SUMMARY
The discipleA disciple is a person who accepts and follows the pronouncements of a teacher. Jesus chose twelve disciples (also called "apostles" in some of the Gospels) to follow him and bear witness to his message Anyone who (like them) follows Jesus is engaged in Christian... More community is cautioned about useless speculation about the signs or the timing of the coming of the Son of Man. Rather they are to be awake and ready at all times as they await his coming, for the coming will be at an unexpected hour that only the Father in heaven knows.
ANALYSIS
Jesus cautions the disciple community about useless speculation about the timing of “that day” when the Son of Man will come. “No one knows” the timing of that event except the Father. The point is underscored by the use of two illustrations. The day will come as a total surprise, just as the floodThe flood refers to the catastrophic deluge in Genesis. In the biblical account Noah, his family, and selected beasts survive the flood in an ark; thereafter they received a rainbow in the sky as a sign of God's promise. Many other cultures also have flood... More was for Noah and his family. The second illustration with its reference to one person “taken” in the field or one woman “taken” while grinding meal (the word is often translated as “rapture”) has been the occasion for much speculative literature and Christian imagination about the end times. But we need not to miss their simple point: the surprising timing of the coming, which “no one knows,” and Jesus’ call for wakeful readiness for a coming that will be as surprising as the coming of a thief in the night.
