Jesus Says, "Don't Get Caught with Your Pants Down"

Hello, again! Glad you stopped by today!


Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Mon, Apr 27: What does Samuel call upon the Lord to send down that made all the people stand in awe of the Lord and of Samuel? (I Sam 12)
1 Samuel 12:18 18 Then Samuel called upon the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel.

And here's the question of the day:
Tues, Apr 28: What did Saul do that grieved God and Samuel so much? (I Sam 15)


And here's the reflection of the day:
Today, I've decided to tackle Mark 13, the kind of chapter that creates a multitude of emotions in Christians (and even in non-Christians, if they stop to think about such things). Any time our thoughts turn toward "the end"--whether it's the end of the world or just the end of our individual lives--we are filled with both fear and excitement: fear because we don't exactly to know what "the end" is going to be like and excitement because what we do know about heaven sounds like paradise. These are the things we think about when we attend funerals and celebrate the anniversary of the passing of a loved one and even when we experience a new birth. Most of us would probably be surprised at just how often we consider "the end."

For all this thinking about "end of days" (again either the end of the world or just our own personal end), we seem to have lost the sense of watchfulness that Mark talks about at the end of this chapter. Jesus cautions us to be watchful, but that was two millennia ago. Do we still have to be watchful today?

Pheme Perkins, author of the Mark commentary in the New International Bible Commentary series, uses the following illustration in terms of watchfulness:

". . . many Christians today assume that the word about watchfulness has no significance for them. Yet we all know that human life is fleeting. A young man was murdered on the streets of a large city merely for asking some youths why they were verbally tormenting an elderly man. The young man’s fiancée discovers that her whole world has dissolved. Fortunately, the last words they had exchanged concerned love and their hopes for the future. A young woman went to pick up her infant from his nap and discovered that he had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Unfortunately, her last interaction with the baby had been one of anger and frustration over the child’s fussing and crying. Both women are in terrible pain. They have been stripped of what they love most in the whole world. But the young mother has to face the nagging regret that she did not show her baby the love she feels for him in the last hours she spent with him. On a personal level, such stories remind us that we should be watchful as Christians."

Jesus says, "Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come." It's true, we do not know when "that day" will come, nor do we know when "our day" will come.

Now, you may think this is a rather macabre topic of discussion. But it doesn't have to be. This kind of conversation is more about how we choose to LIVE, than what it will be like to die. Look at it from this angle: what better way to evaluate how well we are pleasing God by living as His faithful disciples, then to consider more carefully our words and actions in every situation?

May I make a suggestion? Early Christians practiced a spiritual discipline called "examen." It is a time, at the end of the day, when they assessed how their behavior of the day (from the time your foot hits the floor in the AM til they were tucked at night) and whether it reflected positively or negatively what is expected of all Christians. It's a very helpful practice in watchfulness. Once one is in the habit of reviewing and evaluating one's day in light of God's commandments, one is better able to follow God's commandments as the time goes by.

Perkins remarks, "Being a faithful Christian does not just 'happen' like crabgrass or dandelions popping up in the lawn. It requires the care, attention, and cultivation of an expert gardener." I would say that being "watchful" doesn't just happen like crabgrass or dandelions either. Faithfulness and watchfulness come with intentionality and steadiness.

Jesus cautions us to be "Be alert! Be on guard." But I don't think He means He wants us to always be looking to the sky for a sign of the end of days. He just doesn't want us, as the saying goes, to get caught with our pants down, when He comes again. Just love your God, love your neighbor, and spread the Good News. Focus on these things, and you'll be fine, whenever the end might come!

Have a splendid day!
Allison