TRANSLATION MATTHEW 24: 29

Immediately after the suffering of these days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its beams, the stars will fall from the heavens, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

And he will send out his messengers with a great trumpet blast and they will assemble his chosen ones from the four winds from the one end of heaven to the other

Take the fig tree as a parable: when its branch becomes sappy and sprouts leaves, you know the summer is near. In the same way when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen I tell you, this generation wii.not go away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will go away, but my words will not go away.

But of that day and that hour, nobody knows, neither the messengers in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so,it will be at the arrival of the Son of Man. For in those days before the deluge they were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah went into the ark. They did not know until the deluge came and carried them all away. It will be just the same at the arrival of the Son of Man: Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.So stay awake! For you do not know on which day your master will come. You can surely know this: if the home owner had known the hour of night when the thief was coming he would have stayed alert and not allowed his house to be broken into. So you too must be ready, for the Son of Man will arrive at an hour you do not expect.

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We can recognise, even at the climax of Jesus’ son of man scenario, that the account remains calm and simple. The celestial happenings are all symbolic, metaphors of changes in the ruling powers of the earth. If the great lights of heaven all fail at once then we know that the powers of nations, emperors. and high priests are changing and that new powers will take their place; cosmic change and political change go together

Jesus teaches watchfulness ; we know about the fig tree, we should be able to spot the signs that lead to the Great Arrival. A decent readiness is what he teaches, certainly no anxious obsession with days and hours about which only God knows. A profound change is taking place in the world of Jesus’ pupils; the balance between two huge forces, Roman Emperialism and Jewish National Faith is so fragile that it will topple over into war any time. God needs people who can live amidst violence without being violent, can live amidst divergent beliefs without being sectarian, can live amidst economic expansion without being greedy, can live amidst worldly cynicism without losing love. The Son of Man leads people into this new world. because he/she desires God’s rule.

MAGICAL MATTHEW 16

TRANSLATION MATITHEW 24: 46

So who is the faithful and sensible slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them their food at the right time? Good fortune for that slave whom the master finds doing so, when he arrives. Amen I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his affairs.

But if the slave is bad and says to himself, “My master is taking his time,” and starts to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with drunkards, the slave’ s master will come at an unforeseen day and an unknown hour, and will cut him to bits and place him with the play-actors where there will be howls of grief and grinding of teeth.

Although in Jesus’ prophecy huge events take place here and throughout the cosmos, the dominant note in it all is his confidence in the ultimate arrival of the Son of Man and the victory of God’s Rule. He wants his followers to be confident that the master will return and to be careful about following his way. Jesus is very happy with rewards and punishments; true people are rewarded with life in God’s rule whereas the play-actors and authoritarian abusers are moved into the cosmic rubbish pit, which they will not enjoy.