You do not know - Aug 27
“Jesus said to his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” Mt 24:42
This gospel reading begins with Jesus telling his disciples, and us “You do not know.” This is not encouraging. We like to think we know so much. Knowing things comforts us and gives order to our lives. Knowing things gives us a sense of control, of power over our circumstances. And yet Jesus tells us, “You do not know.” And in the depths of our hearts, we know the painful truth of that statement. We do not know.
Jesus’ description of our not knowing, is specifically geared to our not knowing the time of the coming of the Son of Man. I must confess that I’m not sure I even know what the coming of the Son of Man means. And I’m guessing that I’m not alone in this not knowing.
From Jesus’ declaration of our not knowing, Paul in Romans 3:11 seems to provide a jarring contradiction. “Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.” Jesus says we don’t know, Paul says we do know. What do we do with that?
We live in a time of already, but not yet. You know, but you don’t know. Neither knowing, nor not knowing is the whole story. It is a both/and. Both can be said with great confidence, and neither can be said with great certainty.
In our state of uncertainty, of our not knowing, what can we do but wait? But there is to be a certain character to our waiting. We are to be alert, attentive, waiting with anticipation. The point is not being distracted or diverted from God’s purpose, but living faithfully for the goal.