Matthew 24:36 - 51
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. With all those amazing signs, how do we not know when the day is approaching? Why will it be such a surprise?
2. How and why should we keep watch? For what?
My 2 cents on knowing when the day approaches:
ReplyDeleteVirtually all the articles I've found on this claim that if we just pay attention, we can get an idea of when the day is approaching. They claim that Jesus was saying that because people won't pay attention, then they won't know.
If I just read what Jesus said above, He seems to be clearly saying that none of us will know - that it will be a complete surprise to all of us.
I think people look at the first part of the chapter and see all the specific signs (which was most likely for the destruction of the temple in 70 AD) and attempt to apply that to when Jesus comes back. I think they are refusing to hear what Jesus is saying here because they have their own notions of how the end is going to happen.
Just like when Jesus came the first time, everyone had it wrong. They had ideas about the Messiah that were completely wrong. All the prophecies make sense in hind-sight, but they couldn't make sense of them because they had their own expectations. I think it's exactly the same way today. The experts have it wrong, and the people who are listening to them can no longer hear what Jesus is saying.
Here is what I think Jesus is saying: Jesus is coming back in a time when we won't expect Him. At that time there will be no signs showing that He's coming back (at least any signs that we could correctly interpret no matter how much we are paying attention).
Because of that, we need to keep watch. What this means is that we need to live our lives for Jesus and not ourselves. We need to watch our priorities and live in such a way that Jesus is going to come any time (which is true). When Jesus does come, we don't want to be caught living for ourselves. Because there will be a Day of Reckoning, and that day will come unexpectedly.
https://www.gci.org/prophecy/matt24 says:
ReplyDeleteo summarize, Jesus told his disciples that the answer to their question about when the end would come was: "You can't know it, and not even I know it." That seems to be a difficult lesson to learn.
Despite Jesus' clear teaching, many Christians throughout the centuries have repeated the mistake of the apostles. Many have tried to prognosticate when "the end" would come, and have almost always said it would be "very soon." But history has proven Jesus right and every prognosticator wrong. Quite simply, we cannot know when "the end" will come.
So what are we to do in the meantime, while we await Jesus' return? Jesus gave the answer to his disciples, and it is our answer as well. He said: "Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.... So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him"
Watching world events is not what Jesus was speaking about here. What all Christians must "watch" is their relationship with God. They are always to be ready to meet their Maker.
Jesus then went on to describe in the rest of chapter 24 and throughout chapter 25 what is really important to "watch." In the parable of the faithful servant, Jesus told his disciples to avoid worldly sins and the threat of being overcome by the attractiveness of sin (24:45-51). The lesson? Jesus said, "The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of" (24:50).
In the parable of the ten virgins, Jesus repeated his theme (25:1-25). Some of the virgins are not ready when the day of reckoning comes. They are shut out of the kingdom. The lesson? Jesus said: "Keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour" (25:13).
In the parable of the talents, Jesus spoke of himself as going on a journey (25:14-30). He was probably referring to his stay in heaven before his return. In the meantime, the servants are to be faithful with the things they have been entrusted.
In the parable of the sheep and goats Jesus spoke of the shepherding responsibility the disciples would be given during his absence. Here he switched their thinking from the "when" of his return to the consequences of that return on their eternal life. His coming and the resurrection would be judgment day for them. That is the time when Jesus will separate his sheep (his true followers) from the goats (the evil shepherds).
Jesus presented the parable in terms of the disciples' relationship to his physical needs. They fed him when he was hungry, gave water to him when he was thirsty, invited him in when he was a stranger, and clothed him when he was naked. The disciples were surprised, and they said they never saw him in any of these needy states.
But Jesus had a lesson in shepherding in mind. He said: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (25:40). Who is a brother of Jesus? One of his true followers. Jesus, then, was telling his disciples to be good stewards and shepherds of the flock — the church.
Thus ends the long discourse in which Jesus answered the disciples' three questions: When will Jerusalem and the temple be destroyed? What would be the "sign" of his coming? When would "the end" of the age occur?