“In those days, after that tribulation:
The sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not shed its light;
the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the celestial powers will be shaken.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

“Learn this parable from the fig tree: As soon as its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that He is near—at the door! I assure you: This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

“Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—except the Father. Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming. It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his slaves, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert. Therefore be alert, since you don’t know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. Otherwise, he might come suddenly and find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!” (Mark 13:24-37)

We shouldn’t get our exercise by jumping to conclusions. Jesus quoted the book of Isaiah to describe the destruction that the Romans would bring against Jerusalem and its temple only forty years later. Isaiah had been describing what it was like when the Babylonians had come.

Since Rome was a new Babylon for the Jewish people, his disciples would have understood Jesus’ words as a prediction of a Roman invasion of their homeland. When Jesus told them that they would see Jesus coming “in clouds with great power and glory” they thought he meant that unlike when the Babylonians invaded, against the Romans the Messiah would prevail.

Jesus’ disciples misunderstood Jesus. Until they were enlightened by the Spirit at Pentecost, they looked only for a physical kingdom. They didn’t understand that Jesus spoke of a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of believers everywhere. Someday Jesus will come back and rule the earth physically, but that time was not then and it is not yet. But we can comfort ourselves with the knowledge that with God in our hearts today, we already experience that kingdom of God.

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