Thursday 20th April - Mark 13

Today’s chapter is Mark 13

Tom writes:

Another great example of the footnotes being our friends. Verses 24 and 25 sound like the explosion of the universe. Too often these kinds of verses (which are extremely common in the book of Revelation) are ripped out of their context and used to conjure concern about a coming cosmic calamity. When this happens a few Christians jump in with two feet and constantly talk about “the rapture” and the “mark of the beast” but most back away slowly, thinking the “end of the world” is about as welcome as an endless dinner trapped talking to their “awkward work colleague”.  So the footnotes are our friends because they liberate us from a very superficial reading of the verses. They expose the inadequacy of much that is preached on them. They show us that Jesus is quoting from two “judgement” chapters in Isaiah. One chapter (Isaiah 13) is the condemnation of Babylon for its pride and the second (Isaiah 34) is the rebuke of all nations for how they have mistreated him. Neither predict the sky falling in. Rather the specific images of stuff happening to the sun, moon and stars are intended to emphasise the totality and expansiveness of God’s judgement.

No one can side-step God’s decisive action to bring evil to an end. So - in a classic Jesus twist - the Big Fear in these verses is not that one day the world will explode. Instead it is that Jerusalem has become Babylon and will receive the devastating consequences. The epicentre of God’s project is now under God’s judgement because they failed to “keep watch”. They fell asleep to God. So don’t back away from these passages. And don’t get a telescope to anxiously look up. Instead, use the verses to refine your alertness to Jesus. Follow them to greater responsiveness and obedience to the Global God. Jerusalem lost that and it ended up being sacked. Much of God’s church is in danger of going the same way. Please don’t get dragged along with them; switch on your brain, make friends with the book and understand what it really says.

Question for reflection

What would it look like for you to become more awake to God today?

More resources are for you at www.anewtestamentjourney.net

Paperback and eBook versions of the devotional available at https://amzn.eu/d/0tDbKny