“Watch” Mark 13:24-end Advent 2008
Introduction
Some time ago there were newspaper reports about a patient suing their doctor in Cornwall because they had made a diagnostic and more importantly prognostic mistake. Nothing unusual about that you may think but the mistake had been to tell the patient they had only a few months to live whereas having survived longer than anticipated they reviewed the diagnosis and found what had been thought to be a serious cancer was actually benign.
Problems arose because in the light of being told he only had a few months to live he sold his house and essentially went on one long party! Now he was no longer “terminally ill” he was broke and didn’t know what to do. How would you respond if you were told you only had a short time to live? What would you do differently? (Ref. The Bucket list)
The thing is not only do we not know individually how much longer we have here on earth, collectively we don’t know either. Jesus is at great pains in the passage from Mark to emphasise that “No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” v.32. He is referring to the day of judgement when He will return in great glory and his kingdom will be seen in all its fullness. If we thought that this day was imminent how differently would we behave? I am reminded of the tee-shirt which said “Look busy – Jesus is coming”.
There have been many people over the years who have behaved in strange ways as they have anticipated the imminent end of all things. Some have behaved like the poor patient referred to above and sold all that they had. There have been mass weddings and mass suicides. In this passage Jesus tells his disciples to do two things in the light of the coming Day – firstly to have an attitude of watchfulness and secondly to go about our allotted tasks.
Watch
The final words of this passage which in Mark’s gospel come very near the end of Jesus’ ministry are “What I say to you I say to everyone “Watch” v.37 earlier on He says “Be on guard! Be alert!” and the verse before our passage “Be on your guard”. The message is clear, in the light of our own mortality and the imminent return of Jesus we need to be on our guard, watchful and alert. This is the Advent message. The antithesis to watchfulness in this passage is sleeping – “If he comes suddenly do not let him find you sleeping”v.36. Does this mean we all have to stay awake permanently until the day of the Lord? I can imagine that would give rise to all sorts of problems! I think two things come out from this passage, firstly we are all called to be watchful but some have a specific role as watchmen (& women!). “he puts his servants in charge...and tells the one at the door to keep watch” v.34
Ezekiel is a good example of this “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me” Ezekiel 3:17. In the same way God calls specific people to the task today – to listen to His voice and speak out in warning.
Work
If not all of us are called to be watchmen what should we be doing whilst maintaining a watchful attitude? The astute among you will have realised that I skipped over a bit of v.34 “puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch”. So the rest of us who are not on guard duty at the door nonetheless have our assigned tasks. So it’s not so much a question of “look busy” but keep busy, Jesus is coming. Perhaps the important thing to check here is that what we are busy with are tasks assigned to us by the Master and not simply our own distractions. One of Deborah’s favourite quotes is from Eugene Peterson:
“Busyness is the enemy of spirituality, it is essentially laziness, it is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing, it is filling the time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God’s actions”.
Conclusion
Seemingly we all lead busy lives but I have been challenged by two questions as I have pondered this – does my busy-ness prevent me from being alert – on my guard – watchful? Watching my dog the other day on the one hand he was so busy pursuing all sorts of doggy smells he failed to see a rabbit hop out in front of him, on the other hand when he has spotted something he adopts a very still but very alert attitude. In the midst of my busy-ness am I failing to notice what God is doing?
The second challenge has already been hinted at – am I busy with the right king of things? Have I allowed the tyranny of the urgent to suppress the important? It is good from time to time to review what we are doing and to ask: “Are the tasks which occupy my time ones allocated to me by the Master?” Those of us in paid employment obviously owe a duty to our human masters but in fulfilling these duties are we also being obedient to Our heavenly master? During this season of Advent let us take time to ponder these things.