Mark 13:14-37
The Church will not have to go through the terrible tribulations which the Jewish remnant will experience (Revelation 3:10). While we rest on this certainty, let us nevertheless beware lest we fall into the spiritual slumber which lies in wait for us so menacingly in the long and testing moral night of this world. Let us think of the imminent return of the Lord and let us lay hold for ourselves of the serious exhortations in this chapter. A short parable presents the Lord to us as the master of a house who goes away after he has left his property to the responsibility of his servants. Each one has received "his work" . . . , precise and special to him. And the Master made no restrictions whatever with regard to the diversity of the jobs to be done. Some translations read "to every man his work . . ." suggesting an unlimited number of different tasks which the Lord has prepared for His own (cf. Romans 12:6-8). The brief instructions received by the porter (v. 34) are addressed equally "to all" . . . even to you and to me (v. 37). And (note this detail) it is this word "watch" with which the teaching of the Lord Jesus now ends in Mark. Let us hide this away in our hearts carefully, as one keeps the last words of a dear friend who has left us . . . but who will come again.