James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 13:35 - 13:36

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James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 13:35 - 13:36


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THE MASTER’S COMING

‘Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping.’

Mar_13:35-36

I. The supreme event in history.—As Christ’s first advent in the flesh is the greatest event that has been, so His second advent in glory is the greatest event that shall be. We are called to realise (a) its certainty; (b) its importance. There are things that hinder our realisation of Christ’s second advent: the absence of visible signs and indications of His coming; the mistakes and errors of men concerning it: the absorbing interests of life; the unpleasing character it bears for us because of sin; and the apparent distance, as of ages vast and long, at which it stands. Hence men are uninterested, and pass it by. The solemn close of life is for us, individually, the coming of the Lord.

II. The supreme duty of life.—The urgency of the duty lies in our ignorance of the time of His coming, joined with the possibility that He may come at any time. He may come ‘at even’—that is, soon and early, when watching seems unnecessary, and there are many hours yet for rest and pleasure; ‘at midnight,’ the thickest, darkest period of life, when our employments are many, and cares oppressive, and we have enough to do without watching for Him; ‘at cockcrowing,’ when the watcher is prone to grow weary, to cease from expectation, and yield to slumber; or ‘in the morning,’ when the night of life is ending, and infirmities are heavy, and the spirit droops, and to watch is hard. The terms are taken from the Roman military watches of the night, and are full of suggestiveness.

III. The supreme disaster of life.—‘Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping.’ To sleep is to be forgetful of what has happened—Christ’s first advent for our salvation; to be indifferent towards Christ Himself, to be negligent as to His work, and our own characters as made and revealed thereby—to be utterly careless about His second coming. Upon this slumber Christ may break in most unexpectedly.

Illustration

‘The duty of watching has been thus described: “He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake, alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honouring Him; who looks out for Him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed, if he found that He was coming at once; who lives in the thought of Christ as He came once, and as He will come again; who desires His second coming from an affectionate and grateful remembrance of His first.” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

‘THAT BLESSED HOPE’

I. It is a Person we expect.—Our God and Lord, our Saviour, our Master, ‘this Jesus,’ ‘the Christ,’ or as St. Paul says so beautifully, ‘We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Php_3:20).

II. The day of the Advent is a long-promised day.—St. Jude tells us that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, predicted it (St. Jud_1:14). And all through the Bible, like a golden thread, the promise is repeated, till in the last chapter the Saviour bends down from heaven and says, ‘Surely I come quickly.’ And then will all the saints be gathered (Mar_13:26-27; 2Th_2:1). The sheep in ‘one flock’ (Joh_10:16). Every child at home (Joh_11:52). All the jewels made up (Mal_3:17).

III. It will also be the great dividing day.—Those who love Christ will be eternally separated from those who have never loved Him.

And if any one is tempted to say in his heart ‘The world goes on, suns rise and set, years, centuries, millenniums succeed each other, yet Christ does not come. Will He ever come?’ Let such an one remember that those who wait for our Lord shall not be disappointed.

—
Rev. F. Harper.