Reflections on a Difficult Gospel Passage: The Day and Hour Unknown
By: Saundra L. Washington
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Mark 13:32.
The difficulty of this passage for our church fathers and indeed, for many of us still today, lay in what seems to be a divine limitation of Jesus’ knowledge. We get a feeling that something is amiss and then the question that almost immediately pops into the mind of readers is, If Jesus is God, how do we account for His lack of omniscience?
As we begin our journey for answers, we note that the short phrase “nor the Son” is found only in Mark; Matthew does not include it (Matt. 24:36). We also recall that Mark’s general presentation of Jesus is as the servant and “a servant does not know his master’s business.” The servant character of Jesus seems to reveal His most typical and true humanness. He “took upon him the form of a servant.” Is it possible that when Jesus became man, He limited Himself in order to be made like us? He was not omnipresent when He became man so is it also reasonable to assume that there was a self limitation relative to His all-knowing as well?
Stein believes the text is clear in revealing the fact that Jesus did not know when the Second Coming would take place. He recognized the theological problems associated with this text and confesses that it “may not be possible to know how Jesus could be ‘very God of very God’ and not know the exact time of his return.”
Similar thoughts are shared by Barclay. He asserts that there are things which even Jesus left without questioning in the hand of God and that it would be blasphemous for us to inquire into that which our Lord consented to be ignorant of.”
Beach entertains the thought that this saying was added by a Christian hand at some point during the transmission of this apocalypse. He claims that it was probably present in Mark’s source. It contrasts with the rest of the apocalypse in which Jesus is presented as attempting to specify the time of His return as much as possible as is recorded in Mark 13:14: “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Good Biblical hermeneutics is difficult, time consuming and mentally fatiguing. It is never an overnight process. Rather, it is a frustrating struggle, which by the way, should be accepted as our own personal sacrifice for God and one that is not taken lightly.
SIDEBAR QUOTE:
Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and still man’s obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; the same voyage to make, but his chart and compass would be overboard. H. W. Beecher
May God bless us all as we strive toward greater hermeneutical competence.
Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, though delayed in publication, is expected to be available early 2006.
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