Sounds like a traffic alert. Fig trees on the highway! Be alert! Jesus talks about fig trees and staying awake in today’s text (Mark 13:28-37). But, before we go there, let’s recall how we got here.
How We Got Here. On the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. Jesus answered disciples’ questions. It all started when Jesus prophesied the towering temple would all come tumbling down. “When?” they wanted to know. “And what sign will point to it?” (Mark 13:1-4).
Jesus identified signs. False messiahs, wars, earthquakes, famines, and persecution (13:5-13). The sign of the temple’s imminent destruction would then appear: “the abomination of desolation” (a reference to the Roman army besieging the city and ravaging the temple). Then, after an indeterminate time, cosmic signs would appear: dark, falling and shaking bodies in the sky. Finally, “they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send out the angels and gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (13:26,27).
Notes About the Signs. As I see it, all the signs up to the cosmic pertain to the first century, climaxing with the temple’s destruction in 70 A.D. (13:5-23). Cosmic signs and Second Coming remain future, even to us.
But those pre-cosmic, first-century signs (13:5-13) seem to mark the entire period from the first century to the Second Coming. They appear in that indeterminate time between Mark 13:23 and Mark 13:24, which includes our time.
Look at the news. Wars in the Middle East, terrorism metastasizing globally, famine on the African continent and earthquakes all over the place. (No kidding. Google “earthquakes” and see.) These current events, then, have sign value. That brings us to Jesus’ . . .
Fig Tree Alert!
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree:
As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out,
you know that summer is near.
Even so, when you see these things happening,
you know that it is near, right at the door.
I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away
until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will never pass away” (13:28-31).
A blossoming fig tree signified summer’s start (the fig tree being a late-Spring bloomer), so“these [signs} happening” show “it is near, right at the door.” In fact, “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things happen”.
Jesus’ fig-tree-alert raises three puzzling questions about what Jesus means(1) by“these things” which signify “it is near”? (2) by “it” that “is near, right at the door”? (3) by “this generation”? that “will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened”?
Commentators are as divided as Congress and suggested interpretations as numerous as Obamacare regulations. I’ll just set out what I understand. Two things lead me to believe the pre-cosmic, first-century signs continue throughout these last days until the end. One, is history (including Acts) and current events. Two, Jesus said, “These are but the beginning of the birth pains” (13:8), implying “birth pains” will continue.
Then, we have the questions what “it” and “this generation” refer to. Remember Jesus is answering “When will the temple be destroyed?” and “What signs will precede its destruction?” Therefore, I take “it” (which “is near, right at the door”) as referring to the temple’s and city’s fall in A.D. 70. In that case, ” . . . this generation” which won’t pass away “until all these things happen”, then refers to the disciples’ generation. “These things” would happen within 40 years. Cosmic signs and Second Coming lay outside that time frame.
Stay Awake!
“No one knows about that day or hour,
not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,
but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert!
You do not know when that time will come.
It’s like a man going away:
He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge,
each with his assigned task,
and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
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.
If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!'” (13:32-37).
It seems to me (not a polished,professional prophecy professor) that what Jesus taught here refers primarily to his Second Coming (13:24-27), though it can include the temple destruction secondarily (13:14-23). (Interpreting prophecy is like being a politician: I try to cover all the bases!)
In the 1840s, William Miller proclaimed Jesus would return and the world would be burned up between March 1843 and March 1844. As many as 100,000 “Millerites” sold their belongings and headed to the mountains to wait for the end. Needless to say, they were disappointed, though Miller came up with a later date—and was wrong again.
This is precisely what Jesus warns us not to do with his prophecy. Since no one but the Father knows the day or the hour, it’s useless to waste time trying to figure it out. Miller, Harold Camping, Hal Lindsay are only a few who refused to see that.
What Jesus does urge us to do with his prophecy he states three times in this paragraph: “Stay awake.” Does that mean always have someone on duty watching the sky? Of course not. Each of us is a servant of our Lord with our own work to do. That means preaching, praying, driving a truck, teaching school, changing diapers, running a business and so on, in ways that bear witness of the good news of the kingdom of God at hand in the Son. And it means doing it aware that our Master is returning to call us to account.
I laugh at the prophecy professionals with their wall-to-wall charts onto which they squeeze and stomp everything in Scripture and life. But it’s not really funny. Become obsessed with prophecy and you overlook what Jesus wants us to do with it.
We may disagree about the details of Jesus’ prophecy in Mark 13. But there are three things we must not do . . .
- Fight, criticize and divide.
- Ignore the urgent lesson of the fig tree. Jesus will fulfill his prophecies soon, even if his “soon” seems slow.
- Fall asleep at the wheel or be distracted by the trivial. Instead, “stay awake” in a world that yawns at Jesus. In other words, faithfully do what Jesus calls us to do as his servants who one day soon will give an account to our Lord.
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