Mark 13:31

These ten verses close the long teaching of Mark 13, often called the Olivet Discourse, which Matthew and Luke record as well (Matthew 24, Luke 21). As the disciples admired the temple, Jesus foretold its complete destruction (Mark 13:1–2). Later, on the Mount of Olives across from it, the disciples asked him when these things would happen and what sign would come before them (Mark 13:3–4).

Jesus first warned them against being deceived (Mark 13:5–6). He went on to speak of wars, earthquakes and famines, of believers handed over and persecuted, of the gospel preached among all nations, and of the abomination of desolation and the distress that would follow it (Mark 13:7–23). After that the sun and moon would be darkened, the stars would fall, and the Son of Man would come in the clouds with great power and glory to gather his elect (Mark 13:24–27). In our passage Jesus moves from these great events to a tree every one of his hearers knew and to a household they all understood, and he tells them how to live until he comes.

The temple stood at the centre of Israel’s worship and national life, and its fall was a catastrophe the disciples could hardly imagine. It came in A.D. 70, when the Romans under Titus took Jerusalem at the end of the war that began in A.D. 66, about forty years after Jesus spoke. That event stands behind much of what is said about verse 30 below.

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree,” Jesus begins. The verb manthánō means to learn, whether by being taught or by watching, and here it calls the disciples to take in a lesson and understand it. A parable, parabolē, is a comparison drawn from ordinary life. The fig tree (Ficus carica) grew all over Israel, and its yearly round was known to everyone who lived there. Its branches stand bare through the winter. Then the branch grows apalós, “tender”, soft and supple with new growth, and “putteth forth leaves”, the verb ekphýō, to grow out. “Ye know that summer is near,” Jesus says, using ginṓskō for the knowing that comes from long experience. Summer, théros, is the season of heat, and the word for near, engýs, means close in place or in time.

“So ye in like manner.” The disciples are to read events the way anyone reads a fig tree. “When ye shall see these things come to pass”: the verb for seeing is eídō, which means to see, literally or figuratively, and so to know, and “come to pass” is gínomai, to come into being or happen. When they see the signs happen, they are to “know that it is nigh, even at the doors.” “Nigh” is engýs again. The KJV leaves the subject as “it”, and in the setting it is the coming of the Son of Man that Jesus has just described (Mark 13:26–27). Something “at the doors” is standing on the threshold, about to come in.

Matthew and Luke give the same parable (Matthew 24:32–35, Luke 21:29–33). The apostles speak in the same way of the Lord’s nearness. Paul tells believers that their salvation is near and that it is time to wake up (Romans 13:11–12), and James calls them to be patient until the Lord’s coming, because it draws near (James 5:7–8).

The lesson of the tree is certainty. New leaves on a fig tree always mean that summer is coming, and the signs Jesus has given will just as surely mean that his coming is near. The steady order God keeps in the seasons reflects the faithfulness with which he keeps his word about the future. Earlier in Mark, Jesus cursed a fig tree in the same days that he cleansed the temple (Mark 11:12–21), and the fig tree sometimes stands for Israel in Scripture. In this parable the lesson rests on the tree’s ordinary seasons.

Verse 30 opens with “Verily I say unto you,” Jesus’ solemn way of marking what follows as certain. “Verily” is amḗn, the Hebrew amen carried into Greek, a strong affirmation meaning “truly” or “so be it”, and it calls the hearers to listen and believe. Then comes the promise: “this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.” The word for generation, geneá, can mean the people living at one time, a family or line of descendants, or an age. “Shall not pass” is a double negative in Greek, ou mḗ with the verb parérchomai, the most emphatic form a Greek denial can take. “Be done” is gínomai, the same verb as “come to pass” in verse 29, and it means to happen.

Matthew and Luke record the same saying (Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:32). Behind it stands the God who declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9–10), whose plans come to pass exactly as he has said.

Believers differ on who “this generation” is, and each view takes Jesus at his word.

• The people then alive. On this reading geneá means Jesus’ own contemporaries, and “all these things” are above all the events leading to the fall of Jerusalem and the temple (Mark 13:1–23). Those came in A.D. 70, well within the lifetime of many who heard him. This view fits the most common use of the word and the nearness of the temple’s fall.
• The Jewish people. On this reading the word means a race or line of descent, and Jesus promises that the Jewish people will endure until every prophecy is fulfilled, his return included.
• A kind of people. Here “this generation” names a moral type, the unbelieving and wicked generation, which lasts until the end.
• The generation that sees the signs. Here it means the people alive when the signs begin to appear, who will see the end follow quickly.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” Heaven, ouranós, means the sky and also heaven, the dwelling of God, and “heaven and earth” together stand for the whole created order, from the heights above to the ground under our feet. All of it “shall pass away”, parérchomai, the same verb as “pass” in verse 30, which means to go by or pass away. Against that Jesus sets “my words”, lógos, which means something said: his teaching, his commands, his promises and his prophecies, including everything he has just foretold. In Greek the closing “shall not pass away” is again the emphatic ou mḗ, they shall by no means pass away.

This is a claim only God can make. Isaiah had said that the heavens would vanish and the earth wear out (Isaiah 51:6), and that “the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8). Jesus says the same of his own words. To his Jewish hearers a true prophet spoke the very words of God, and here Jesus places his words alongside God’s own word, which outlasts creation itself. Matthew records the saying as well (Matthew 24:35). John shows us why it is so: Jesus is himself the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1), and Revelation calls him “the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14).

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” “That day” is the day Jesus has been describing, the day of his coming and the end of the age. The word for day, hēméra, means the daylight hours or a whole day, and here it names the great day God has appointed. “Knoweth” is eídō again, in a perfect form that means to have seen and so to know, the knowledge someone holds. The list climbs from men to the angels who are in God’s presence in heaven, then to the Son, and it ends with the single exception, the Father, patḗr.

The hour lies beyond anyone’s reckoning. The disciples had asked for a timeline (Mark 13:4), and many in their day expected a Messiah who would overthrow Rome and restore Israel’s kingdom at once. Jesus answers that the timing rests with the Father. He says the same after his resurrection, when he tells the disciples that the times are in the Father’s authority (Acts 1:7), and Matthew records this verse too (Matthew 24:36). The Father who keeps this hour also kept the first one, when he sent his Son in “the fulness of the time” (Galatians 4:4). The second coming is just as certain. Christ will reign until every enemy is under his feet, the last of them death (1 Corinthians 15:25–26), and he will be revealed as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:11–16).

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” The three commands build on one another. “Take ye heed” is blépō, to look, to see, to beware, and as a command it means paying close attention. “Watch” here is agrypnéō, to be sleepless, to keep awake, like a guard who must stay alert through the night. “Pray” is proseúchomai, and it shows that this alertness is kept up through communion with God. People in the cities of that day knew the night watchman’s duty to stay awake for danger or for his master’s arrival, and Jesus gives that duty to his disciples.

The reason follows with “for” (gár), which gives the ground for what comes before it: “ye know not,” ou with eídō, “when the time is.” The word for time, kairós, means an occasion, a set or proper time, the time when something is due. Here it is the time of the Lord’s return, fixed by the Father and hidden from us. Since it is hidden, every hour is an hour to be ready.

Jesus gives the same command in Matthew (Matthew 24:42), Paul tells believers to stay awake and sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6), and Peter tells them to be sober and vigilant (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus himself showed what it is to watch and pray. In Gethsemane he prayed in agony and yielded his own will to the Father’s (Mark 14:36).

“For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey.” Son of Man is the name Jesus uses for himself most often, and it comes from Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13–14). It speaks of his true humanity and of his authority as the coming judge and king. In the parable he is “a man”, ánthrōpos, a human being, who goes away on a long journey. That journey is his ascension into heaven (Acts 1:9–11), and the time it covers runs from his first coming to his second. He promised to come again (John 14:3), and he told the disciples that his going away was for their good, because then he would send the Holy Spirit (John 16:7).

“Who left his house”: the household stands for all that is his in this world, his church and his kingdom on earth. He leaves it in the hands of his servants, and it remains his. In homes of that time a wealthy master might travel for a long while and leave his estate to trusted servants, each with set duties, authority and resources to manage it until he returned.

He “gave authority to his servants.” “Gave” is dídōmi, to give, and what he gives is authority (exousía), the right and power to act on his behalf. The servants are doûlos in Greek, the word for a slave or bondservant, and it marks them as wholly his and answerable to him. Jesus had already given the twelve power to heal and to cast out devils (Mark 3:15), he sends his church to preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), and he commissions it to make disciples of all nations by the authority given to him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18–20).

“And to every man his work”: each servant has a task of his own, his érgon. Every believer has a particular calling within the one household, and each will answer for it. Peter tells us to use whatever gift we have received to serve one another as good stewards of God’s grace (1 Peter 4:10), and the parables of the talents and the pounds tell of servants entrusted with their master’s goods until he returns (Matthew 25:14–30, Luke 19:11–27).

“And commanded the porter to watch.” The porter, thyrōrós, was the doorkeeper. He guarded the entrance, and when the master came home he was the first to see him and open the door. His charge is to watch, grēgoreúō, to keep awake and stay alert, and it is the word for watching through the rest of the chapter. In verse 37 Jesus gives it to every servant.

“Watch ye therefore.” “Therefore” is oûn, which draws a consequence from what has just been said, and “for” is gár again, giving the reason: “ye know not when the master of the house cometh.” “Master” is kýrios, lord, the one with authority over the household, and in the parable he is the Lord Jesus himself, coming back to his own house.

Jesus then names the four watches into which the Romans divided the night: “at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning.” Even, opsé, was the first watch, from about six to nine in the evening. Midnight, mesonýktion, named the second, from nine until twelve. Cockcrowing, alektorophōnía, was the third, from midnight to three, and morning, prōḯ, the fourth, from three until six. Between each pair stands “or” (ḗ). Taken together the four watches cover the whole night, and that is the point. The master may come early or late, at the hour that suits the servants least, and the servant ready for him is the one who is awake at every watch.

Luke records Jesus’ call to be dressed for service and ready for the master’s return (Luke 12:35–40), and Paul writes that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, so we who are children of light are to stay awake (1 Thessalonians 5:1–6).

“Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.” “Lest” is mḗ, which names the danger that the watching guards against. “Suddenly” is exaíphnēs, unexpectedly, all at once. “Sleeping” is katheúdō, to lie down to rest, to fall asleep, and here it pictures a servant who has stopped waiting: spiritual indifference, carelessness about the master’s work, a life that has given up expecting him. “He find you” makes it personal. When the master steps through the door he will see each servant as he is at that moment, and that moment is a reckoning.

In such a household a servant who neglected his duties while the master was away could expect hard consequences, and a servant asleep at his post was failing the trust given him. Revelation gives the other side: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments” (Revelation 16:15). Paul says that it is high time to awake out of sleep (Romans 13:11–14).

“And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” “Say” is légō, to speak, to relate in words, and “all” is pâs, all, every, the whole. Jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the Mount of Olives, and with this sentence he gives them to every follower in every generation. The charge first laid on the porter in verse 34 now belongs to every servant in the house. The word is grēgoreúō once more, keep awake, and Jesus ends his teaching with it.

To watch is to stay awake to God: to pray, to keep to his word, to live in holiness and resist temptation, to use our gifts in his service, to care for the needy and to tell others the gospel. It is the posture of a servant who loves his master and wants to be found at work when he comes. Jesus himself lived that obedience perfectly, obedient to the Father unto death (Philippians 2:8), and now, risen and ascended, he intercedes for us at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34). Through the Spirit of truth, who guides us into all truth (John 16:13), he makes us able to keep watch.

Everything in these verses points to a person. The one whose coming is near, whose words outlast creation, and whose hour the Father keeps is the Lord Jesus, who came first as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In him God has spoken to us in these last days (Hebrews 1:1–2), and he will come again: “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7). He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for the salvation of those who look for him (Hebrews 9:28), and his appearing is our blessed hope (Titus 2:13). He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13), and near the close of Scripture he gives the promise the watching church answers: “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

This passage gives us two certainties to live between. The first is that Christ is coming. The signs are as plain as leaves on a fig tree, and his word holds firmer than the heaven above us and the earth beneath. The second is that the hour is the Father’s, held in the same hands that sent the Son in the fulness of time. Between those two certainties the Lord has left us his house, his authority and each of us our own work, with a single word to carry through the night.

That word is gentle as well as urgent. A porter keeps awake because he expects his master and wants to open the door to him, and the servants work because the house is his and he is coming home. Watching in this sense is hope with its eyes open. The God who made the seasons keeps his times, the words of Jesus will be standing when the stars have fallen, and the Father who knows the hour is the Father who sent his Son for us. When the master comes, whether at evening, at midnight, at cockcrow or at dawn, he is coming to his own.