek word, gethsemane, meant “olive press” which symbolised the crushing weight of sin that Jesus bore on the cross. It was also symbolic of the weight of the human burdens which the Jewish people carried and the economic leash which tied the poor to the wealthy of Israel. The masses waited eagerly for Messiah to come, a Branch from the stump of the olive tree, to release them from their burdens.

Olives had great economic and religious significance for Israel. They were more than food. Olive oil had many uses, including in religious rituals. Olives underwent a laborious process to extract the precious oil. Firstly, an animal-drawn millstone was rolled over the olives to crack them open. The cracked olives were then gathered into bags and stacked beneath an enormous stone column which pressed the olives and forced the oil to drip into a pit at the base of the “gethsemane”, from where it was collected.

This process also had deep spiritual significance for Jesus in His agonising hours in the garden. As the oil was pressed from the olives by the weight of the stone column, so the world’s sin, pressed into His body, made the blood run from the pores of His skin.   

Every year, on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a bull and two goats were chosen for the sacrifice. The High Priest would sacrifice the bull on the altar and sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies to purge the tabernacle/temple from defilement caused by the misdeeds of the priests and their families. One of the goats was chosen by lot and sacrificed as a sin offering for the people. The High Priest would again enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the goat’s blood on the Mercy Seat.

The second goat, called the Azazel or scapegoat, was chosen to carry the sins of the people away into the wilderness. The High Priest would lay his hand on the goat’s head and press the sins of the people onto the goat as he confessed them over the animal which was driven away into an uninhabited land to bear away the people’s sins for another year. In Isaiah 53, the prophet saw this event in the spirit and wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

As the oil was pressed from the olive, as the sins of Israel were pressed upon the goat, so Jesus bore the weight of the world’s sin in His own body, for us.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THE BATTLE TO PRESERVE UNITY

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THE BATTLE TO PRESERVE UNITY

32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
37 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
39 Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. 40 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
41 Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer Mark 14:32-42

Jesus’ hour was very near. He began to feel the weight of the ordeal He was entering. Gethsemane was the olive grove where olives were grown and processed for their oil. How appropriate that it was here that Jesus prayed and fought His greatest battle. Gethsemane means “press”, the place of the press, the name that is forever connected to Jesus and His prayer, “Not what I want but what you want.”

The gospels record two of Jesus’ great personal battles, one at the beginning of His public ministry and the other at the end. They represent the reversal of Adam’s failure in the Garden of Eden. Adam was lured into mistrusting God’s love and stepping out of his ECHAD with God by believing that being like God was being free to make his own rules.

Satan tried the same trick on Jesus but with no success because Jesus knew the meaning and value of being one with the Father. The devil tried to lure Him into independence and disobedience in the wilderness with no success, and now here in the olive grove He was pressed with the weight of the world’s sin to the extent that He wanted out.

What was at the heart of the struggle? To remain one with the Father in spite of the cost to Himself. This was not about reluctant submission or resignation to the inevitable. This was about willingly embracing the Father’s will so that they could go through the whole process of His death as an atoning sacrifice together. It was through the eternal Spirit that He offered Himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God.

In this war to maintain ECHAD with God, we have a three-fold enemy: the world, the flesh and the devil. Each of these has one end in view – to break our ECHAD with God and lure us into acting independently of Him. Obedience to God’s will is the tangible evidence of the oneness we have with him. Like Jesus, our greatest battle is to preserve that unity through trust and obedience.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK- KEEP WATCH!

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KEEP WATCH!

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 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.
35 “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. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” Mark 13:32-37

What was Jesus’ main message to His disciples then and to us now? “Be alert, keep watch for deceivers.” He was never ready just to give out facts or to satisfy curiosity. He taught for a reason and this time it was to prepare them for hard times ahead.

Jesus often used the illustration of the landowner or householder going away for a season, but always coming back, either to claim his share of the harvest or the householder or businessman coming back to receive what his servants had managed for him while he was away. All of these illustrations draw our attention to the stewardship responsibility and accountability of those left in charge. We must live as those to whom has been entrusted someone else’s property and who are waiting for the master’s return so that his property can be handed back to him either with increase or in a better condition that when he left.

In this illustration Jesus emphasized the watchful, alert attitude of His servants. Those who have been faithful and obedient to the Master’s charge will be ready and will be eager to welcome Him home. Like the bridegroom who returns for his bride, they will be waiting for Him and He will recognise them as His own.

Jesus has no time for the attitude that lives carelessly with the idea that, when the Master comes, there will be time enough to mend their ways. The time of His coming is unknown and unexpected. That is why He has not given us specifics. He is just as interested in the way we conduct ourselves while we wait as whether we are ready for Him when He comes.

What are we to watch for? Two things are specified: watch out for deceivers and watch for the Master’s return. Deceivers will always try to make us feel comfortable in our procrastination or they will lure us away into self-centredness and greed. Jesus is our Rabbi and our model. To be ready for His coming is to be focussed on imitating Him.

Keep Your Shirts On

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KEEP YOUR SHIRTS ON!

“‘Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake and so blessed.'” Luke 12:35-38 (The Message).

Jesus often spoke to His disciples about being watchful and ready for His return. Unlike religion which is about rules and ritual, He was talking about a real situation – like servants awaiting their master’s return after his wedding. We must take note of the word ‘like’. Of course it would be impossible to stay awake day and night, year in and year out, waiting for Him to come back! That is not what He meant.

How must we understand what He meant by ‘Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on!’? Let Jesus be His own interpreter.

He told a parable about five wise and five foolish virgins who were awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom for his wedding feast. He took so long to come that they all fell asleep. When the bridegroom finally arrived at midnight, five of the virgins were ready to go in to the wedding feast because they had enough oil to refill their lamps which had gone out. The other five begged oil from their companions but were refused. They were sent to buy their own but, while they were away, the door to the wedding feast was closed and they were refused entry when they returned.

This parable is often erroneously interpreted to mean than the oil represents the Holy Spirit. We are urged to be full of the Holy Spirit so that, when Jesus returns, we will be ready to join Him at the wedding feast. The five foolish virgins missed the wedding because they were not ‘spirit-filled’ and could not go in with the bridegroom because they had to go out and seek the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

In this parable, the oil represents ‘tsidaqahs’, the righteous acts of which John speaks in Revelation 19:7,8 (NIV) – “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints).

The five wise virgins were those who had practised the generosity which God’s way of living had taught them, and were therefore ‘ready’ to go in to the wedding feast with the bridegroom. The foolish virgins had no ‘tsidaqahs’ – righteous deeds with which to refill their lamps. It was too late to go out and do their tsidaqahs because the bridegroom had come and the doors were shut. This interpretation is compatible with the context which we have been examining in this chapter of Luke’s Gospel. It is also in line with the whole drift of Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching.

Again I must emphasize that He was not teaching that we are saved by good works but, like James, He makes it clear that, if we don’t live out our faith in the kind of generosity which reflects the Father’s heart, we are not ‘ready’ go in to the wedding feast. When we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven by being generous with the resources God has entrusted to us to steward for Him, our lamps will be full of ‘oil’ or, as John describes in Revelation 19, we shall be wearing the pure white linen garments of righteousness which will qualify us to share in the wedding feast of the Lamb.