Monday Devotional: The Coming of the Son of Man (Mark 13:24-27)

Jesus, Mark, and the language of the end times

“But in those days, after that suffering,

the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven (Mark 13:24-27).

Jesus makes demands upon his followers. They are not to live as everyone else. They mustn’t follow the crowds when the crowds are moving headlong into destruction. As Mark’s story will demonstrate shortly, crowds are both fickle and dangerous. Followers of Jesus are to resist the political currents that may lead them into sin and death, and there are many such currents. In the prophecies of Mark 13, Jesus warns his followers that terrible things are coming, that they will be persecuted, and that they mustn’t take part in the madness that lies ahead.

This passage hearkens back to Mark 9:1: “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” What’s going on here? Did Jesus believe he would return in final judgment and bring about the apocalypse within the lifetime of his first followers? Did Mark believe this? Some scholars, including Albert Schweitzer, have suggested that this is the case. Were it true, it would mean that Jesus didn’t understand his own identity and purpose, or that Mark didn’t. Either way, we have a problem.

Mark 13 involves what is called eschatological language. The Greek word eschaton means “end.” Eschatology has to do with our beliefs about “the end.” The question, is, The end of what? To understand how Mark’s eschatological language functions, we need to look at the way such language functions in the Old Testament. Throughout Mark 13, Jesus explicitly draws on the language and imagery of OT prophets.

The work of biblical scholar G. B. Caird is extremely helpful here. Caird argues that, yes, the biblical writers did envision a world that had a beginning and ending. Nevertheless, they “regularly used end-of-the-world language metaphorically to refer to that which they well knew was not the end of the world” (The Language and Imagery of the Bible, Westminster, 1980, 256). In other words, they used language about the end of the world to refer to the socio-political events of their time. We have similar ways of speaking today. For example, we might describe an event as “earth-shattering.” Yet we don’t mean that this event literally shatters the earth. Rather, when we use this phrase we’re speaking metaphorically to communicate the great significance of that event. Similarly, we use metaphorical phrases such as “the perfect storm” or “burn it all down” to describe far less dramatic events than a literal reading of these phrases would denote. In the same vein, we often use images of darkness and death to refer to situations we view negatively.

Photo by Jared Murray on Unsplash

Let’s look at a few specific examples of biblical writers using end-of-the-world language metaphorically:

Isaiah 13:10: reads, “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.” Isaiah isn’t talking about the end of the world, but about a war between Babylon and Assyria.

In Ezekiel 32:7-8 we read: “When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens, and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the shining lights of the heavens I will darken above you, and put darkness on your land, says the Lord God.” Ezekiel is not prophesying God’s destruction of all creation, but the defeat of Egypt by Babylon.

Joel 2:10 reads, “The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.” Likewise Joel 2:31 states, “The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.” Neither passage is about the end of the world, but about political turmoil, the threat of destruction, and God’s redemption.

In light of the way in which this kind of language functions in the Old Testament, Jesus probably isn’t prophesying the end of the world. Rather, his prophecy refers to political and national upheaval followed by the redemption of “the elect.” When Jesus prophesies that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken” (13:24-25), he refers to events related to the First Jewish Revolt and the destruction of the temple. He thus stands in the tradition of Israel’s prophets, using poetic, metaphorical language to describe national calamity.

The same dynamics are at work in vv. 26-27 When Jesus speaks of “the Son of Man coming in clouds” he uses the language of Daniel 7:13. In Daniel, the Son of man is a representation of God’s holy ones, or Israel. After a period of suffering (7:25), God vindicates the holy ones, giving them kingship and dominion (7:14, 27). In Mark, this prophecy seems to refer to the vindication of the holy ones who follow Jesus. They are instructed not to follow false messiahs and prophets. Nor are they to fight, but to flee when war comes. They will endure rejection and persecution, (13:9-13), but they will also experience God’s protection.

What, then, does Jesus mean in 13:27 when he says, “Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven”? The ingathering of God’s people also has precedent in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 11:11 we read, “On that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea” (see also Ezek. 39:28; Zech. 10:9-10). Those who follow Christ’s teachings will be vindicated, having endured persecution and suffering for Christ. Followers of Jesus must trust God even when the world around is falling apart before their eyes.

Jesus wants his followers to be wary of people who will lead them astray. Many such people were around in the first century, just as they are today. To follow Jesus requires faith, discernment, and endurance. The wise among us will pray that God will bless us with these traits.

Prayer: God give me heavenly wisdom. Give me discernment. Help me to know when I am going astray. Help me to see when your people are going astray. Keep us in your righteous will.

Questions:

1. Why wouldn’t Jesus want his followers to participate in the First Jewish Revolt?

2. How do we know when leaders are steering us away from God’s will?

3. What are the signs that we should be wary of a religious or political figure today?