Commentary on Matthew 24:36-44

Never, perhaps, has this Advent gospel been more timely. “Watch!” Jesus says in Matthew 24:36–44, the conclusion to his apocalyptic discourse. “Stay awake!” 

It is timely as the culture, especially in North America and Europe, grows increasingly secular and the “mainline” churches are shrinking so fast that the market can’t keep up with the new condo builds in old church buildings (or so it is, at least, in my country, Canada).

But even where the church is thriving—in many parts of Asia and Africa, for instance—violence that denies the peace of Christ, along with the suppression of Christian faith, is real. 

In these different contexts, there is need for Christians to “stay awake”—to keep eyes, hearts, hands, and minds on Christ and on the hope of his coming—working for him, watching for him, living under his lordship and in the light of his grace.

But Jesus warns in this passage that “staying awake” is tricky.

After all, you do not know, Jesus says, when “the day of the Lord” is coming. Easy, then, to forget about it, to fall asleep.

The use of “know” in this passage is striking. 

As in Mark, Jesus in Matthew begins with not knowing: “Concerning that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36; see also Mark 13:32). 

It will be like Noah’s flood, Jesus goes on: They’re all eating, drinking, marrying, paying no attention to Noah, crazy man, building a boat under a cloudless sky—and then in a flash the flood is upon them.

Floods happen that way, as the people of Jesus’ country knew and know.

There are wadis in that land, in Israel, Egypt, North Africa—valleys that slice through the dry land. A wadi is dry and empty most of the year, enticing for a hike or a picnic. But come a sudden rain, and in no time, a wadi becomes a lethal, raging river. One spring, when I was a child living briefly in Tunisia, an English family visiting the country did just what a wadi invites you to do: They had a picnic, Mom and Dad and two kids, in a nearby wadi. They did not know about wadis. There they were, eating and drinking, when out of sight, the storm began, and in a flash the torrent was upon them, crashing down through the wadi without any warning at all. “And the flood came and swept them all away” (24:39).

You do not know when it is coming, Jesus says, the day of my Parousia. 

But we do know that it is coming. Not when, but that the day is coming, the day on which the reign of God will be spread abroad over the world like the dawn: This, we know; this, Jesus’ people know. All Christ’s people through all the ages know about the hope of God’s reign. Jesus is telling us in this gospel reading today.

The English family did not know about wadis. But the locals knew, the locals know, and so they watch and do not picnic in a wadi.

We are the locals in the world of God’s purpose, so it is our job to watch. It is our job in this world to be the people who stay awake, who with their whole lives watch for Jesus.

Jesus uses the word “know” again in this passage (and here, Jesus’ discourse in Matthew is different from his discourse in Mark): “So watch,” Jesus says, “keep awake” (24:42)—because here’s something you do know: If the homeowner had known that the thief was going to break in at 3 a.m., you can be sure he would have been watching (24:43).

You know that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night … so watch for it! Watch for him. “Therefore, you, too, be ready!” (24:44).

“You,” Jesus says in Matthew 24:44. He uses the Greek pronoun “you,” plural, which he doesn’t have to use. In ancient Greek, as in Spanish or Italian—and in English in an imperative statement—the pronoun is built into the verb: “Go!” “Be ready!” That’s all you have to say. “You” is understood. So, here, Jesus could just say, “Be ready!” But he doesn’t. He says: “You be ready, you too, you especially.” Because you know that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night.

The thief in the night: such a counterintuitive image for the day we long for, when justice springs up from the earth and mercy rains down from the heavens, that day of the reign of God. 

It has an echo in Joel 2:9, in his image of the day of the Lord as a horde of locusts coming down upon the land, wreaking sudden destruction: “They enter through the windows like a thief.” In Joel it is an image of judgment upon a people who have forgotten God and his good, and who find themselves reaping the whirlwind. 

Jesus Christ as thief? Shocking, and thus effective: Jesus wants us to pay attention. So much rests on being ready, on knowing what really matters as you go about your days. It is the difference between a life and a world lived toward what is good and true, and a life and a world that fritters away its days.

As Christ’s people, we know what the endgame is—the grace and truth at the end of all things. “You be ready,” Jesus says. As you live a life that is ready, always watching for Jesus’ face—watching, working, hoping, praying for the whole world to see his wounded hands raised in judgment and in grace—your life may be a sign for others … a little like Noah building his ark.

You be ready.

Advent is the time the church year gives us to remember what we know. The day of the Lord is coming: Be ready. Get ready! In the midst of the eating and drinking and marrying, the Christmas preparations and parties, the cookie-baking and shopping, Advent gives people time to remember what we know. It is Jesus who is coming, now as a child at Christmas, to be God-with-us in forgiveness and grace; then, on that day of God, as Lord of all, in righteousness and truth.

Perhaps this gospel invites us to be Noah this Advent: to stand in the midst of the busy world, watching and praying and reading the Scriptures; waiting most of all, as Christmas comes, for Christ.