Reflections on Matthew 24:36-44, First Sunday of Advent, Year A
by John C. Holbert on Thursday, October 9, 2025
It is such a pleasure when a text matches an event of the day! I am writing this reflection on Matt. 24 soon after a group in Oklahoma became convinced that the “Rapture of the Faithful” was imminent (Sept.22?), so imminent that several folks sold some of their goods, quit their jobs, and awaited the coming of Jesus. There has been no word about what these people have done when Jesus once again failed to show. I do not mean to make light of these would-be faithful ones; they join a long list of those down the ages who have predicted the “Second Coming,” and have been disappointed. We should remember that an entire denomination was born at the failed non-coming in 1844 (see the Seventh Day Adventists); they believe that there was a second coming then, just in heaven and not on earth. Such beliefs have a very ancient history, and Mt.24 is perhaps an attempt to deal with the failed expectations of the very earliest Christians.
The idea that Jesus was about to return in power after his death and resurrection surely formed part of the belief system of many early Christians. What else are we to make of that famous phrase from Mark 9:1: “I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.” Obviously, even when Mark was writing his Gospel (around 70CE), the return of Jesus was delayed. This fact no doubt brought on any number of anti-Christian attacks. 2 Peter 3:3-4 (perhaps written early in the second century CE) refers to one of those: “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.’” In other words, Christians, nothing has changed at all, since your so-called Messiah was killed, and we see no evidence of his coming back! Little wonder that many have attempted to predict a second coming to demonstrate that the power of Jesus was nothing to be laughed at; and those who laugh will be sorry on that day!
I suggest that Matthew has a very different fish to fry. Rather than follow in the footsteps of the predictors (like the book of Daniel which offers any number of suggested dates about the return of the “Son of Man,” said to be Jesus by some early Christians), Matthew on the contrary focuses his attention on the necessity of believers to be ready for the coming and to watch for his advent. Indeed, Matthew shifts the entire structure of his apocalyptic material, apparently borrowed from Mark, toward the theme of constant watchfulness in the face of what is clear uncertainty about the time of the coming of the Son of Man. That fact makes Matthew’s text especially appropriate for the first Sunday of Advent. As we celebrate this Sunday, we are called to be ready and to watch faithfully and urgently for the coming of Jesus into our world. Of course, we celebrate the first coming of Jesus in the season of Advent, and await and hope for the second.
Matthew first makes it quite plain that any attempts to predict when Jesus may return are fruitless, and are indeed close to absurd. “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Mt.24:36). That is about as definitive as Matthew can make his conviction that no one anywhere on earth has any inkling concerning the time of Jesus’s return! If even the Son himself does not know, then surely no human, no matter how saintly, no matter how convinced, has a clue. This addition by Matthew of “the Son” to the list, caused no end of doctrinal anguish among certain Christians, since if they believed that Jesus was “co-existent with the Father” in the emerging notion of the Trinity, how could it be that the Son did not know the time of his coming? Some imagined that this mention of the Son was somehow spurious, added by a person not willing to think Jesus was God incarnate, but I think Matthew was convinced that it was crucial to make it clear that predictions of Jesus’s return were not important nor possible.
Every portion of the remaining material emphasizes preparedness and watchfulness, from the tale of Noah, focusing on the complete surprise of those unprepared for the flood, to the two men in the field, one of whom is taken in the coming, to the two women at the mill, one of whom is taken, to the thief who shows up to the unready owner of the house who allows his house to be burgled. “So you be prepared because the Son of Man is coming at a time you do not expect” (Mt.24:44). Be ready, shouts Matthew! Watch out, says Matthew! Speculations about when are useless. Only know that he will come; be ready! Perhaps those Oklahoma folks should have read their Bible with more care. Perhaps we, as we enter still another Advent, might read with more care, too, and ready ourselves for the coming of the Christ once more into our anxious lives.