Our Absent Lord by Charles S. Robinson, D. D.

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 14, 1882

Our Absent Lord.

By Charles S. Robinson, D. D.

The parable in Mark 13: 34–36 cannot be discharged of its meaning by a reference to the ordinary risks of human mortality. Its theme is not man's dying, but Christ's coming.

I. The Son of man is represented as a householder away on a journey. Verse 34.

1. It is not fair to look upon Jesus as a mere absentee lord of the soil. For he made this world; he has suffered wonderfully to save souls; and he owns what he has purchased.

2. It must be remembered that he went away for a most gracious purpose. He would send the Comforter. John 16: 7. He has gone to prepare a "place" for those whom he died to redeem. John 14: 2, 3.

3. It is better to urge his coming back with earnestness of prayer. There is fitness in the passionate words of Richard Baxter: "Haste, O my Saviour, the time of thy return; send forth thy angels, let the last trumpet sound! Delay not, lest the living give up hope. Oh, hasten that great resurrection day when the seed thou sowedst corruptible shall come forth incorruptible, and the graves that retain but dust shall return their glorious ones!"

II. To every one "our absent Lord" has given his own work to do. Verse 35.

1. There is a work to be wrought on ourselves. Our bodies are to be exercised and skilled for service. Rom. 12: 1. Our minds are to be developed and embellished for God's praise. One of our Lord's parables spoken on this very occasion has actually added to our language the new word "talents," as signifying intellectual gifts. Matt. 25: 15. Our souls are to be sanctified wholly. 1 Thess. 5: 23.

2. There is also a work to be wrought upon others and for others. The poor are to be succored, the weak to be strengthened, the ignorant to be taught, the sorrowful to be comforted. This is the significance of that other parable our Lord spoke on this same occasion. Matt. 25: 31. He declares that not doing is to be reckoned as well as doing, and that everything is to be reckoned as "unto me" or "not to me."

3. There is another work to be wrought for God's glory. "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." Our whole life is to be consecrated to this, even down to the particulars of eating and drinking. 1 Cor. 10: 31. We cannot increase God's "inherent" glory, but we can augment his "declarative" glory. That is to say, we cannot bring him more glory, but we can show the glory he has. This is what the third parable our Lord gave must mean. Matt. 25: 1. The virgins were expected to swell the brilliant train of the bridegroom, and make the night shine with their torches as the procession drew near. They did not make his marriage splendid, but they lit up the splendor it had.

III. Our "absent Lord" is surely coming back again to this world. Verse 26.

1. He predicted his second advent. John 14: 28. The language Jesus used in this remembered declaration is not at all figurative; it all goes together as a statement of fact. He said, literally, he would send the Comforter, and the Holy Spirit came in person on the day of Pentecost. And just as literally did he say he would himself return at the appointed time.

2. He asseverated the certainty and solemnity of his own promise, as if he foresaw some would deny or doubt it. Verse 31. This was indorsing the covenant engagement by a new oath; "because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself." Christ was the "Word," and so what he said would stand forever, when the grass should wither and the flower should fade. Isa. 40: 8.

3. He left behind him vivid descriptions of the momentous day on which he should arrive. Verses 24–26. In these, however, he does little more than repeat the vigorous language of the Old Testament prophet. Dan. 7: 9–14. Our Lord makes a reference to this ancient prediction, and accompanies it with vivid details. Matt. 24: 15.

4. He even sent back word from heaven by an angel. Acts 1: 11. While the disciples wistfully stood gazing after the ascending Redeemer, there suddenly appeared two messengers from Jesus himself with a gracious rebuke for their forgetfulness of his promise, and a quick renewal of it. It should be "this same Jesus" who should come back, and he should come "in like manner" as they had seen him depart. Is it possible that any Christian now, after all this, should doubt that our Saviour will be on earth again by and by?

IV. The exact hour in which "our absent Lord" will arrive is not announced. Matt. 24: 42.

1. Jesus asserted that he did not know it himself. Verse 32. The disciples once asked him about this. Matt. 24: 3. He told them that God the Father had kept this one secret in his own solemn reserve. Acts 1: 6, 7. He may have meant that in his subordinate office as the anointed Christ he had not been made acquainted with this specific date; or that he was not commissioned to declare it as part of his gospel message, it being unknown to the plan; or that, in assuming human nature as the Son of man, his divine omniscience was limited in this and like particulars. It is enough for us to understand that here is a decided rebuff for the modern curiosity which assumes to fix times and seasons that Jesus himself said had not been revealed to him.

2. But our Saviour declares that his coming might be expected at any moment, morning or midnight, evening or cockcrowing. Verse 35. It would assuredly be sudden. The figure is employed more than once in the Scriptures of "a thief in the night." 2 Pet. 3: 10. Peter in his epistle only quotes our Lord's own language. Luke 12: 39, 40.

3. Moreover, Christ told his disciples that there would be tokens of the nearness of this great day, by which it might be recognized when it should be close at hand. Verses 28, 29. These signs would be as clearly discerned as shoots on fig-trees in the opening summer. He mentioned some of them explicitly. Luke 21: 25–28. We may admit that "wars and rumors of wars," earthquakes, famines, falling stars, and pestilence (Matt. 24: 6–8), together with "great signs in heaven and earth," are alarming disclosures; but will any one doubt that such phenomena are conspicuous at least? Luke 17: 24.

4. So Jesus insisted that men were bound to be wise in noting these signs, and be ready. Luke 12: 54–56. People who could shrewdly and correctly predict changes in the weather just by observing the color of the sky, so as to say that one day would be fair and another would be foul, our Saviour called "hypocrites," if they could not with equal alertness of skill "discern the signs of the times." Matt 16: 2, 3.

V. The greatest peril is that, when "our absent Lord" comes, men will be taken unawares. Verse 36.

1. The instinctive tendency of the human heart is to procrastinate in the performance of religious work. So, when the reckoning is demanded, souls are surprised. If all the good resolutions that have been made by members of the church of God, had been executed in their due time, the millennial glory would long ago have gleamed on every hill and shone in every valley.

2. Time glides mysteriously on with no reference to daring delay. The grave, like the horseleach's daughter, cries Give (Prov. 30: 15, 16), and damnation slumbereth not (2 Peter 2: 3), but men sleep clear up to the edge of divine judgment. They did in Noah's time, and in Lot's, when a less catastrophe was at hand; and so it will be when the Son of man is revealed. Luke 18: 26–30.

3. Christians ought to hold in memory the repeated admonitions they have received. Walter Scott wrote on his dial-plate the two Greek words which mean "the night cometh," so that he might keep eternity in mind whenever he saw the hours of time flitting by. Evidently the apostle Paul felt that he had the right to press peculiarly pertinent and solemn appeals upon those who had enjoyed the advantage of such long instruction. 1 Thess. 5: 1–7.

4. There is no second chance offered after the first is lost. When Christ comes, foolish virgins will have no time to run for oil to pour into their lightless lamps. A forfeited life cannot be allowed any opportunity for retrieval. Where the tree falls, north or south, there it must lie, whether the full fruit has been ripened upon its branches or not. Eccl. 11: 3.—Charles S. Robinson, D. D., in S. S. Times.