Commentary on Mark 13:1-8

When Jesus is no longer physically present, what does it mean to follow him? Has the meaning of following Jesus changed? In this regard, Mark 13 is an interesting chapter. As Jesus speaks about the future, the first readers of Mark might have felt Jesus was directly speaking to them. I think Jesus is telling the readers that discipleship is still the same thing.

Discipleship in Mark has two main components: following and understanding Jesus. The disciples’ understanding grows, however slightly, over time as they follow him.¹ If Peter had heard of Jesus’ proclamation in Galilee (1:14–15), he might have had some understanding of Jesus before he began following him. But Peter’s understanding of Jesus was incorrect or incomplete at this point—and even until the end of Mark. In a sense, Peter was not really following Jesus when he was with Jesus, if following Jesus means denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following Jesus to the cross (8:34).² The first disciples of Jesus truly understood and followed Jesus only after the story of Mark ended.

The first readers should also understand and follow Jesus. The readers do know more than the disciples. The readers might have heard about Jesus even before reading Mark. More importantly, the author of Mark tells or shows the readers what the characters in the story do not know. The very first line of the writing says Jesus is the Christ (1:1), which Peter confesses as late as chapter 8. The privileged information creates a dramatic irony, and the readers are led to believe that they know better than the disciples. The Gospel of Mark generates such an image of the readers, only to overturn it at critical points of the story.

At times I feel like Mark’s Jesus is asking, “Do you really know better?” For instance, in chapter 4 Jesus gives the Parable of the Sower, scolds the disciples for their failure to understand it, and provides an explanation of the parable (4:3–20). Jesus then gives a series of parables without explanations (4:21–32). Can you readers understand these parables? If you can’t, you are no better than the disciples. In fact, since the disciples get to hear Jesus’ explanations of those parables (4:34), the disciples know better than the readers. Neither group is better than the other. Each group has their own privileged information about Jesus. Each group faces their own interpretive challenges.³

In Mark, there is an implied timeline of what must happen, and the fulfillment of Jesus’ mission as the Messiah is part of what must happen. This idea is expressed in several different ways. To name a few: First, the use of the Greek word dei (“it is necessary”; usually translated as “must”): “Elijah must [dei] come first” (9:11); “the Son of Man must [dei] undergo great suffering … and be killed and after three days rise again” (8:31). Second, Jesus’ proclamation: the first thing Jesus says in Mark is, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (1:15). Third, Jesus’ parables: for instance, Jesus has tied up the “strong man” and is plundering his “property” (3:27).

Jesus’ first passion prediction (8:31), which uses the word dei, is especially important, as it lies at the heart of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah. But even after the third passion prediction, the disciples “did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him” (9:32). The readers might well have understood the passion predictions. But Mark’s Jesus gives them a different set of dei statements in chapter 13.

The word dei is used three times in chapter 13: “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must [dei] take place” (verse 7); “the good news must [dei] first be proclaimed to all nations” (verse 10). Ironically, what must not happen is a must in verse 14: “when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be [ou dei].” Whether that word is used or not, all the events Jesus describes in 13:5–27 are instances of what must happen. The author of Mark’s parenthetical remark, “let the reader understand” (13:14), is a clear indication that Jesus’ eschatological discourse is an interpretive challenge to the readers.

The use of the Greek word sēmeion (“sign”) in Mark also shows that the disciples and the readers are going through the same kind of training process. The Pharisees ask Jesus to give “a sign from heaven” (8:11). Jesus sighs deeply and says, “Why does this generation ask for a sign [sēmeion]? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation” (8:12). The disciples should know that Jesus’ messianic identity is truly proven through his suffering, death, and resurrection, not through some sign from heaven.

In the eschatological discourse, Jesus says that “false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs [Greek sēmeion in the plural] and wonders” (13:22). They will do so because outsiders like the Pharisees in chapter 8 believe that signs and wonders prove one’s messianic or prophetic identity. The readers should know, again, what truly proves the identity of the Messiah and what does not prove it. Just as Jesus’ passion predictions are given only to the disciples, so too the knowledge of the “sign” (sēmeion, 13:4) of the age is reserved for the readers.

To summarize, while the first disciples of Jesus and the first readers of Mark lived in different times, the meaning of following Jesus remained the same: one must truly understand and follow Jesus. It is also not a coincidence that Mark’s Jesus says the same thing to his disciples and to the readers: as you seek to understand and follow Jesus, you should keep awake and pray.⁴

The message is clear. Or perhaps it is not. There have been numerous wild interpretations of Mark 13 in history, and too many people have been misled by them. And so many readers have done what Jesus told them not to do: trying to find the exact time of the end. Jesus said he did not know it (13:32), which would mean that there is no way we can figure it out.

Notes

1. This point becomes clear when Mark is compared with Luke. In Mark, Jesus calls Peter (1:16–18) and then heals his mother-in-law (1:29–31). In Luke, Jesus heals her first (Luke 4:38–39), teaches people sitting on Peter’s boat, and performs a miracle (Luke 5:3–7). Both Peter’s response to the miracle in Luke 5:8 and Jesus’ statement, “Do not be afraid” (Luke 5:10), imply that the miracle is a manifestation of divine power and presence. Luke’s narrative progression shows that Peter understands Jesus first as a healer, then as a teacher, and finally as a divine character. Luke’s Jesus then calls Peter (Luke 5:10). Thus, in Luke, understanding precedes following.
2. For the same reason, the crowds who were physically following Jesus (3:7; 5:24; 11:9) were not really following him.
3. My commentary on Mark 12:28–34 presents another example of Jesus’ interpretive challenge to the readers (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-31-2/commentary-on-mark-1228-34-7).
4. To the disciples: 8:15; 12:38; 14:34, 37, 38; to the readers: 13:5, 9, 18, 23, 33, 35, 37.