There are a few passages in Scripture that I just know God put in there to torment me. I can just hear God saying, “You know, that Sean Ellis isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. Let’s throw this one in to make sure he knows he is an intellectual flea in this universe.” Mark 13:32 is one of those passages, and I will explain in a minute why. One of the things that is difficult to explain in the doctrine of the Trinity (one of many as you have seen so far), is the relationship of Jesus to God when it comes to His time incarnated in the flesh.
Two big questions arise from the way the Bible talks about this time: 1) did Jesus “give up” any of His divine power, or right to use it, for the purpose of wanting to model complete dependance on the Father? did Jesus have to pray and ask the Father for miracles or could He do them on His own? 2) was Jesus subordinate to the Father while He was in the flesh? did He take “orders” from God? what about after His ascension? are they “equal” in authority again? These two questions speak directly into the trouble we have been having with seeing Jesus and God as “one God” but separate somehow. It is time to wade into the murky theological waters.
In Mark 13, Jesus has been explaining to the disciples that the temple in Jerusalem will eventually be destroyed (which happens in 70 AD). In the classic role of a prophet, Jesus telescopes from this prediction to a far prediction of His return to Earth in the 2nd coming. In 13:32, Jesus wants the disciples to understand the “surprise” element of the 2nd coming, which the Jehovah’s Witnesses seem to have overlooked (don’t give up guys, I am sure you will predict the 2nd coming this time!). Jesus says, “But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”. Say what??? How can God know something that Jesus doesn’t know? How can they be equal and Jesus fully divine and man, and there is part of the future that He is unaware of?
Of course, there are a lot of fancy explanations out there that sound much better than my answer, which is “I have no idea how to make sense of this passage.” I am usually game for giving it a shot, as you can tell already by reading this blog. For a while, I was satisfied with the “incarnational” response. According to the Philippians 2 passage we looked at in the last post, Jesus “emptied Himself” (other translations read “made Himself nothing”). We realize that Jesus sacrificed perfection and peace in heaven with God in order to become a man and suffer on the cross. Perhaps one of the things He “gave up” or sacrificed His right to was knowledge of the future, even if for only this one event. I am not so satisfied with this answer anymore. Other passages in the Gospel seem to me like Jesus knows what people are thinking (John 2:25) and knows the future (Mark 10:32-34 ). How can He not know this one thing?
When we have a difficult passage, the best thing to do is to not build our whole doctrine based upon it. The clear passages of the Bible should interpret the unclear. The Gospels and the New Testament letters are clear in Jesus divinity, with the book of Colossians directly addressing the false teaching that He was not. Even though I haven’t found or thought of a rational way to explain this verse, I believe the problem is with us, not the Bible. I assume that there is something we don’t understand about the Greek used, or what Jesus was meaning here. To try to build a whole teaching on Jesus basically giving up all His power so that He would be fully like us and dependent on God is standing on shaky ground if you ask me (and since you are reading my blog, you did!).
Now, I will do a classic teacher move. You know, when a teacher promises he will cover something in the next class, but blabs way too long, and runs out of time. Well, I blabbed too long, so we will look next at the issue of subordination in the Trinity. Drawing a conclusion here first, elements of the incarnation will always remain mysterious to us. How can Jesus be fully God and fully man at the same time? We should be extremely cautious though, when we start putting Scriptures together that make Jesus less than divine. John’s Gospel presents a clear view of Jesus as the “Son of God”, fully divine within His humanity. I am not taking away from His humanity. He did hunger, thirst, and suffer. Let’s just say I am not going to make any bets against Jesus not knowing stuff. He seems on top of it to me.
The Bible Nerd 