The Messiah told His Disciples that He did not know the time of His return. Could this possibly mean that the Messiah was not God?
The following excerpt has been taken from J.K. McKee, Salvation on the Line, Volume I: The Gospels and Acts
“But of that day or that hour no one knows—not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32, WMB).
“But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36, WMB).
The statement made by Yeshua the Messiah, in His Olivet Discourse about the time of His return, has generated no small discussion about His nature: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36, NIV). That this statement does feature, in any analysis as to whether or not Yeshua is the eternal, uncreated Son of God, or a created supernatural agent sent by God, is obvious, given the conclusions of those who hold to a low Christology. Commenting on Mark 13:32, one proponent of a low Christology forthrightly concludes,
“This statement of Jesus that the Son of God does not know the time of the Parousia rules out any dogma about Jesus being God Himself.”[1]
For Matthew 24:36, this same person just states,
“Proving beyond all argument that the Son of God cannot be GOD.”[2]
The logic offered is that if God is an omnipotent being knowing all things, and that if Yeshua said in Mark 13:32 and Matthew 24:36 that the Son does not know the time of the Second Coming, thus Yeshua cannot be God.
Proponents of a high Christology would first counter such logic, by interjecting the reminder that there are claims made in the Apostolic Writings or New Testament, of Yeshua of Nazareth, which would be considered blasphemy to the God of Israel if Yeshua is not, in fact, integrated into the Divine Identity. Secondly, since the early centuries of emerging Christianity, it has not gone unnoticed that passages such as Mark 13:32 and Matthew 24:36 do need to be reckoned with. An evangelical Protestant voice such as D.A. Carson, who doubtlessly holds to a high Christology of Yeshua being God, critically observes for Matthew 24:36,
“Jesus’ self-confessed ignorance on this point has generated not a little debate. In fact, it is part of the NT pattern of his humiliation and incarnation (e.g., 20:23; Luke 2:52; Acts 1:7; Phil 2:7). John’s Gospel, the one of the four Gospels most clearly insisting on Jesus’ deity, also insists with equal vigor on Jesus’ dependence on and obedience to his Father—a dependence reaching even to his knowledge of the divine. How NT insistence on Jesus’ deity is to be combined with NT insistence on his ignorance and dependence is a matter of profound importance to the church; and attempts to jettison one truth for the sake of preserving the other must be avoided.”[3]
Frequently, Yeshua’s statement in Mark 13:32 and Matthew 24:36 about Him not knowing the time of His return, is connected to approaches which recognize the legitimate humanity of the Messiah. In the Carmen Christi hymn, it is detailed how Yeshua “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7, NRSV), and as such it is often deduced that some limitations in terms of Yeshua’s having “existed in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6) were voluntarily taken on in His human Incarnation.[4]
Far be it from the simple conclusion of Yeshua not knowing in His Olivet Discourse the time of the Second Coming, must prove that He is not God—those who hold to a high Christology, tend to emphasize that as a result of the Son’s human Incarnation and willful submission to the Father (cf. Philippians 2:6-7), the Son only exercised in His ministry and teachings the Divine the privileges permitted to Him by the Father. In his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Michael J. Wilkins usefully directs,
“While he did not in any sense give up his deity, Jesus voluntarily limited the use of those divine characteristics so that he could experience human life in its entirety (cf. Heb. 4:14-16). It was only at the will of his Father that he could use his divine attributes, if it was the Father’s will for him to do so. He acted primarily in his humanity and was empowered by the Spirit….The independent use of his supernatural knowledge was limited to whether it was the Father’s will for him to use it. In his earthly ministry Jesus came to do the will of his Father in heaven. It was not the Father’s will for him to know the date of his return during his time on earth.”[5]
A survey of the Olivet Discourse should reveal enough signs and phenomena which are to take place, and be in motion, up until the time of the Messiah’s return. Yeshua stating, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36, RSV), does not preclude any one of us from accurately predicting, or at least speculating, upon the general season of the Messiah’s return. The exact time, as stated by Yeshua, was not known to Him as He spoke to His Disciples on the Mount of Olives. Instead, the admonitions which Yeshua issued, per the contents of Matthew 24-25 following, were designed to direct His followers to demonstrate the proper actions and attitudes, so that they would not be swept up by the deception to befall many. If Yeshua was only permitted to speak words given to Him by the Heavenly Father (cf. John 12:49-50)—but yet Yeshua was One who voluntarily took on humanity in His Incarnation, and voluntarily submitted Himself to the humiliation of execution and death (Philippians 2:8; cf. Mark 14:36; Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:42)—then it stands to reason that Yeshua not knowing the time of His future return, is to be taken as Him not being permitted to know about it for the purposes of His First Century C.E. Earthly ministry.
NOTES
[1] Anthony F. Buzzard, trans., The One God, the Father, One Man Messiah Translation (Atlanta: Restoration Fellowship, 2014), 149.
[2] Ibid., 99.
[3] D.A. Carson, “Matthew,” in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. et. al., Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 8:508.
[4] Robert M. Bowman, Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), pp 120-122 catalogue some of the approaches witnessed in theology, which have tried to explain Yeshua not knowing the time of His future return in the Olivet Discourse.
[5] Michael J. Wilkins, NIV Application Commentary: Matthew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 800.
