Key Passage
“This is like a man that goes on a trip and leaves his house. The man lets his servants take care of the house. He gives each servant a special job to do. One servant has the work of guarding the door. The man tells this servant to always be ready. This is the same as I am now telling you. So you must always be ready. You don’t know when the owner of the house will come back. He might come in the afternoon, or at midnight, or in the early morning, or when the sun rises. The owner might come back quickly. If you are always ready, then he will not find you sleeping.”
— Mark 13:34-36 ERV (Read Full Text)
Key Thought
Jesus’ preferred title for himself is the “Son of Man.” Taken from both Ezekiel and Daniel, Jesus plays on the human emphasis (Ezekiel) and messianic emphasis (Daniel) of this title to link his two “comings” together. His first coming, the incarnation, involved his earthly ministry as a human being who was God living among us. The second coming will be when he comes in his glory with the angels of heaven. The real issue is not if or when he will return; the issue is whether or not his followers will be ready for his return. Will we be doing his work in the world? Will we be found faithful at his return? Will we be longing and expecting his return? When Jesus left earth, he gave his followers a mission—they were to be his representatives, his bodily presence, in the world until his return. Let’s be vigilantly living out our mission until the day of his return.
Prayer
O Father, wake us up and stir us to action. I confess that I sometimes get lethargic in my service to the Kingdom. There are times when I get discouraged and don’t long for Jesus’ return like I should. Encourage, convict, and motivate me through the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Related Scriptures
So Jesus came to them and said, “All authority (power) in heaven and on earth is given to me. So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach those people to obey everything that I have told you. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of the world.”
— Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus taught the followers that they should always pray and never lose hope. Jesus used this story to teach them: “Once there was a judge in a town. He did not care about God. The judge also did not care what people thought about him. In that same town there was a woman. Her husband was dead. The woman came many times to this judge and said, ‘There is a man that is doing bad things to me. Give me my rights!’ But the judge did not want to help the woman. After a long time, the judge thought to himself, ‘I don’t care about God. And I don’t care about what people think. But this woman is bothering me. If I give her what she wants, then she will leave me alone. But if I don’t give her what she wants, she will bother me until I am sick!'” The Lord (Jesus) said, “Listen! {There is meaning} in what the bad judge said. God’s people shout to him night and day. God will always give his people what is right. God will not be slow to answer his people. I tell you, God will help his people quickly! But when the Son of Man comes again, will he find people on earth who believe in him?”
— Luke 18:1-8
You are all people who belong to the light (goodness). You belong to the day. We don’t belong to the night or to darkness (evil). So we should not be like other people. We should not be sleeping. We should be awake and have self-control.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:5-6
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