This article concludes our study of the Olivet Discourse in Mark. In keeping with Mark’s Gospel, there is an emphasis on the practical application of prophecy to servants (vv33-37).
The Lord’s teaching about the Great Tribulation and His coming as the Son of man must be kept in mind (vv14-27). Dark days of dreadful affliction (v19) will give way to the “Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (v26).1 In this concluding section, the Lord uses two illustrations to emphasise the comfort and challenge of that coming.
The Parables of Anticipation (vv28-37)
The Lord makes no mention of the Rapture in this discourse because the Church, as such, is not His subject. He speaks concerning believers who will be on earth when the events of the Great Tribulation unfold. However, present-day believers, while not the direct subject of His instruction, can surely find practical guidance here.
Notice first the Indications of His Coming: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors” (vv28-29).
The fig tree is sometimes used as a symbol for Israel (e.g., 11:12-14), but here the Lord employs it simply as an illustration. As William Lane notes, “The Mount of Olives was famous for its fig trees, which sometimes attained a height of 20 or 30 feet. Assuming that Jesus gave this instruction just before the Passover, the fig tree would be in the condition described in the parable, its branches tender, its leaves sprouting.”2 We can imagine the Lord pointing to the trees to illustrate His message. The fig tree, which lost its leaves during the winter months, only sprouted again in springtime. When the dry bark softened and leaves appeared, summer was near.
Likewise, when believers see the signs mentioned by the Lord (vv14,19,22,24-25), they can be assured that “he is near, at the very gates” (v29 ESV).
Note, then, the Imminence of His Coming: “Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done” (v30). If “generation” is understood in its usual sense of contemporaries living at the same time, then the Lord indicates that the same generation who will witness the signs will also witness the event to which the signs point. This stresses the imminence of the event for those alive at that time. This coming is not imminent now because much has to be fulfilled before His coming as the Son of man. But the generation who sees the “abomination of desolation” and the “affliction,” and the “false Christs and false prophets” with their “signs and wonders,” and the great cosmic disturbances in the sun, moon and stars, will also see the “coming of the Son of man” (vv14,19,22,24-25). His arrival will be imminent for them.
The Lord also confirms the Inevitability of His Coming: “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (v31). What a wonder this is, and what a comfort for these believers! They will witness cosmic disturbances greater than ever seen before, but the Lord assures them that the shaking of creation will not shake His promises. The world may pass away, but His words will not. He will surely come.
Next is the Ignorance of His Coming: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (v32). In Acts 1, the Lord taught His disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (v7). The program, including dates and times, are the preserve of the Father. It is His plan and His timetable. Men on earth are ignorant of the day and hour. Angels in heaven are likewise ignorant. But what of the Son? Here, as ever, we must remember His uniqueness. The eternally omniscient One says He does not know the “day and hour” of His coming.
Two options are available to us. The first is explained by William MacDonald: “We believe the key to the answer is found in John 15:15: ‘a servant does not know what his master is doing.’”3 The Lord knows everything, but it is not His place as the perfect Servant to speak of a subject which is the Father’s domain.
The second is to accept that “no man knoweth the Son, but the Father” (Mat 11:27). There is a mystery about the incarnation which we will never fully solve. He who is God has access to all knowledge at all times; and yet He who is also the perfect Man may, by willing self-limitation, decide not to appropriate that knowledge at any given time. How this works is a mystery to us.
Finally, there are the Imperatives of His Coming: “Take ye heed, watch and pray …. Watch ye therefore …. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (vv33-37).
Spiritual lethargy and sluggishness may mark servants in the absence of their Lord, so believers are exhorted to remain spiritually alert by continued prayerful dependence on God. The Son of man is “as a man taking a far journey” and leaving his house in the care of servants. The servants have sufficient authority and instructions to serve well in their master’s absence, but they should not lose sight of the fact that he will return. “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping” (vv35-36).
Being caught napping at the return of any master would cause shame. How much more shameful would it be to be spiritually lethargic when the Son of man returns? And so, the Lord gives His final charge, “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (v37). Surely, as we await the Lord’s coming to the air, we can take this solemn lesson to ourselves.
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.
2 William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1974), 479.
3 William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: New Testament (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), 173.
