My Walk Through the Book of Mark by Annette Godtland

The Coming of the Son of Man (Mark 13:24-27)

24"But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.

To see the sun darken, the moon not give light, the stars fall, and the powers in the heavens shaken seems like it would be a very scary sight. But after all the tribulation mentioned in the previous verses it would probably be a relief to finally see the end come. Except for one thing: when Jesus comes to gather His elect. The scary part is not knowing if you are one of the elect.

The encouraging thing is that He would find His elect, no matter where they are. You do not have to worry about being at the right place at the right time. He will find you. Wouldn't you love to be one of His elect, to be gathered with all His elect, including those already in heaven?

But who are the elect? Elect means chosen. There have been several times before that Jesus was questioned about what people need to do if they wish to be saved. None of us deserve to be saved. Jesus explained what we must do, but I don't think that in itself will get us into heaven. Only God can get us into heaven. We must be chosen through God's will, not our own. Jesus will come to gather the elect.

The other thing I have thought about many times before is Jesus' reference to Himself as the Son of Man. We often refer to Him as the Son of God, but He most often uses the term Son of Man. Why? We often hear Him refer to God as His Father, why doesn't He refer to Himself as the Son of God? Why the Son of Man?

When I first heard this term I assumed it was because He became flesh, born of Mary - a birth process that Jesus went through. But as I hear it over and over, I think it means much more than that.

This has no Biblical or scholarly basis at all, so I may be way off base here, and I probably shouldn't be even trying to understand the essence of God because He is beyond all human understanding, but here is the way I have started thinking about it recently. "Son of" implies something which comes after, but I believe Jesus existed long before man was created. I wonder if way back when God decided He would create man, He knew man would need a savior. I wonder if the same thought that created God's desire for the existence of man created the need for Jesus. Therefore Jesus would have been the product of the plan for man's existence. So I am now thinking that "the Son of Man" is saying He came after the plan for man, and His purpose is for man, even though He existed long before man.

He exists for us. He lived a life as flesh as we do. He showed us the life we must live. He died to save us. He showed us what the resurrection will be like. He will be there to bring us home.