Mark 13:28-31--The Lesson of the Fig Tree

Mark 13:28-31
English Standard Version
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The Lesson of the Fig Tree
28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

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This lesson is not exactly the same as the lesson about the fig tree that Jesus cursed...that tree was on the way between Bethany and Jerusalem, and He's sitting on the Mount of Olives teaching them.  However, He's going to use the same ideas there that were applied to why Israel should have been ready for the Messiah (they should have seen the signs) to instead talk about how the Church should be ready for the end times (because we have been given prophecies and signs to watch out for).

Jesus uses the common knowledge that no one knows the exact date that the fig tree will have ripened fruit on it when it is still winter.  First spring must come, and the branches become tender as sap flows through them, and then it starts to put out leaves.  When this happens, anyone would know that the summer fruit of the fig tree is coming soon, and they had better get ready for it.  (Remember how Jesus saw the leaves of the fig tree that looked like it should have fruit on it, but it had none?  Again, not exactly the same teaching, but He's using similar imagery to tell us how these signs tell us that the "harvest season" is coming).

Jesus said that it will be like this when we see all these signs taking place (I think we would agree that we see most of them taking place today--though we are still waiting for the gospel to go out to certain people groups).  It will be like knowing that the invading army is at the gates of the city--the invasion is certain and is coming at any moment.

Now for one of the verses that confuses people.  Jesus says, "I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."  Much has been made of the words "this generation" in these verses because when reading it quickly, it would appear the most obvious meaning is that the apostles (or at least that generation that they lived in) should expect Jesus to come back in their lifetime.  However, I think upon closer examination, Jesus is talking about those that are alive when the Tribulation starts.  It is all going to happen very quickly when it does happen.  It won't be a long, drawn-out campaign that takes generations to fulfill where one generation started the fight, and another inherits the promise (like how a generation passed between the Exodus/Passover and the Conquest of Canaan).  No, those who are alive to the Great Tribulation start will see it completed within their generation--we see some places in the book of Revelation where the people who know they are under judgment try to kill themselves at the beginning of the plagues because they don't want to go through the really bad stuff they know is coming, but God does not allow it.  I think that's probably the point that Jesus is making here.  No one is going to escape the judgment that has been stored up for them.  When judgment comes like it did on the people during the time of the Flood, on Sodom and Gomorrah, on Egypt during the ten plagues (especially the tenth plague), and on Jericho, judgment falls swiftly on the wicked, and only the righteous remnant remains in the end.  We should expect God to act in the same kind of way when the final judgment comes--people's prayers for more time will fall on deaf ears.  They had all the time they needed before judgment came, and they will not delay God's judgment once it starts.