Mark 13:32-14

No-one knows when

As Kees stated yesterday, the events prophesied in this passage ended up happening in AD70 when Nero destroyed the temple. Matthew’s parallel passage used “prophetic telescoping” where one describes two mountains that look side by side when viewed at a distance, but as you fly over them are actually many miles apart. Today we see that as Jesus prophesies, He doesn’t know the dates either. Only the Father does.

American false prophet Harold Camping predicted the end of the world in 1994 and later in 2011. He died in 2013, in a distinctly still existing current world order. There have been at least 242 false prophecies giving dates for the second coming. In fact dating the second coming is a Biblical marker that a prophecy is false, as we see in today’s reading. Not even Jesus knows the date, so “stay awake” – follow God, serve Him and make disciples. Let’s take as many loved ones with us as we can when he does finally return.

Love for Jesus

Love for Jesus is even more important than love for the poor. In fact all our “love for…” comes out of our love for Jesus anyway. The lady with the alabaster jar was extravagant with her love offering, poured out for Jesus. What she gave was not wasted. Nothing we do out of love for Jesus is wasted – no time of worship, prayer, or bible study. None of it is wasted.

Passover

The Passover is mentioned five times in this passage (Ch 14:1,12,14 and 16). Looking towards his impending death, Jesus saw himself as being THE Passover lamb to be sacrificed. The blood of the Passover lamb rescued God’s people from judgement and death. 1 Cor 5:7b tells us Jesus is our sacrificial Passover Lamb.

Lord Jesus thank you for supremely demonstrating the Father’s love for us by dying for us. Thank you that we now receive the Father’s love as much as you do. Empower us to love you more and those around us, in your precious name. Amen.

Andy Moyle