Mark 13:32-37
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!’”
Advent Alert: Your Master Is Coming!
You all got the EAS, i.e. emergency alert, text message last week, right? The province wanted every Albertan to know what changes had been made to our COVID response, and (because we’re addicted to our phones) texting is the surest way for the most people to get the message.
I haven’t seen as much of it since moving from the fringes of metro Chicago, but I used to get those kinds of alerts on my phone all too often. Sometimes, it would be a “Silver Alert” notifying us that we should keep an eye out for a missing senior citizen. Sometimes it would be an “Amber Alert;” same thing, but keep your eye out for a missing child. It’s an important message that the government wants everyone to know.
Just a minute ago, we read an “Advent Alert” from the Gospel of Mark. Had there been text messaging back then, I’m sure Jesus would have loved to send this to everyone’s cell phone. In fact, he himself says: “What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch,’”[1] i.e. “keep an eye out.”
As a matter of fact, Jesus says it 4 times in our short text for today: “Watch!”[2] “Keep watch!”[3] “Be on guard! Be alert!”[4] It’s not hard to figure out what Jesus wants us to do. The questions are, “What are we supposed to be keeping an eye out for,” “How do we go about doing that,” and, “Why?”
What
The first question is the easiest to answer. “What are we supposed to be keeping an eye out for?” Well, in a word, Jesus. That’s what Advent is all about – preparing for the arrival of Jesus.
It seems so natural and obvious standing here on November 29th less than a month away from Christmas. You go to any department store and you’ll be bombarded with Christmas decorations and gifts. You turn on the radio and you’ll hear Christmas music. Everything is about Christmas right now; you’d only expect Advent to be too.
That’s true, but only partially. Advent is about Christmas as we celebrate Jesus’ first coming, but that’s only half the story. Jesus left this world 2,000 years ago with a promise that he would come back, only this time it won’t be to save us – he already did that. When Jesus returns it will be to judge the living and the dead, i.e. to send unbelievers to hell and welcome believers to heaven.
That’s what Advent is preparing us for – for the second coming of Christ. That’s what we’re supposed to be keeping an eye out for. That’s why (earlier in Mark 13) Jesus lists out several signs of the End Times, e.g. international conflicts, natural disasters, religious persecution, gospel outreach. These are the things that we should be looking for. That’s how we’ll know that Jesus’ return is imminent.
Are there wars? Yes! By my (admittedly rough) estimate, there have been some 100,000 casualties worldwide this year.[5]
How about natural disasters? You mean like a global pandemic? Do you remember all the bush fires in Australia earlier this year, the swarm of locusts in the Middle East, dozens of major earthquakes worldwide?
Does religious persecution take place? It absolutely does. How about gospel outreach? By God’s grace, the gospel spreads too!
All the signs are here. If you are looking, i.e. if you are watching, then you will know that Jesus could come at any time. But that’s the rub, isn’t it? If Jesus could come at any time, then that means that we always need to be on our guard. As Jesus warns us, “About that day or hour no one knows.”[6]
That’s why Jesus tells us to watch, i.e. to keep our eyes open. But that leads us to the next question, “What does that look like,” or, “How do we go about keeping an eye out for Jesus?”
How
Jesus helps us to understand that question with an illustration:
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.[7]
We’ve all been in a situation like that. Your boss goes out of town. Your teacher leaves the room for 5 minutes. When she comes back, she doesn’t want to yell at you for goofing off. She wants you to be doing your work. And it’s not for her sake; it’s for yours. There’s work you’re supposed to be doing.
When Jesus talks about the master going away and putting his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, he’s talking about what’s going on right now. Jesus is our master, but he left this world 2,000 years ago. He’s coming back, but we don’t know when. It could be today, but it could be another 2,000 years from now. We just don’t know, but what we do know is how Jesus wants us to wait.
Like those servants the master put in charge, Jesus wants us to do our assigned tasks. And I think that this is a beautiful image, because it tells us that Jesus doesn’t view us as cookie-cutter clones of the perfect Christian. We’re all different. We all have different gifts. We all live in different circumstances. But we all have the same master, and we all have work to do.
We’re not all pastors. We’re not all parents. We’re not even all employed, so our jobs are going to look very different. But from the Grade 11 student who suddenly finds himself home from school, to the aging, aching grandma stuck in her suite at the retirement home, we each have our own responsibilities.
Maybe yours right now is just to listen to your parents with love and respect. Maybe your job is to suffer and be in pain, but to do so with a peace that no medication or physical therapy can offer, so that you can be an example to those others in the facility with you of a person who finds their peace in Christ.
See, it’s not enough to be found ready on the moment that Jesus returns. If that were the goal, then God would have told us when that day would come. We’d all have our alarms set so that we can get our affairs in order at the last minute before Jesus comes back. But he wants us to be constantly vigilant, so that we’re constantly faithful. There’s work for us to do here and now. And while all of us have different responsibilities, there is one thing that we can all do – keep watch.
As important as it is for the mother to feed and change her baby’s diapers, it’s even more important for her to keep watch for her baby, to prepare her child for the second coming of Christ.
As important as it is for you to be kind to your neighbour who is suddenly out of work and stuck at home, it’s even more important for you to keep watch for them, i.e. to prepare them for the second coming of Christ. Sure, shovel their walk, get them a Door Dash gift card, be a good neighbour, but be a neighbour who cares about their soul. Chat with them over the fence about why you still have comfort and hope in a frustrating and difficult time. Send them a link to a livestream where they can hear the Word of God and prepare their hearts for Jesus’ second coming.
Why
And this leads to the central question of our text for today. “Why?” Why do we need to keep watch?
Because when Jesus comes again, it won’t be to save but to judge. And if we’ve lived our lives of faith the way that a group of Grade 7s behave when their teacher walks out of the room for 5 minutes, then we could be in serious trouble and so could everyone who has fallen spiritually asleep. We need to be constantly vigilant so that we aren’t eternally condemned. We can’t afford to lose track of time or to be caught unaware, because Jesus could come at any moment.
Can you say you’re ready? Maybe today; you took steps to hear this message. Will that be true tomorrow? How long can you stay constantly vigilant?
It’s kind of intimidating, isn’t it? We have no idea when Jesus will come back, but we do know how important it is to be ready; it’s a matter of eternal life and death. But, as scary as it can be to hear Jesus tell us to be on guard 4 times in Mark 13, I take great comfort in his concern. He goes out of his way to warn us.
Jesus speaks these words to you. They’re your personal Advent alert. And do you know when he said this? It was on Holy Tuesday, just 3 days before he died. He was sitting on the Mount of Olives looking across the valley at Jerusalem, where, in just 3 days’ time, he would be hanging on a cross.
If it scares you to think that Jesus could come at any time to judge the world, don’t forget his first advent, when he came to be your Saviour. Don’t forget about Christmas. Jesus didn’t come to be cute and cuddly and to give you an occasion to give gifts to each other. He came to die for you. He came to pay for your sins, even those times that you grow spiritually sleepy, even those times when you grow tired of always being “on,” always being ready.
It’s exhausting, but it’s OK, because that sin finds its forgiveness in Jesus too. Everything that you have ever done wrong or failed to do right, is forgiven because Jesus came at Christmas to be your Saviour by dying on a cross. And because of that first advent, Jesus’ second coming doesn’t have to be scary. That’s your Saviour coming back for you. He’s coming back to take you home to heaven because of the sacrifice he made for you.
So, for Christians, while it is important for us to watch and wait, it’s not for fear that if we’re not ready when Jesus comes, he’ll be mad and disown us forever. No, we’ve already seen how much he loves us. He died for us!
No, we wait and watch, not out of fear, but with eager anticipation to welcome our Saviour again, to invite him to see how prepared we’ve been with lives of faithful waiting, but more than anything, to rejoice that our waiting is over and that the time has come to be with God, not to wait for him anymore.
That’s your Advent Alert. That’s what Jesus wants you to know. That’s what Jesus wants everyone to know – that he is coming again; that we prepare to meet him by being faithful to our responsibilities; and, finally, that you can watch and wait with joy because your Saviour is coming.
Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Amen.
[1] Mark 13:37
[2] Ibid
[3] Mark 13:34
[4] Mark 13:33
[5] List of ongoing armed conflicts - Wikipedia
[6] Mark 13:32
[7] Mark 13:34