Mark 13:24-27
After That Suffering
24But in those days, after that tribulation: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;
25the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
26At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
27And He will send out the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
Berean Standard Bible
Four verses, and nearly every phrase in them was borrowed from somewhere older. He opens with two words that carry more weight than anything else here, which are after that. After the tribulation, not during it and not instead of it. They put a limit on everything he has just been saying, and point past it.
The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Every piece of that is old. Isaiah wrote that the sun would be darkened and the moon would not give its light. He wrote elsewhere that the stars would fall like withered leaves off a vine, and Joel wrote that the sun and moon go dark and the stars lose their brightness. Those men were not writing astronomy. They reached for that language when a kingdom fell, because when your world ends it feels like the sky coming down, and Jesus is reaching for the vocabulary his own people already had. How much of this is picture and how much is description has been argued over for a long time, and the text does not settle it. Then comes verse 26, which is not a loose borrowing but one particular vision.
At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
Daniel saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, brought before the Ancient of Days and given dominion and glory and a kingdom that would never be destroyed, so that people of every nation would serve him. It is the same figure Jesus claimed in chapter two, when he told a paralyzed man his sins were forgiven, and the same title he has used about himself all the way through this book, usually while he was talking about suffering. Here it arrives in glory.
Then the last verse, and the whole paragraph has been moving toward it.
And He will send out the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
Gathering scattered people is an old promise too. Moses told Israel that even if they were banished to the farthest horizon God would collect them and bring them home. So the language about the sky is the setting, the Son of Man is the arrival, and the last thing described is a gathering. He is not coming to inspect the damage. He is coming to collect people.
How We Know
Every image in verses 24 to 26 comes from somewhere. Isaiah 13:10 has the stars withholding their light and the sun darkened, in an oracle against Babylon. Joel 2:10 has the sun and moon going dark. Isaiah 34:4 is where the stars fall, like withered leaves from the vine. Daniel 7:13 has one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.
Those four supply the darkness, the falling stars and the arrival.
The correspondence supports Mark quoting a settled vocabulary rather than describing astronomy. In the prophets these images accompany God acting against a power, and Mark sets them next to a gathering of the elect from the ends of the earth.
Questions
1 When has something felt to you like the end of the world? The prophets had words for that, and Jesus borrows them.
AnswerIsaiah and Joel used the sun going dark and the stars falling to describe a kingdom coming down. It was the language their people already had for a world ending. How much of it is picture and how much is description is something readers still disagree about.
2 What do the first words of this passage, after that, tell us?
AnswerThat the suffering he has been describing has an end. Whatever comes next comes on the far side of it, not during it and not instead of it.
3 What did Daniel see, and what does Jesus do with it?
AnswerDaniel saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds, brought before God and given a kingdom that never ends. Jesus has used that title of himself since chapter two, usually while talking about suffering. Here it arrives in glory.
4 What is the last thing that happens in these four verses?
AnswerAngels are sent out to gather his people from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. The paragraph finishes with a gathering rather than a verdict.
What This Means for Us
When we picture the end, most of us picture an audit. This paragraph spends its first verses on the sky coming down and then finishes with angels sent out to bring people home from as far away as anybody could possibly be.
Somebody in this family may feel a long way off tonight. From God, from the rest of us, from the person they were a few years ago. The distance in that last verse is deliberately extreme: the four winds, the ends of the earth, the ends of heaven. It describes the furthest anybody could get, and then it says they are coming to fetch them.
So the assignment is small. Believe that about yourself for one minute before you go to sleep.
Prayer
Father, thank you that the suffering has an "after," and that you told us so. Thank you that when your Son comes it is to gather people rather than to inspect them. Whatever distance any of us feels tonight, come and get us. Amen.