Scripture Daily

Context No. 322 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 13:12-23: in context

12“Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 13You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. 14“But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, 15and let him who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter in, to take anything out of his house. 16Let him who is in the field not return back to take his cloak. 17But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babies in those days! 18Pray that your flight won’t be in the winter. 19For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be. 20Unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the chosen ones, whom he picked out, he shortened the days. 21Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ don’t believe it. 22For false christs and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones. 23But you watch. “Behold, I have told you all things beforehand.

This is part of Jesus' hardest and most frightening discourse, spoken to his disciples about coming catastrophe. He describes families torn apart, betrayal to death, being hated for his name, and a tribulation so severe, he says, that there has never been anything like it since the beginning of creation and never will be again. When the sign comes, he tells them, flee to the mountains without hesitation, do not even go back into the house for your cloak. It is a passage that could leave a reader simply afraid. But two mercies are folded into the middle of it, and they are easy to miss under all the darkness.

The first is a limit. If the Lord had not shortened those days, Jesus says, no one would survive; but for the sake of the chosen ones, he shortened them. Even the worst tribulation is not left to run without end. God sets a boundary on it, and he sets that boundary specifically for the sake of his own people. The catastrophe is real and severe, and it is also capped, and the cap is an act of mercy. The second is the forewarning itself. Be on guard, he says, for false christs and false prophets will come with signs to deceive even the elect if they can, but I have told you all these things beforehand. Nothing in it will catch Jesus by surprise, and because he has told them in advance, it need not catch them by surprise either.

Both mercies push against the way a hard season feels from inside it. When I am in the worst of something, I tend to believe it is both endless and unforeseen, that it will never stop and that no one saw it coming. Do I believe my darkest stretch is uncapped and unwatched, when Jesus says the days are shortened for his people's sake, and that he has told us beforehand?

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