Watch!
Mark 13:31-37
When our ship was in dry dock, I was assigned a watch in the barracks one night. I don’t remember what the problem was, I usually did not have this problem, but that night I was very sleepy. Since it was my own barracks I was roaming, I slipped into my room and lay down ... just for a moment. About a half hour after my watch was to be over, I heard a banging on my door. and the watch supervisor came in to find me sprawled out on my bed.
I was too frightened even to apologize. The standard punishment for this sort of low level lapse of duty was 10 days in the brig, accompanied by a fine and three days bread and water. I did not get into trouble, but he was not happy. I think it was too much effort to write me up.
This was a peace time, a quiet night on a base beneath several layers of guard. A very non-risk situation. The watch here was perfunctory. The punishment in higher risk situations is much more serious. Jesus gives us the ultimate.
A general framework for two things:
• The end of Jerusalem
• And the end of the world, including His own second coming
The end of Jerusalem happened just as He said, in the days of that generation, AD 70 when the Romans marched against it and destroyed it, disbanding the citizens.
Our passage begins with Jesus’ bold words about the end of the world. He says that His words are more enduring than the Universe itself. It is the natural next question to ask, when this will happen.
I remember a book coming out at the end of the 1970s that declared that Jesus was coming back in 1984. Of course, because of George Orwell’s book, many people had dire predictions for that year, and yet, it came and went like most other years.
I find it odd that so many people want to pinpoint the date of Jesus’ second coming. It is odd, because Jesus refused to answer the question of the exact timing since He himself did not know. What kind of arrogance does it take to try to speak of something that Jesus confessed ignorance on? Certainly, the process of God becoming man created some unique situations for Him, but even as a man, God knows more than any human can aspire to.
When will Jesus come again?
We don’t know
Jesus cautions us to expect Him at any time. In order to do this He uses a parable - a story that comes alongside His point. With that point goes several facts:
You are in charge
Jesus has left His "house" in the care of His servants, that is, His disciples.
Let me acknowledge right away, that God is in control. Jesus works through His people and in that way as well as in ways we cannot explain, He leads the Church. However, in another way, one that is much more explainable, He has left His disciples with the responsibility of conducting His business on Earth.
Everyone has a personal task
When Jesus went away, He did not leave everyone in charge of everything. He had a logical division of labor. There are different kinds of jobs to be done and people of differing abilities to do them.
Paul tells us that this takes the shape of gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit. This is the original idea of "giftedness." We say a person is "gifted" when they have a particular valuable ability in some specific area.
All believers are gifted. Jesus left everyone with an assigned task. The way we know what we have been assigned to do is to figure out what He has made us good at.
• Are you good at helping others in a practical and very physical way?
• Probably he has gifted you to serve.
• Are you good at providing funds to see His work move forward?
• Probably he has gifted you with giving.
• Are you good at teaching the Bible?
• Probably he has gifted you with teaching.
• Are you good at sharing your faith?
• Then you are a gifted evangelist.
There are about 25 or 30 categories of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives people. These are ways to help you understand where you fit into the Church, both in this specific Church and in the Body of Christ at large. Figure out what you are good at, and find a job that fits.
And stay alert
As always, repetition is a key to importance in the Bible. Look how many times Jesus cautions us to be alert:
• Be on guard!
• Be alert!
• keep watch
• do not let him find you sleeping
• Watch!
Five times in the space of just a few lines, He warns us against laxness.
We live in a society where there are oversight and rules. In Jesus’ day, the servants of the household were subject only to their masters. If he came back and found an unacceptable situation, he could have the servants executed. The parable Jesus is telling is meant to evoke a feeling of great danger and dread.
Jesus warns us many times that His coming will be unexpected. In this passage He is more emphatic than sometimes. In some places when he describes the state of things when the watchers were not alert the situation involves:
• abuse of others
• drunkenness
• pain caused by outside attack
• arrogant assumptions of ownership of the Master’s property
• sexual straying
• misuse of money
In other words, if we do not watch, then when the Master returns he will find all kinds of sin and destruction has had their affect on His people.
Think for a moment of a similar situation that had happened in Moses’ day:
Moses was called by God up to the mountain, where God gave Him the Law, including the tablets of stone upon which He had written the Ten Commandments with his own finger. We actually get a feel for the situation the people were in, because Moses is called up on the mountain in Exodus 24 and then he receives not just the tablets of stone, but instructions for the Tabernacle, for the priests garments, and some of the sacrifices.
It is only after 8 chapters of descriptive material that most contemporary readers find tedious and irrelevant, the story resumes and we find that Moses has been on the mountain for nearly 6 weeks. It is slow reading. If we have no specific goals in mind, it may take us 6 weeks to read it.
The point is this, when the story resumes and Moses comes down from the mountain, carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments, he finds the people partying. The person in charge, his own brother, the priest of the nation, Aaron, has been enabling and encouraging pagan worship.
So watch
This is the big point of the story. How do we watch? We watch by seeing to our duties and by not allowing ourselves to dismiss Jesus’ return as remote and unlikely.
This happens to us almost unconsciously. A Jewish friend of mine says that in his family, when something is unlikely, they say "Sure that will happen ... when the Messiah comes."
This family has lost faith in the promise of God to send the Messiah. We may think that is terrible, since Jesus is the Messiah and He has already come, but we are guilty of the same kind of thinking.
Sure that will happen ... when Jesus comes back.
We wouldn’t be caught dead saying it, but somehow our expectation of this event takes an occasional turn for the dismissive.
Peter predicted that this would happen:
... in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this ’coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." (2 Peter 3:3-4 TNIV)
It is the unconscious assurance that we will not be caught by Jesus’ return that allows us to do things that we would never do if we thought He would walk through the door at any moment. We are like children who think our parents are gone for the evening.
But Jesus assures us that this "unexectedness" is part of the plan. The four times he gives them to expect his return are:
• evening
• midnight
• when the rooster crows
• dawn
These are not random descriptive times. They are the four watches of the night used by the Roman sentries. The rooster crowing was the time between about 1 and 3 AM. This, by the way, is the time frame in which Peter denied Jesus.
People did not travel at night. It was not safe, and much of the time you could not see. There were no streetlights or flood lamps. Between the obstacles in the road, wild animals, and bandits, traveling at night was most unexpected. Consequently it is also the time that people are tempted to sleep through the watch.
But Jesus says the time we least expect it is when He will show up. And we should not be caught sleeping.
What constitutes sleeping?
Anything other than something you would be proud to be seen doing when Jesus walks into the room. If you would like for Him to "catch" you doing it, then you are not asleep.
His command goes beyond assigned duties
It is an interesting turn in the story, that the master assigns duties, including a doorman to watch for his return. But then Jesus says it is not enough for the doorman alone to watch:
What I say to you, I say to everyone: "Watch!’"
An odd thing goes with the whole cell phone in the car thing. It is, of course, illegal to hold a phone in your hand and talk on it in New Jersey. You have to have a hand free device.
People ask what the difference is between talking hands free and talking to a passenger. The difference is in the amount of attention it takes to carry on the conversation, not the holding of the phone. Studies show that as the need for attention on driving increases, with the increase of traffic, the changing of driving conditions, the complexity of traffic flow due to lights and signs, conversations decrease. So, the actual data seems to suggest that there is a significant difference between talking on the phone and talking with a passenger.
One major factor not taken into account is the eyes of the passenger. When you are talking with a passenger, they see what you see and even extend your range of vision. When driving conditions are odd, both of you are giving it attention and not just you. On the phone, the person you are talking to cannot see the brake lights on the car in front of you.
The passenger in a car is not a passive part of riding, she is also watching. They may be navigating, minding the children, changing the radio and the heater and several other things, but she is also extending your vision. She is watching.
Jesus says this is the way we are to be. Not only are we to be carrying out our assigned tasks, but we are to be watching for His coming, and we are not to be caught napping.
Does your life reflect an attitude of watchfulness?
• Are you avoiding the things that you would not want Jesus to walk in on?
• Are you giving attention to the commands He gave all of us in His word?
• Are you doing the jobs He has equipped you to do?
These are what it means for you to watch.
We may be curious about when Jesus will come, but Jesus said it isn’t important. We should be much more concerned with being ready when He does come.
To be ready, we must be about His business
We must be alert
We must watch
