Mark 13: What I Reckon
[Shaun delivered a thought-provoking talk last week on this difficult chapter of Mark. I think differently to Shaun so I'm going to lay out what I reckon. Because Shaun's view is not unique to him and because I like Shaun, I'm going to refer to it as Gareth's position. It just sounds happier that way.]
Central to the position held by Gareth is that the abomination of desolation is the cross and that the coming in the clouds is talking about Jesus' ascension, not his return. I disagree, but not completely. Here is What I Reckon:
The chapter begins with Jesus telling the disciples that the temple will be destroyed. More than a little intrigued, Peter, James, John and Andrew ask him privately, “When will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” You'd think that knowing when would be enough, but like their generation,1 they ask for a sign.
Jesus' response is to warn them about the future. Terrible things would happen globally and to them personally, but these are not signs of the end, they are the beginning of birth pains. It's when the abomination of desolation appears that things get really bad. “For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation ... until now, and will never be.”
The words “abomination of desolation”, in typical apocalyptic style, are concealing what they are revealing2. The writers of apocalyptic literature were often revealing to “insiders” what must be kept hidden from “outsiders” (like the occupying nation) so as not to endanger themselves. They used esoteric symbols that required a key. But if we follow Gareth's view, why would Jesus, or Mark writing about Jesus, begin at this point in the story to veil Jesus' death in such imagery? Until now, in Mark, Jesus has spoken of his death in blunt, straightforward terms; why the sudden obscuring?
Besides this, the details all point away from this interpretation. “Pray that it may not happen in winter” is a very strange thing to say about something that he knows will happen in the next few days; that no human being would be saved if the Lord had not cut short the days indicates that this is something that's happening to everyone. False Christs, false prophets, and false signs and wonders are things that take time to take place. And the disciples are told to “be on guard” during this time—the same command that was given in the previous section which is clearly fulfilled in the book of Acts and particularly in the life of Paul. The command links the two sections: both concern an awful time that was to begin soon, and given the original question, must involve the destruction of the temple.
When will the tribulation end? It will start in their lifetime, but when will it end? When will the time come that things so awful will never happen again? I think v24-27 is the good news: “[I]n those days, after that tribulation” the whole creation is shaken and “then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And 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.” (See 1 Thess. 2:1 for the coming/gathering combo.)
Gareth's view is that this refers to the ascension, not to the parousia, the “second coming” of Jesus. This is because in Daniel the Son of Man is coming not from heaven to earth but from earth to heaven, to sit at God's right hand. I agree that Jesus' ascension is very closely related to his second coming. In Acts 1:11 the disciples are told, “This Jesus ... will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” But here's why I think Jesus is talking about his return, not his ascension:
- This event comes after the tribulation, which the disciples are involved in—the time in which they are to be on guard.
- Rather than being a “new topic” in Mark, Jesus is describing the climax that has been predicted all along: the coming of the glorious kingdom of God, with Jesus as its King. In Mark 8:38 Jesus said, “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” In Mark 14:62 he says to the high priest, “[Y]ou will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Before and after Mark 13 Jesus taught that he will come and when he comes he is already seated, with glory and power.
- Whereas the disciples were told, “when you hear” (13:7), and, “when you see” (13:14) the tribulation signs, the coming of the Son of Man is something “they will see” (13:26). This is significant. The ascension was private; the return is very public. The kingdom has come and Jesus is reigning now but he is hidden.3 At the end, his reign will be made known.
The fig tree illustration sums up all that has gone before in the chapter: the leaves are the sign that the summer is coming just as the awful tribulation is the sign that the glorious kingdom is coming and that the elect will be gathered from the earth and heavens that are passing away and will make it to the new earth.
But I said I didn't disagree completely. This chapter is a warning and comfort to the disciples because Jesus is about to leave them4 and they don't know when he will come back. But it also foreshadows what is about to happen to Jesus.
As Gareth has pointed out, Mark has prepared us for this by mentioning the watches of the night in 13:35 and it is these watches that structure the narrative for the following events of Jesus' death: evening, midnight, cock crow, morning. His command to them is to stay awake but they can't—“the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”—they fall asleep in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus' tribulation is just beginning.
But Jesus doesn't fall asleep, he endures the tribulation, and it is only because he did so that they can be saved. The disciples would be baptized with the baptism he was baptized with, but not until he passed through it first. It was Jesus who was first to be dragged before the council, and made to stand before the king and the governor, who was beaten and flogged.
It was a path that his disciples would follow, in that generation. But while they are shown to have failed the first time the warnings are really for the second round when the tribulation was not coming on Jesus but on them. But they were not to give up. Jesus would return in power, after the tribulation. The tribulation began in that generation and it continues in ours, but it shows that he is near, at the very gates, and will come with power.
Notes:1 Mark 8:12.
2 Apokalypsis is a Greek word meaning “uncovering” or “revelation”. Apocalyptic was a Jewish literary style popular at the time of Christ.
3 Colossians 3:3.
4 Much like the conversation in John 14-16.
Ben Beilharz [ben@ecuwollongong.org]
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