Watch

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

WATCH

Mark 13:32-37

32 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back — whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'" 

NIV

Once again, this puts all the rest of what Jesus said about the temple and its desolation about the end of time, rather than during a time that happened some forty years after Jesus left. He refers to himself as the man who is going away but will return. While He is gone, or in his going, he has assigned each of his servants with a task. There are several times when Paul, James, Peter, and John have referred to themselves as the servant of Christ in their letters to the churches. Although Jesus has said that he no longer calls them servant but rather friend, and someone has put that to the song, about being a friend of God, we are also to serve the Lord. The words of Joshua ring out when he said that to the people, which includes us, were to choose this day whom you will serve, but for me and my house, we would serve the Lord. We have an assigned task, which and only means an area of service that the Lord has given to us until he returns. This sort of puts this into perspective in the sense that we are supposed to be about this task until he returns, so then there is no point in our lives that we could retire from this task, of whatsoever it might be. Jesus wants us not be to be caught asleep, but we are to keep watch. That could apply to how we live, in the sense of remaining holy, keeping ourselves from sin. We are certainly admonished to be holy as He is holy. But then that word simply means to be set apart, rather than to be spiritually faultless, without sin. Still, we are not to continue to sin so that His grace can abound. We are to make every effort to keep from sinning, but in reality, we cannot be completely free of sin as long as we live in this corruptible flesh. It’s not that we blatantly look for ways to sin, but a thought appears when it shouldn’t, or a word is spoken, when it shouldn’t, or even some behavior that simply would have been best to leave undone, just shows up. However, it seems Jesus is not talking about that aspect of keeping watch as much as he is about our keeping at that assigned task while he is away. We have been put in charge of the household of God, in a certain sense. Jesus has left, and he has sent us the Holy Spirit to give us the power to do that which we have been assigned to do in order to keep the house of God, or the temple, which is us, the church, in good condition until he returns. This also implies that we remain in the house of the Lord, that is we remain in Christ, we do not leave and travel about the world taking on the ways of the world, the thinking of the world, the customs of the world, which is idolatry. We are to remain in the house of God doing that which we have been assigned to do until he comes back. Of course, that does not mean the church building, but staying in Christ. We have to live in the world, but we are not to live of the world. We are to live in and of Christ, and we are to keep watch that we do not get distracted from our assigned task. Each of us has one, whatsoever that is, it is up to the Lord who assigns us our task. We do not get to decide which task we do, it is assigned to us, and therefore we need to keep watch that we keep on keeping on. We will never know when Jesus will come back for us. He says that only the Father knows when he will return, but who cares when, as long as he is coming back. So let us watch!