“Be aware, be on the lookout; because, you don’t know the when the time may come” (Mark 13.33).
You do not know, Jesus told those who followed him.
This verse comes from what is often called the “little apocalypse.” Jesus responds to the question of when. When will all this come to pass. In this Gospel, the question comes after Jesus declares that the Temple will be destroyed. His Disciples are troubled by this. If Jesus is who he says he is, then how is it that the Temple, the center of spiritual life, will be destroyed. They feel…uncertain.
Tell us, they ask, when will all these things happen. It’s the question Christians have combed the Scriptures for centuries trying to answer: when will it all end, and how can we know it? And anytime you hear someone thinking they have that answer, particularly by attempting to parse out Jesus’ response, they are totally, completely wrong.
The author of this Gospel gets it and captures it in the economical style that is this writer’s hallmark. There will be wars and natural disasters and people claiming to be the savior, the chosen one, Jesus says. Were he a little more coy, Jesus might have said that, oh it’ll be a lot like now, but not now.
But, just in case the message was not clear enough, Jesus ends it with the words above. You won’t know. You’ll just have to keep paying attention. It’ll be, in other words, a surprise. Startling, if you will.
We’ve come across that word already this season in the closing chapter of this account of the Good News. The women, on their early-morning errand, are startled by the figure who’s dressed in white. They’re startled by the stone that’s been rolled from the entrance, and by the absence of the dead they’ve come to anoint.
And we have been startled by the ending of this book. There are no explanations, no appearances, no morning meals on the beach. There is only the empty space and two women running off in fear, trembling. We are left startled by the unknown, the lack of certainty.
Certainty, Jesus told his followers, isn’t something you get. There’s no invite to add to your calendar that’ll pop up fifteen minutes before to tell you it’s all about to happen. Your watch or phone won’t be able to chirp or chime with a reminder that the time is now. You just have to be alert, aware, and ready.
It’s this, among other things, that the author of this Gospel had in mind with an ending as unsettling as the one we’ve received, one that is troubling enough that other, later writers attempted to blunt and soften it.
Because, if we are left uncertain, the story isn’t over and who knows what might happen before it ends.
Jesus, help us be comfortable with being uncertain.